One thing we never include in the reviews that make up our best headphones or best noise canceling headphones guides is a specific brand of the case. We typically like said charging nest to be pocket-sized, the magnets on the lid keep your precious music cargo safe, and if there's a nice powerful built-in battery for added endurance, all the better. But when JBL put a smartwatch-style display on a headphone case in December 2022, it initially seemed like the game was about to change. This was something we never thought possible!
While that inaugural screen was nice, it made the case it was attached to quite large, and our review of the JBL Tour 2 Pro was something of a mixed bag because it made the headphones an expensive proposition within a crowded market. Additionally, the promised message notifications, call history, and social media access through the Tour Pro 2 case never arrived.
Well, those extra things haven't arrived yet, but JBL's screen-adorned case is now quite a bit smaller, sleeker and cheaper: the JBL Live Beam 3 is just $200/£150 (around AU$296), which are $50 or a £70 cheaper than the 2022 Tour Pro 2.
For me everything is relative and that price drop alone makes this little case much more viable and fun. This isn't a review reader (no, that's coming, I promise), it's just a quick experiential feature on how I'm enjoying this little case.
What I like most about this? No, it's not my TechRadar screen saver, it's the way it notifies you when you have an incoming phone call and offers a friendly on-screen button to accept it, meaning you don't have to a) take out your phone or b) try to do it pressing your headphones, which I tend to fail and hang up before saying a word.
What are you telling me, JBL Live Beam 3?
The screen allows you to scroll through playback (play, pause and skip functions); volume; Noise Cancellation; ambient and talk profiles (although to adjust the levels between “on” and “off” you'll still need your phone and the JBL Headphones app); spatial sound (music, movies and game profiles); equalizer presets; a nice stopwatch; screen brightness settings; lock screen wallpaper changes; voice recognition (to amplify or lower your own voice during calls); auto play and pause; Find my buds; a 'Notification' and 'Message Preview' screen (I'm still figuring out what they do – there remains a tempting envelope icon in the top left corner of this little screen, but I'm not sure if anything beyond that is accessible this) ; a flashlight function (a bright screen to help you locate a wandering sprout, perhaps) and language settings.
These screens can also be captioned and edited in the companion app, so you only see what you're wearing as you scroll, and for me, this scrolling is much smoother and faster than on the Tour Pro 2.
Again, this is not an all-star review, but for the price, I still really like it.
As we said when reporting the JBL Live Beam 3, Live Flex 3 and Live Buds 3 launch in January 2024, the 10mm dynamic driver, up to 48 hours of battery life and Best Fit testing add up to a compelling proposition. , but a lovely extra. The app's feature is something called Personal Sound Amplification. This (not to be confused with Ambient Aware) has a gain slider to amplify the situational sound around you and can be modified to favor one ear more, if desired.
I haven't tested it extensively yet (again, not a review, yet), but I initially like it as a benefit. There's actually a lot to like here, in a much smaller and more affordable JBL package. Watch this space for more…
