JLab JBuds Frames review: A disappointing alternative to smart glasses

Our Verdict

The JLab JBuds Frames can add speakers and a mic to any pair of glasses, but with poor sound information technology's a better concept than it is a real product.

For

Cheaper than smart glasses
Decent bombardment life

Confronting

Poor sound quality
Non ideal for thick frames

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

The JLab JBuds Frames tin can add together speakers and a mic to any pair of glasses, but with poor sound it'south a better concept than information technology is a existent product.

Pros

+
Cheaper than smart spectacles
+
Decent battery life

Cons

-
Poor audio quality
-
Not ideal for thick frames

JLab JBuds Frames: Specs

Colors: Black
Battery life (rated): 8 hours
Connectivity: Bluetooth five.1
Processor: Not stated
Size: 2.1 ten 0.seven x 0.9 inches (per unit)
Weight: 0.iv ounces (per unit)

Smart glasses, weirdly, aren't ideal for people who actually need to wear glasses. Not all smart glasses allow you add a pair of prescription lenses, and for those that exercise…you need to pay for a new pair of prescription lenses. The JLab JBuds Frames tries a different approach: adding speakers and microphones to a pair of specs y'all already own.

Information technology'south a set of two small-ish modules that clip on to each of your spectacles' temples, with tiny speakers at the rear that tin can play music or podcasts into your ears. It's a great idea in theory, especially if y'all want to avoid dropping hundreds of dollars on all-new eyewear — though as our JLab JBuds Frames review will explain, actually using it volition make you wish you but went with a pair of the best wireless earbuds instead.

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JLab JBuds Frames review: Cost and availability

One thing that JBuds Frames has going for it is pricing. Correct now it'southward only available to pre-order from JLab, for delivery in belatedly April, but it costs just $49 per pair.

Next to the Amazon Echo Frames v2 or the Bose Frames Tempo, which are both $249, that looks like a slap-up bargain even if you don't demand prescription glasses. It's a lot cheaper than the Huawei Eyewear 2, though that'southward non available in the U.South.

JLab JBuds Frames review: Blueprint

The JBuds Frames essentially take the mic and speaker portions of these fully-fledged smart glasses, put them in lilliputian Bluetooth-enabled modules and let you clip them to any pair of glasses you choose. It doesn't need to be prescription spectacles either — you might accept a favorite pair of sunglasses to which you lot desire to add together sound.

The 16mm dynamic drivers face backwards, so they're angled towards your ears when attached, while the microphones and charging connectors sit down on the undersides. Each module also includes 2 multifunction buttons that do dissimilar things depending on the number of times they're pressed.

On the right button, a single press will raise playback book, a double press will play or interruption, holding the push will track forward, and triple pressing will switch between the "JLab Signature" and "Bass Heave" sound profiles. These buttons tin likewise handle call controls, or summon your phone'south voice assistant. Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are all supported, though I sometimes had to echo my queries to Google Assistant.

JLab JBuds Frames review: Condolement and fit

To help attach to unlike temple thicknesses, the clips can be fitted with rubbery piffling sleeves. These are reversible but thicker on i side, so you can swap them around according to how chunky your frames are.

It's a squeamish touch, though trying to deeply for the JBuds Frames to my thicker-than-most glasses revealed the get-go fix of problems. Firstly, my spectacles were too thick for the sleeves to exist necessary, but because the Frames' clips are smoothen, I couldn't become anywhere near a reassuring level of grip. In the finish the modules by and large stayed put, simply were prone to sliding effectually when I used the control buttons, and on one occasion, removing my glasses caused the correct module to only fall off.

Secondly, although the modules generally feel well-built, I don't trust the structural integrity of those tiny plastic clips. Judging by how they poke outwards when grabbing my spectacles, I'd get paranoid of them weakening over time and eventually snapping.

Again, my specs are thicker than average, so if yous have a very thin pair of metallic frames you might not accept my issues. Simply then information technology'due south not like I had mine fabricated to be as bulky equally possible — they're an off-the-shelf design, with temples of comparable thickness to probably millions of other pairs.

There's also the result of aesthetics. Amazon and Bose'southward smart glasses might not be gorgeously graceful but they exercise a much meliorate job of disguising their audio hardware than the JBuds Frames' modules, which stick out both figuratively and literally. Together they also add together close to an ounce of weight to your spectacles; I found myself needing to push button mine back up to the bridge of my nose more I commonly would.

