Is the JBL Tour Pro 2 just a one-trick pony with its display on the case? Does it make any sense at all and is it worth that hefty price tag? Here’s a full review.
Display
*sigh* that display. Ok let’s talk about it since it’s so up in your face! We really think this is JBL throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. And props to them for doing that. Who knows what kind of innovation comes out of it. The only buds we’ve seen so far which included a display in the case was the Tozo X1 with a battery indicator. And we loved it!
The display on the Tour Pro 2 goes a bit further than just battery levels. What does it do? It essentially gives you a lite version of the app but on the case. And, if you allow it, will mirror some of your notifications from your phone. It does however, not have LTE capability so it will need your phone to do that.
You can however answer calls from the case – which is kinda cool if you can’t find your phone for the time being. Those notifications, once shown, will disappear and you cannot find them back anymore. There’s no notification shade. So it’s like a really shitty smartwatch which only runs the JBL app on it and nothing else. And it’s not the whole app either.
The display has a little ‘swipe to unlock’ the display so you won’t have accidental touches. The JBL app is pretty damn extensive, it almost feels like Sony’s app. So although the display on the case feels like a lite version it still enables you to do quite a bit beyond just seeing the battery life, some track controls and volume. Although you’ll need to set up your custom EQs in the app, you can use the case to cycle through presets and custom EQs. You can also cycle through ANC modes on the case but if you want to manually change the amount of ANC, you’ll need the app again. Another reason you might use the app is to toggle between spatial audio modes if you plan on gaming and need low latency.
There are a few settings which in our opinion are really a set it and forget it. Like VoiceAware which is a hearthrough setting; how much of your own voice you want to hear. Or auto pause if you want music to automatically pause when you take them out of your ears. And you can also enable and adjust the SilentNow mode. JBL is really trying to coin a lot of terms here. It’s like a do-not-disturb mode which disconnects bluetooth and turns on ANC for a specific amount of time. Super handy if you really need a moment to ‘disconnect’ from the world. And from bluetooth. But really – most people barely use the ANC feature, you’ve gotta be really nerding out on your earbuds to use this mode.
You also get a few settings which relate to the display case itself. You change the brightness, select from a few preset lock screen wallpapers and turn on or off notifications.
And finally, you’ve got some utility features like setting a timer, a ‘find your buds’ function and a flashlight.
So that’s everything you can do with that tiny display. Pretty impressive right? But how did it translate in our everyday lives?
To be fair, it was barely used. It was much easier to wake our phones for track control or volume without even unlocking the phone. The gestures on the buds were easy enough to toggle between ANC modes. If the charging case was usually in our pockets, notifications were checked on our phones or smartwatches. But having the case next to our keyboard at our desk, did offer some use. The set-it-and-forget-it features were exactly that. The hearthrough mode or auto pause were never looked at after setting it up. And setting a timer or using a flashlight was much easier on the phone or using a voice assistant. Besides it being easier, it was also faster than swiping through many screens on a small display before you landed on the one you needed. The configuration options for the timer are quite limited on the case and the flashlight isn’t all too bright compared to the one on your smartphone.
Where we did think it was kind of useful is to quickly change between EQ presets depending on the kind of content we were listening to at the time. Music with vocals? Or a podcast? Or hip hop? And the same goes for folks who might be into gaming. You could dive into the app to change it or swipe a few times on the case to enable it there.
There’s an additional situation where the smart case comes in very handy. You know – except showing it off to your friends. Suppose you don’t plan to use these buds with a smartphone. Then you’ve also got no access to the app. For example, you use them with your computer or heck, a TV! Then it’s kind of clutch to be able to switch EQ or your spatial audio depending on the content you’re consuming.
But again, are these few use cases worth a display on your case, in your case? That’s for you to decide.
Enough about the display though. The JBL Tour Pro 2 is more than just a pretty screen. Right? Right?
ANC & Transparency
The ANC on these buds are top tier guys. We were blown away by the overall package of the JBL Live Pro 2 in THIS video, and the Tour Pro 2 matches up. We tested the noise cancelling against the AirPods Pro gen 2 which is Tier S for ANC and against the EarFun Air Pro 3 which ranked as Tier A. The Tour Pro 2 came in at Tier A. It’s got killer low end noise cancellation and did a great job at other frequencies too. Oh and you can change the level of noise cancelling in the app with a slider if you’re into that kind of thing. You can either set the ANC level manually or you get adaptive ANC which will change automatically based on your environment.
