Jlab has been making earbuds for a while now, and they all seem to have one thing in common: They’re all cheap as hell. Cheap doesn’t always mean a bad experience, but neither does it guarantee a good value. At just $20, the GO Air Pop buds are some of the cheapest on the market, but I’ve heard worse that cost more. They aren’t great, but since they can practically be bought with pocket change, they don't have to perform miracles to get a pass. While they clearly aren’t for audiophiles, they do okay if you don't want to invest heavily in earbuds you plan to use and abuse.
JLab GO Air Pop
7.00 / 10
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The Jlab GO Air Pop earbuds cost an unbelievably cheap $20, all with some good quality of life features. While they don’t sound fantastic, they seem ideal for anyone whose kids are always losing their earbuds.
Pros
- Solo earbud mode
- Dirt cheap
- 2 year warranty
- Decent touch control responsiveness
Cons
- Hard to take out of the case
- Controls in solo mode are wonky
- Rat-tail charger
- Vocals are distorted in most of the EQ profiles
Buy This Product
Design, hardware, what’s in the box
The GO Pop Air buds are, as expected for 2 Hamiltons, cheap-feeling plastic that hardly weighs anything. The buds are held in the charging case with relatively strong magnets, which actually makes them hard to take out. At first I thought the issue was just my fat fingers, but I asked someone with less sausage-like digits to try and take them out, and they almost gave up after a minute. With a little practice, it’s much easier to take them out, but the smooth sides, slight taper, strong magnets, and low profile of the buds while they’re in the case all come together in a Voltron of frustration.
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Anyone who hates getting 6-inch long micro-b cables with cheap electronics will be relieved not to find one here, and that’s because the case has a built-in USB-A cable with a reversible end tucked into the bottom. In addition to being a nice change of pace for anyone tired of flipping usb cables multiple times to get them to plug in, this is great for anyone who has USB charging ports in their outlets, but it’s more frustrating if, like me, you hide your wall warts behind furniture.
Solo mode is super easy to use, and will automatically work when you either put one of the buds back in the charging case, or only take one of them out of it. However, you only have access to the controls assigned to whichever bud you’re using. So, if you just want the left bud in, a single-tap will turn the volume down, a double-tap will summon your assistant, and a press and hold will skip back. While you can make do with the left bud by using the assistant to turn the volume up or skip forward, the same cannot be said about using the right bud. The right bud gets volume up on a single-tap, skip on a held press, and play/pause on a double-tap. While the gesture timing is easy to nail, it’s frustrating how the controls are divvied up—volume split between the buds? Preposterous!
To the credit of Jlab, there’s one thing done very well here, and that’s the packaging. It only has a small bud case and 2 extra pairs of bud bits in it, and it’s not any bigger than it has to be. The packaging is all paper and cardboard, so it’s nice to see the packaging can just be tossed in with your paper recyclables.
Sound quality, features, battery life
One of the first things I noticed when I put in the Pop Airs was the impressive noise isolation. A good seal like that has the downside of being uncomfortable after a while. The tips are rather stiff, and that makes for a pretty aggressive seal, so I usually ended up taking them out after 3 or 4 hours.
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Jlab brags about the 3 EQ profiles built into the buds, and it’s refreshing to get that without having to put another app on my phone. The EQ comes in balanced, bass boost, and JLab Signature flavors. Bass boost is exactly what it sounds like it’s going to be, so much bass that it garbles and distorts vocals. Balanced still has extra bass, but at least the vocals and mids make it out unmaimed. JLab Signature is V-shaped, with that same mid-demolishing bass and some extra high-end thrown in for good measure. Extra bass can be fun sometimes, so I won’t call it all bad. The only Bluetooth codec the GO Air Pop buds support is SBC, but based on how they sound, that low-bitrate codec isn’t the bottleneck. While these clearly aren’t made for sitting down on a quiet evening to enjoy an album, that doesn’t mean they’re useless.
The buds are IPX4 rated, so these seem like a good option for cheap gym buds. It isn’t just sweat you need to think about, though. I once saw someone accidentally crush their Airpods Pro case when they dropped a loaded barbell, and they looked just as crushed as the case did when they realized what happened. If that happened to the Jlab buds, I would feel nothing. Likewise, if you were getting earbuds for a child, these are cheap enough that you won’t be upset when they inevitably lose them.
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JLab claims over 8 hours of battery in the buds and another 24 in the case. That’s in the same ballpark as what I got, but you can easily stretch that with lots of solo bud use. The battery led on the case is kinda wonky, showing a solid red light for any percentage between 100 and 25, and blinking red below that. Charging leaves less to interpretation, blinking blue while it’s charging and going solid once it’s full.
Should you buy it?
Maybe. Not everyone needs the best earbuds money can buy. There are reasons to have cheap earbuds around, whether it’s for hitting the gym, doing yard work, or just giving to a relative’s iPad baby who watches twitch streams at the dinner table. Beyond that, there aren’t a lot of reasons to go out of your way to buy earbuds you know are kinda crummy. That being said, between the 2 year warranty, passable sound, and the IPX4 rating, it seems like they could find a home in a lot of gym bags.
Buy it if…
- You want cheap IP rated earbuds to toss around
- You have a child who loses earbuds constantly
Don’t buy it if…
- You care about audio quality and don't mind paying for it
