JBL has a long history of delivering high-end, great-sounding headsets, and in recent years it has built many of the best wireless earbuds out there. Now, the company is back with a fresh pair that are specifically targeted at gaming, in the JBL Quantum TWS wireless earbuds.

Earbuds aren’t commonly known for being gamer-focused, but this pair comes with a wireless dongle to be able to connect to your Switch or PlayStation, plus they support Bluetooth for use with your phone or laptop. In other words, there aren’t all that many devices that you can’t use with these earbuds.

But just how great is the gaming experience with a pair of earbuds? I’ve been using the JBL Quantum TWS earbuds to find out.

JBL Quantum TWS

The JBL Quantum TWS earbuds offer a great audio quality and a dual connection feature that makes them great for gamers on the go.

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Pros

Great audio quality
Inexpensive
Cool dual connection feature
Relatively sleek

Cons

ANC could be better

Amazon

$129.95

$74.95

JBL Quantum TWS design

The first thing to notice about the JBL Quantum TWS earbuds is their design, and it’s pretty standard. The earbuds offer a stem design like the AirPods, with a bulkier build overall. The buds are available only in black.

The earbuds have touch controls on each surface, and usually, I don’t find touch controls to be the best way to control earbuds. The controls work pretty well on these earbuds, but they do change depending on whether you’re connected to a Bluetooth device or to the 2.4GHz dongle. You’ll get used to the controls in general, however, I didn’t love the loud noise that you get when tapping the earbuds.

The earbuds also, of course, come with a charging case, which has space for the earbuds themselves and the dongle. On the front, you’ll find a nice battery capacity indicator, while on the back, there’s a USB-C charging port. The case isn’t as pocketable as some others, so it might not be the most comfortable to keep in your pocket — but it should still fit in most pockets.

JBL Quantum TWS features and battery

Perhaps one of the best things about these earbuds is the fact that they can connect to a range of devices. For starters, as you would expect, they can connect to any Bluetooth-compatible device, like a phone or laptop. With the included 2.4GHz dongle, however, they can also connect to your PlayStation or Nintendo Switch. That makes the earbuds perfect for portable use, with your Switch or another handheld device.

The earbuds also work with a smartphone app on mobile or the JBL QuantumEngine software on PC. Using the app, you can do things like tune the earbuds to your ears and EQ the audio, meaning that you can make them sound the way you usually like headphones to sound.

The battery life on the earbuds sits in at five hours with noise cancelation on, and an additional 16 hours from the charging case. The battery life isn’t bad, however, much of the competition has the earbuds beat.

JBL Quantum TWS comfort

In the ears, the JBL Quantum TWS earbuds fit quite well. They are bulkier than earbuds like the AirPods Pro, but they still remain relatively comfortable for decently long periods of time. After a few hours, you’ll definitely notice the overall feel of the buds, but there are far more uncomfortable earbuds out there.

The buds are also pretty lightweight, so it’s relatively easy to forget that they’re there, at least when you start wearing them. Considering the pretty good fit, you should be able to wear them for light sports use too — however, with heavier movement, expect them to fall out from time to time.

JBL Quantum TWS sound

The JBL Quantum TWS earbuds may be relatively inexpensive, but they also sound great — and I would argue, much better than much of the competition in this price range,

For starters, the bass response is defined and deep, allowing the earbuds to deliver punchy kick drums and deep-sounding explosions. Big bass fans will want to boost the bass response a little

Perhaps the best thing about the buds’ audio quality is the high-end, which really beat my expectations. High-end is detailed and clear, allowing you to hear the sheen on cymbals, and more realistic audio in your games.

While the overall audio quality on these headphones is good, the noise cancelation tech isn’t that great. Headphones like the AirPods Pro handily beat these in the ANC department, albeit for a much higher price. If you are looking for earbuds with excellent ANC, you should probably keep looking.

The transparency mode is similar. It’s not bad — but it’s not as natural-sounding as some of the other headphones out there. The earbuds also offer a spatial audio feature, however I mostly recommend keeping that turned off, as it doesn’t sound very natural.

Conclusions

The JBL Quantum TWS earbuds punch way above their price range. They may not have the best battery life, but for a pair of headphones in this price range, they boast excellent audio quality and a range of features that will appear to gamers on the go. Many will want to use these as secondary gaming headphones — perhaps to keep in a backpack for portability. But regardless, you’re getting a great pair of true wireless earbuds at a solid price in these headphones.

The competition

If you’re interested in earbuds with the dual connection feature, there isn’t much competition here. But if you’re simply looking for a solid pair of true wireless earbuds at a good price, then it’s worth considering the Beats Studio Buds, which are often discounted to around $100.