Everyone is releasing true wireless headphones these days, but the best ones still get a little pricey. The Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds come at $280, while Apple’s AirPods Pro cost $250. JBL, however, is here to undercut the competition with the new JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones.

The headphones are still relatively expensive, coming in at $200. It’s less than the other headphones we’ve mentioned, but there are still cheaper options out there. Do the JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones do enough to compete? I’ve been using them for a while to find out.

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JBL Tour Pro+ TWS design

The JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones aren’t exactly the most unique-looking headphones, but they’re not ugly by any means. Both the charging case and the earbuds are black, with JBL logos on all three. Everything is built from plastic, but that’s expected — and nothing looks or feels cheap.

The earbuds themselves are relatively small, and each one has a touch surface on its face for controlling the earbuds. It’s relatively easy to get used to using this touch surface, and we’ll get into programming controls a little later.

Like other modern true wireless headphones, the JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones offer a small lip on their edge to help them remain in your ears. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this, and it can work quite well.

It’s also important to consider the design of the charging case, and it looks fine. The case is also black, with a USB-C port on the bottom for charging. The case is quite a bit thicker than others, like the AirPods Pro, but you should still be able to fit the case in your pocket or bag.

In the box, apart from the headphones and charging case, you’ll get a charging cable, five pairs of ear tips, and a pair of rubber rings to help ensure the buds fit better. It’s a good selection of accessories, though a pair or two of foam tips might have been nice.

JBL Tour Pro+ TWS features and battery

The JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones aren’t necessarily as smart as Apple or Sony’s offerings, but they’re still very feature-packed. Notably, The headphones connect to the My JBL Headphones app, which allows you to enable noise cancelation and ambient modes.

You can also tweak the controls on the headphones using the app, and it’s relatively easy to do. Unfortunately, you can’t program specific individual controls to certain gestures — just types of controls. So, you can’t set a bud to control both volume and ambient sound with different gestures, but you can set a bud to control volume or ambient sound as a whole. Still, this should be enough control for most.

Other features include the ability to tweak the EQ, “Find my buds” by blasting audio through them, and so on. There’s a lot to offer here.

The battery life on the JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones is fine. You’ll get six hours of battery life from the earbuds with ANC on, or eight hours with it off, which isn’t bad. The battery case offers an additional 24 hours of ANC use or 32 hours of non-ANC use.

JBL Tour Pro+ TWS comfort

The JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones aren’t the most comfortable true wireless buds out there, but you’ll get used to the fit. The earbuds themselves are a little large, and at times you might find that you have to jam them into your ears a little more than you do for the AirPods Pro, for example. As mentioned the earbuds have a small lip that should help keep them in your ears better, and it does help.

We recommend experimenting with the different ear tips to find the right fit for your needs. And, there’s a tool in the app that uses the earbuds’ microphones to help you determine if you’ve found a good fit.

JBL Tour Pro+ TWS sound

The best thing about these headphones has nothing to do with their comfort or design. It has to do with how they sound. Thankfully, the JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones sound great.

The bass response, for starters, is deep and punchy. It doesn’t necessarily extend quite as deep as it could have, but the bass is still more than heavy enough for most, and you can tweak it in the app if you find that it doesn’t do the trick out of the box.

The mids and highs on offer here are pretty well-tuned too. There’s a good amount of detail in the high-end, helping cymbals and other percussion sound present and clear. It’s certainly not audiophile-level detail, but it’s still solid.

The headphones also offer noise cancelation, and it’s only fine. The noise cancelation tech on offer by the Sony WF-1000XM4 headphones and AirPods Pro is certainly better. Thankfully, it can still cut out some outside noise — but if you want the best ANC in the business, you should turn elsewhere.

Conclusions

The JBL Tour Pro+ TWS headphones are an excellent option from JBL, for those who don’t want to spend the extra $50-$80 on one of the high-end alternatives. They sound great, are packed with features, and will look great in anyone’s ears.

The competition

You’d be hard-pressed to find another option as good as these in the sub-$200 price range. If you can afford to spend more, we still recommend the Sony WF-1000XM4 headphones or AirPods Pro — but if $200 is your budget cap, these earbuds are the way to go.