Anyway moving onto transparency, this where the JBL didn’t do as well as with ANC. Tier B here guys. It’s got decent transparency but it’s not all that spectacular. There is noticeable white noise which can get annoying in quiet environments. And comparing it to the EarFun Air Pro 3 which is tier A, the JBL was beat across the board. Not by much but just enough to warrant a tier difference. This puts the JBL in the same tier as something like the SoundCore Liberty 4. Which some of you might know was one of our favourite buds of last year.
In the category of ANC, JBL has a third mode called TalkThru which you can enable from the case or by double tapping the left bud, if you have those controls configured in the app. In theory it’s a nice feature since it lowers the audio volume and turns on transparency mode so you can talk to people. Did we ever toggle the mode? Nope. Practically, you’d be too slow to find that option on the case and double tapping the left bud instead of just pulling out in time, and not making the whole interaction more awkward than it already is. When in doubt – pull out.
⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯🛒 Links For Latest Prices⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯
Affiliate shopping and merchandise links above MAY earn us commission.
🎧 Buy the JBL Tour Pro 2: https://www.jbl.nl/draadloze-oordopje…
🎧 Buy the JBL Live Pro 2: https://geni.us/JBL-Live-Pro-2
🎧 Buy the Tozo X1: https://geni.us/TozoGoldenX1
🎧 Buy the EarFun Air Pro 3: https://geni.us/EarfunAirPro-3
🎧 Buy the SoundCore Liberty 4: https://geni.us/SoundCoreLiberty4 ⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯
Build & Comfort
The way the Tour Pro 2 is built seems very good. Although the case and buds are made with plastic, they feel durable and definitely not cheap. That’s the least you can come to expect at the price point. Let’s not beat around the case. It’s a bulky case. It needs to house that screen in it so it will be bigger and heavier than others. But surprisingly it didn’t bother us too much, we kind of got used to it quite quickly. Maybe since we’ve seen the likes of Bose QC earbuds and the Moondrop Alice. Although the case is chonky, it slightly makes up for it with great battery life. With ANC on, you’re getting 8 hours on the buds and 24 hours more from the case. That is pretty good, especially for what you’re getting on the buds themselves. You’ve also got wireless charging on board.
After popping open the case, the buds are surprisingly compact, not what you’d expect. It’s a stem style design and looks quite sleek. We like how they look. One nitpick is the way you take the buds out and put them into the case. It isn’t the most natural feeling, and feels a bit finicky. You get touch controls on the buds which you can customise in the app although you do need to select from a few preset options. Unfortunately you can’t have track control, volume and an ANC toggle at the same time. You’ll need to forego one of them. That’s a real shame. The buds are IPX5 which is.. Ok. No dust resistance and no IP rating on the case. So take your precautions in case you were planning on showing off this fancy piece of tech at the beach.
But apart from all that superficial stuff, the buds were comfortable! The oval ear tips felt good without any irritation. One downside is that you only get 3 sizes of tips. So finding the right fit might be a gamble. Strange choice. Even Apple gives you 4 sizes now. Apple! It takes great courage to add an extra small tip size to the box. The fit felt secure as well, and didn’t think it would fall out during workouts very easily.
Connectivity & App
In the connectivity department, the Tour Pro 2 can do multipoint. And it worked well. But the best part is that you can pull connection from a previously paired device without having to put the buds into pairing mode. Unfortunately, there’s no device list in the app.
Speaking of the app, like we said at the beginning, JBL has gone all out on this app. Feature overload! Beyond the basics – an EQ, changing ANC modes and firmware upgrades – you get several other options. Get ready for some JBL lingo. Here we go.
There’s Personi-fi 2.0 which will try to make a custom EQ based on your preferences. Then you’ve got Adaptive ANC which will change ANC level depending on the environment you’re in. This we really liked – worked well.
There’s VoiceAware which will adjust how much of your own voice you’d like to hear when on a phone call. Depending on how much you like the sound of your voice, this can be changed. Super handy for calls.
And then you’ve got SilentNow which we talked about before. A do-not-disturb mode which will disconnect the buds from your phone and enable ANC. Like if you just wanna concentrate on work, or sleep.
Finally, you can cycle between a few Spatial Audio modes depending on whether you’re gaming, watching videos or listening to music. And there’s way too many other settings to talk about: a fit check, change of voice prompt language, find my buds and settings for the app on your case on the app in your phone. Ok – we’re done here!
Phone calls
Oh by the way, did you guys hear about the popping popsicles, icing icicles and testing testing…
For mic samples, CLICK HERE.
