JBL Soundgear Sense Review Philippines verdict: JBL’s open-fit TWS buds are the perfect pair to take if you want to listen to your tunes on the go without losing your spatial awareness. If you’re the type of person who likes listening to high-quality audio while biking/running, this is the pair of cans for you.

Pros:

• Excellent endurance and battery life
• Great sound quality for open-fit design
• Good call quality

Cons:

• • No physical pairing button
  • Expensive
  • Bass is a little lacking

Active noise cancellation is great for regular listening, but if you’re the type that bikes, runs, or spends a lot of time out on the road as a pedestrian, wearing headphones with strong ANC capabilities probably isn’t the play. Bone-conducting headphones are a safer option, but these kinds of headphones have traditionally had terrible audio quality.

It’s no surprise then that Open-fit, or air-conduction headphones like Huawei’s FreeClip have started to saturate the market. They don’t rob users of situational awareness because of their design and still manage to deliver good audio quality. But if you want great audio quality in an air-conduction package, the JBL Soundgear Sense is probably the best there is right now.

JBL Soundgear Sense Review Philippines: Design

The JBL Soundgear Sense comes in a massive charging case that dwarfs every other TWS buds that we’ve owned in sheer physical size. This thing is massive and is a little tougher to fit into our pant pocket compared to the other brands we’ve used in the past.

There’s a big LED strip on the front that gives users an idea of the state of charge that the case holds at a glance, and the case is charged via a Type C connector in the back. Surprisingly there’s no manual Bluetooth connection reset button on the case – if you want to re-pair the headphones you’ll have to do it via the touch strip on the side.

The actual headphones themselves use over-ear hooks to attach to your ear that rotates a few degrees up or down to ensure proper fit. JBL also includes a flexible plastic neckband to give you that extra piece of mind when you’re out doing especially stressful things, but the fit is so good on these that you won’t have a big issue with retention.

Controlling the JBL Soundgear Sense is done via the touch-sensitive bits located on the side. The left earpiece controls volume by tapping to raise or double tapping to lower, while the right earpiece handles playback and track navigation tap once to play/pause, twice to go to the next track, or three times to go to the previous one). Re-pairing the JBL Soundgear Sense is a little trickier since you have to tap either headphone once and then hold for 5 seconds until you hear the prompt. It’s a little hit-and-miss, and I wish there was a physical button that allowed me to do the same thing on the case like every other TWS out there.

Finally, the JBL Soundgear Sense is IP54-rated, so it can withstand a bit of rain and sweat. I wouldn’t recommend using it while it’s pouring out though.

Read more:

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JBL Soundgear Sense Review Philippines: Software and features

JBL advertises the Soundgear Sense as having their new “OpenSound” technology that promises to give you superior audio quality despite using an open-fit design. This is done via channeling sound pressure through waves towards the ears. An opposite phase reduces sound dispersion so you’re getting better audio quality than similar open-fit designed buds.

The Soundgear Sense uses a 16.2mm driver in each headphone, which delivers your music directly to your ears without much sound leakage. What’s nice about this is despite the open-ear design, you’re still getting a good separation between your music and the outside world. And while the whole point of the design is to let some elements of the outside world in so you’re not flattened by a car or truck that you couldn’t hear coming, you’re still able to enjoy your music despite the hustle and bustle of the world around you.

As far as the app goes, it’s alright. You can set your preferred equalizer settings via the app as well as the gestures you want to use, and even use it to find your earbuds if you manage to misplace them.

JBL Soundgear Sense Review Philippines: Sound quality and battery

Despite its open-fit design, the JBL Soundgear Sense still managed to deliver impressive sound quality. Bass suffers a little bit but it’s still there, which I didn’t expect at all. There were quite hefty lows and the vocals were clear, and while the mids and highs could use a touch of work, they were by no means terrible.

The built-in microphone also worked well, and the people on the other line never complained about noise or having a hard time understanding me. That’s pretty impressive especially when you’re walking around San Juan during a busy weekday.

Because the case is so large, you can expect around 20 hours worth of battery in them to complement the 7-hour endurance that I enjoyed from the buds themselves.

JBL Soundgear Sense Review Philippines: wrap-up and verdict

The JBL Soundgear Sense is a good option for people who want a pair of buds that deliver great sound quality that’s reasonably rugged and sturdy and won’t rob them of their situational awareness when they’re out and about. The design is robust, though because of the size of the buds, they’re not exactly easy to hide or pair with normal street clothes, so they stick out if you’re not running or biking. But if you care more about sound quality when you’re working out and keeping an ear out on the world around you VS looking good in normal street clothes, this is the pair to get.

JBL Soundgear Sense Review Price Philippines

The JBL Soundgear Sense is priced at Php 9,499.