JLab JBuds Frames review: Audio quality

It'd exist easier to look past some of the JBuds Frames' pattern missteps if the sound quality wasn't and so bad. Even with each unit pushed right dorsum against my ears, music sounded tinny at best and grating at worst.

At that place'south no real depression-end to speak of, even with the Bass Boost sound profile active. As a issue, dance and electronic tracks are robbed of their power: Emily Nash's "Pressure" trundled along with flat synths and weak drums.

Rock music, or really anything with distortion furnishings, comes off even worse. What should take been burdensome guitars in Architects' "Little Wonder" were instead recessed and scratchy, with minimal separation between individual instruments.

The i good thing nearly the JBuds Frames'southward sound is that certain upper-mid and treble tones do come through clearly, so it can make a passable attempt at genres like jazz and classical — the piano in Benjamin Grosvenor's version of the George Gershwin archetype "Rhapsody in Blue" even had a cute little twinkle to information technology. Still, y'all shouldn't expect much of a sense of scale from full orchestra recordings, even with the volume cranked up. The open design helps the soundstage stretch out a picayune, but the higher frequencies are never filled out past deeper mids and bass.

JLab JBuds Frames review: Sound leakage

For some, the biggest problem may not be how the JBuds Frames sounds to the user, but to the people around them. As sound is fired vaguely towards your ears instead of directly into them, like a pair of headphones, anyone close to you lot can hear exactly what's playing.

While not as intrusive on a busy street, in a tranquillity park and especially indoors, the potential for annoyed looks is enormous. JLab says this product might adapt office workers who want to listen to something while keeping their ears open for important conversations, simply unless it's a individual part this just seems like an efficient way to brand all your colleagues hate your guts.

More mostly, despite the JBuds Frames beingness fabricated to gear up a specific problem — smart glasses being unsuitable for prescription glasses wearers — it's difficult to recall who information technology would be perfect for. Runners and cyclists, perhaps? The lack of audio isolation tin be a benefit every bit it helps you stay alert for sounds of oncoming traffic or unseen pedestrians. Notwithstanding, every bit the best running headphones bear witness, a tight fit is essential for exercise and the JBuds Frames' clips might not be secure plenty to avoid coming loose.

Listening in public or communal areas is bordering on socially unacceptable, and then headphones and earbuds would be better at that place besides. And if you're lonely, either at abode or at work, why not only use a Bluetooth speaker or your computer speakers for superior sound quality?

JLab JBuds Frames review: Call quality

At least the microphones work better than the speakers. When using the JBuds Frames for phone calls, I apparently sounded fine — some low-end baloney was reported, just compared to when I used my phone'south own mic, the clarity of my voice was better on the JBuds Frames.

And, when I went outdoors, I was told background noise was faintly audible but not enough to drown me out.

Microphone quality is therefore a win for a product in desperate need of one, though over again the speakers stop this from being a fully rounded calling headset. Even with the volume on maximum, I struggled to hear the other side of the conversation when outdoors. I can't imagine this beingness an ideal way to take calls when out on a bike ride or jogging through boondocks.

JLab JBuds Frames review: Battery life

JLab says the JBuds Frames will last 8 hours per charge, the aforementioned as the Bose Frames Tempo just less than the 14 hours of the Echo Frames v2. Personally I got dead-on 6.five hours of continuous music playback, with the volume at 50%.

In fairness that's more a lot of wireless earbuds; the ubiquitous Apple tree AirPods, for example, only lasts 4.5 hours. But then such earbuds commonly come with charging cases that tin can elevation upwardly the batteries even when you're on the movement, and the only manner to recharge the JBuds Frames is with the included USB cablevision.

JLab JBuds Frames review: Verdict

I wanted to like the JBuds Frames. While I'thousand but barely dauntless enough to walk around east London with plastic blocks hanging off my nerd goggles, there's a sure appeal to products that aim to serve people who can't — for whatsoever reason, not only medical — utilise more mainstream tech kit. To the extent yous could call smart eyewear mainstream, anyway.

Even at $49, though, I can't recommend the JBuds Frames. The poor fit and dreadful sound quality make any of the best inexpensive wireless earbuds a better option for on-the-go sound, and for individual listening you should sooner consider one of the all-time cheap Bluetooth speakers.

Yes, these alternatives preclude jumping on the wearable tech bandwagon, merely when the execution of the JBuds Frames falls so far brusque of its promise? I'd rather walk.

James is currently Hardware Editor at Stone Paper Shotgun, but before that was Audio Editor at Tom's Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and annihilation else that intentionally makes dissonance. A PC enthusiast, he as well wrote computing and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how hard it is to find graphics card stock.