Would you use the Tour Pro 2 for phone calls?
Well first off if you have these buds in your ears, the JBL Lady person says ‘incoming call’, which is kinda nice. No cryptic beeps or dings here.
On the microphone quality, our take is simple. They did ok, not great but not bad either. In noisy conditions Rohan’s voice was loud and clear, although you could hear the cars whooshing by in the background. Moving to windy conditions, the wind is very much present. But you could still make out what Rohan was trying to say most of the time. We just think the other person on the call would enjoy hearing all that wind being piped in.
Let’s talk about the vakman controls. We were super stoked to see that you get the ability to mute straight from the buds! You can also use the VoiceAware feature in the app and on the case display to change how much of your beautiful voice you’d like to hear. One downside is that there’s no way to configure the touch controls for calls. JBL knows best.
The case also behaves differently when you’re on a call. First off – you can answer or hangup the calls using the case. And for the rest of it, only the features for calls will be available, so being able to hang up, mute, change volume, change ANC and VoiceAware. Unfortunately volume control does not work on the call even if you enable it. And since there’s VoiceAware, there’s no ANC control directly from the buds when on a call.
Sound quality
This is JBL – and in true JBL style – JBL delivers on sound. Sure it’s got AAC and no fancy ‘hi-res’ codec, but we’d take excellent tuning and capable hardware any day over codecs that drain your battery. And these sound great. With a 10 point EQ that can move between frequency bands, you get full customization. It does everything well across the board – stock tuning, timbre, mids. It also gives you a nice rumble, maybe a tiny bit less than the Live Pro 2. But still – plenty bass, especially mid bass. Without any EQ, you still get a good, slightly bass boosted sound. But we also really like the presets – we found ourselves gravitating towards the ‘studio’ preset mainly – which is kinda flat – and to the ‘club’ preset which is identical, but with a bit more of a bass bump. Perfect for when we wanted a bit more punch. The bass preset isn’t really our thing though. But good presets are so underrated and we’re happy that JBL gives you presets that are actually valuable.
You also get spatial audio on board. Not just spatial audio, but three types – one for movies, one for music and one for gaming. To be honest – spatial audio feels to us like what 3D was supposed to be to television. Companies sold you 3D TVs, but who actually owns one today. Sure there are use cases where it’s cool, but by and large – don’t fall for the hype. Anyway – you get spatial audio if you’re into that sort of thing.
But that’s not all – you get a hearing test, called Personi-fi – nice. This worked well. A feature where ANC gets turned on and bluetooth gets disconnected, probably in case you wanna sleep. There’s a maximum volume limiter that limits the maximum volume to 85 dB, which we IMMEDIATELY enabled to keep our ears healthy and this YouTube channel running. So yeah – in terms of sound – we haven’t really seen anything that is as feature-packed as these. Well done JBL – well done!
To buy or not to buy
Alright – let’s bring this tour to an end.
Here are the reasons why you should buy the JBL Tour Pro 2:
- Great sound
- Tier A noise cancelling
- Well implemented multipoint including the ability to pull connections
- Comfortable and secure fitting earbuds
- Battery of 8 hours on the buds with ANC
- The very reliable and feature rich app
- Decent microphones with ability to mute on device
Then the reasons NOT to buy the JBL Tour Pro 2:
- The price. $250 is a steep ask, especially considering the alternatives for much less.
- The case display. It’s fun and very unique. But unless your needs fall into a specific group, you’ll just be walking around with an unnecessarily chonky case and lighter wallet.
- The transparency mode. Tier B, so it’s alright but not anything to write home about. The low end isn’t let in as much as we’d like and there’s noticeable white noise.
- And there are sacrifices are to be made when customising the call controls and you can forget about customising the controls for calls
You’ve been on a pro tour of this JBL… and we’ve been DHRME. Namaste!
SUPPORT OUR WORK
🛒 Use the links above to do your shopping
★ Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dhrme
👕 Buy DHRME Merch: https://shop.dhrme.nl
📜 Website / Blog: https://www.dhrme.nl/
TALK TO US
https://discord.gg/WBr2euA3fP
https://www.instagram.com/dhrme.nl
https://www.facebook.com/dhrme.nl
https://twitter.com/DHRME
===DISCLOSURES===
✅ All the products were sent to us for review purposes.
✅ No one got input at any stage in the creation of this video. All opinions and bad jokes are strictly our own.
✅ Affiliate shopping and merchandise links above earn us commission.
