The JLab Go Pop ANC are just ridiculous value
For the last few years, TechRadar’s audio team regularly raved about the JLab Go Air Pop – ultra-cheap earbuds that massively defied their low price with their performance and build quality. They were a stalwart of all our guides, from our best budget earbuds list up to our full list of the best wireless earbuds of any kind.
However, they’ve been getting harder to get hold of recently, so we started looking at alternatives to recommend… but it turns out the reason why is that their successor was getting ready to secretly drop at IFA 2024.
I say ‘secretly’, but JLab will quite happy tell you all about them if you visit its booth, and even gave me a pair to try, but the company has been mostly talking three other pairs of earbuds launched at the same time, and just kept very quiet about these initially.
Obviously, I found that unacceptable, so here’s what you need to know about the JLab Go Air ANC: they have active noise cancellation; they’re super small and light; they have a six-hours battery life in the buds and 24 with the case; they have a built-in USB-C charging cable; they have multi-point pairing; they’re going to come in cool 2000s-inspired translucent cases at a later date (they come in solid black, green and pink for now); they have IP55 waterproofing; and they’re still stupidly good value for their $29.99 asking price – so around £25 or AU$45, although unlike the confirmed US dollars MSRP, those last two figures are unofficial estimates.
I tried them out during my time at IFA, and it really does feel ridiculous that something so cheap delivers music as well-rounded as you get here.
