Over the past few years, TechRadar’s audio team has consistently praised the JLab Go Air Pop – ultra-cheap earphones that massively defied their low price point with their performance and build quality. They’ve been a mainstay in all of our guides, from our list of the best budget earphones to our comprehensive list of the best wireless earphones of any kind.
However, they've become harder to come by lately, so we started looking for alternatives to recommend… but it turns out the reason is that their successor was secretly preparing to launch at IFA 2024.
I say “secretly,” but JLab will be happy to tell you all about them if you visit their booth, and even gave me a pair to try out, but the company has mostly been talking about three other pairs of headphones launching at the same time, and was keeping 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 lightweight; they have a battery life of six hours in the earbuds themselves and 24 with the case; they have a built-in USB-C charging cable; they have multipoint pairing; they’ll come in translucent, 2000s-inspired 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, though unlike the confirmed US dollar MSRP, those last two figures are unofficial estimates.
I tried them out during my time at IFA and it really seems ridiculous that something so cheap can deliver such full-bodied music as you get here. Obviously, compared to the AirPods Pro 2 I also had with me at the time, the bass has much less depth, the details aren't as crisp and the mid-tones are softer. But it all seems fair considering they cost a seventh of the price.
The ANC is also incredibly effective. I know you're expecting me to add “for $35” here, but based on my early testing, it's just… goodWith music playing and the volume at about 60%, they were as effective as I could need on my flight, a test in which more expensive headphones have failed. They fail more if you're listening to podcasts, though, because the relative thinness of the mids and slightly soft detail mean that voices are more overshadowed by sounds that do come through. There's a transparency mode that's fairly rudimentary but also effective.
I love how lightweight and discreet the earbuds are. If you like earbuds that don't feel like they have a cybernetic attachment on your ears, these will be perfect for you. They have touch controls including on-ear volume control, and you can also switch between noise-cancelling modes with a tap, and you can even change EQ modes with a triple tap, though I haven't tried this out yet.
I found them to be very comfortable, although with the medium tips I did notice that the internal seal weakened enough to let in outside sounds depending on the position of my head, as it changes the shape of the ear a bit. That's something we'll explore more in a full review, but it's certainly a difference from more expensive earbuds.
The case is super slim, which is something I always appreciate about a pair of earbuds. JLab has kept one of the weirder weak points from the previous version, which is an integrated charging cable, although this time it’s USB-C. JLab knows what they’re doing, so I have to assume people want this, but it seems a shame to remove the flexibility of being able to plug them into different power sources. I bought my mom a pair of the Go Air Pop earbuds, but I don’t know if I’d buy her the Go Pop ANC because she doesn’t have a single USB-C charger in her house, and if I need to buy one then it changes the value of the earbuds.
Of course, being the editor of the TechRadar dot com website, I've been running an all-USB-C household for a while now, so if you're anything like the reader of that august publication, then perhaps this will strike you as a silly complaint.
We'll have to make a more in-depth judgment on them, but let me leave you with my prevailing thought on what a good value they are so far: More than once, while using them specifically to test the ANC, I made my judgment and took notes, and then didn't bother switching back to the AirPods Pro 2. right there In my pocket. The Go Pop ANC were already doing the job perfectly well, so I kept using them. It’s not like I’m permanently swapping out my premium earbuds for these or anything, but since I’m a picky listener, the fact that I haven’t instantly switched back to them is kind of a miracle.
