JBL Live Beam 3 Review And Unboxing: Everything To Know About It

The JBL Live Beam 3 is a hot-selling TWS model on Amazon. Let’s do a quick unboxing and review of this product, and try to find out why it is so popular…

What comes in the box?

⦁ JBL Live Beam 3 earbuds
⦁ 3 sizes of ear tips — Extra Small, Small, Large
⦁ Type-C USB charging cable
⦁ Charging case
⦁ Warranty / Warning Card
⦁ Product QSG/ Safety Sheet

Design

JBL has used recycled plastic materials in the Live Beam 3. The case has a pencil box-style front-open layout and comes with a matte finish, with a shimmery look all around. The lid holds the screen and has JBL branding. The rear side of the case has a charging point and an indicator LED. There is also a button to switch on/off the screen and the hinge is made of metal and has the Live Beam 3 branding on it, you can find it inside the case as well!

The earbuds are seated neatly inside the case, easily accessible in the layout, and are held strong, so that they won’t fall off easily from the case. The buds come with an in-ear form factor and a curved stem. Like the charging case, the earbuds also host a matte finish on the inner stem and the housing, while some parts of the outer stem have a chrome touch.

The touch control areas are also monochrome with the rest of the buds. There is a neatly placed mesh at the bottom of the earphones and within the ear tips to protect the microphones and the earphone mesh from dust and debris- seems to be a thoughtful design though!

If something gets into the ear tip, it can be removed and cleaned with a gentle rinse. The ear tips are made of soft silicones which fit comfortably into the ear canal to create a good seal. You get 3 sizes of extra ear tips-  XS, S, and L, while the M is already on the earphone.

The earbuds weigh just around 5g per earbud and don’t make you feel that you are carrying something on your ears, even after long hours of usage. The buds have an IP55 water and dust resistance making it a perfect companion for workouts- indoors and outdoors.

The Smart Case

The flagship TWS by JBL marked the first time it launched an earphone with an integrated display in India. So the show stealer here is the Smart Charging Case!

The 1.45-inch display is sharp with good contrast and responsive enough to touch. It displays the time and remaining battery life of the case and buds and lets you customize the shortcuts that you want to be displayed on the case, and even set a wallpaper of your choice. 

You can easily access the volume and playback controls, sound and Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) modes, spatial sound, EQ, Ambient control, and so on without the JBL Headphones app on a smartphone. The case also has the option to attend or reject an incoming call and shows an Instagram notification or a message preview. The screen also has a Flashlight option, which turns the screen on to maximum brightness, which might be useful in dark places.

Some people might feel the charging case display is a mere gimmick. But here are 2 reasons that make the display screen worth the hype:

⦁ Considering the wide array of options available in the JBL app, the case lets you cut through the clutter and quickly access the essential features.
⦁ While the JBL buds have touch controls for playback, volume, and noise modes, it lets you use any of these two options at once, which simply means you will have to use your phone/JBL app to manage the third option. This is where the case comes in handy which lets you adjust the volume, switch ANC modes, or skip a track with just a simple tap.

If you are a person who keeps your smartphone in the backpack while you travel, the JBL Live Beam 3 helps you to have effortless control over your listening experience.

Features- JBL Headphones App, ANC, Sound and Call Quality

As mentioned earlier, this earbud comes with a wide array of audio customization and control, all facilitated through the JBL headphones app. The earphones are compatible with the JBL Headphones app on both Android and iOS. After the earbuds are paired with the device, the app shows 3 panels- General, Audio, and Others.

The General Panel contains the Ambient Sound Control, Smart Charging Case Settings, Check My Best Fit and Smart Talk, and so on. The Ambient Sound Control option has a Noise canceling option to turn on /off ANC, the Ambient Aware option to go to the transparency mode, and the Talk thru which is an upscaled transparency mode that automatically pauses the audio when the user starts talking.

Another commendable feature is the Customize ANC, which lets the user select the desired level of ANC rather than switching between ANC on and Off. The Smart Charging Case Settings allows you to customize the settings of the charging case display. You can change the brightness, and language, set a wallpaper, screen-on time, and customize the shortcuts to be displayed on the screen.

The Check My Best Fit option is another interesting feature that allows the user to scan their face and select the correct size of tips that would comfortably fit into their ear canals. The Smart Talk feature appears to be an extension of the Talk thru option. It automatically reduces the media volume when the user starts talking to someone. You can set a timer for this feature – 5, 10, or 20 seconds, which means the user has to speak for the selected time for the Smart Talk to come into action.

There is a Personal Sound Amplification feature too, which lets you amplify the sound of the surroundings while you are in the Ambient Aware mode. This is helpful in situations where you are waiting to cross the road or driving in busy traffic so that you won’t miss somebody honking behind you!

There is also a Smart automation option that automatically picks up a call while the buds are in your ears, you can switch it off too! You can remap the touch controls via the Gestures option. The touch controls are impressively sensitive that you won’t feel the latency between the touch and the command registered.

The Audio section of the App features the High-Resolution Audio mode which switches on the LDAC support, the Equaliser mode, Adaptive EQ and Spatial Audio modes, and the Personi-Fi.
Personi-Fi is an intelligent feature that performs an audio profile test for the user and personalizes the sound output according to the auditory capacity.

The best feature that JBL has put forward is the Private Call Mode, which lets you talk with one bud in the ear and the other bud as your mic. This mode is perfect for those situations when you need to make a confidential conversation over the phone without others overhearing So, if you want to keep your conversation under wraps, this mode is the perfect solution!

In the Other section, there are options like Relax Sound to select a white noise and Find My Buds feature to locate your buds.

The Live Beam 3 has 10mm dynamic drivers integrated with JBL’s Spatial Sound technology and supports AAC, SBC, and LDAC codecs. Commenting on the sound quality, JBL never fails to impress in that aspect.

Live Beam 3 has the Harman signature sound which is very well balanced for music and movies, tweaked a little to the heavy bass front. Nevertheless, there is a wide range of customizations available, to have a sound profile of your preference.

When connected to standard music streaming on YouTube or Spotify, the performance stands out when listening to heavy bass audio with punchy beats or even the softest melodies like a soothing guitar strumming. Even for vocal-centric songs, the quality is exceptional though there is a lack of clarity for the high-pitch notes.

If you try out the LDAC codec with lossless music from Apple Play or Tidal, you will be mind-blown with the difference in the audio experience. Not even a single note, even if it is high or low, goes unnoticed.

The sound stage is so rich and immersive that listeners can notice improved instrument separation and depth and richer vocals, even if it is a melody,  rock, hip-hop, or a vibrant Bollywood dance number. The spatial audio feature is also impressive. It gives a 360-degree listening experience that the user might feel like standing in the middle of a concert!

The Beam 3 is equipped with 6 mics out of which two mics have the beamforming arrangement to enhance the audio quality during voice calls. There is an option to cut out the wind noise that interferes while travelling and the user also gets to change the Equalizer setting of their own voice or the voice of the person on the other side – you can switch between Natural, Increased Treble, and Increased Bass. This actually means that you have control over how you or the person on the other side should sound on the call!

Connectivity and Battery Life

The earbuds support Bluetooth version 5.3  while the charging case supports Bluetooth 5.1. It also supports multipoint pairing to connect and switch between two devices simultaneously.
These JBL earbuds are powered by a 68 mAh battery while the case gets a 680 mAh one. The company claims a total playback time of 48 hours- 12 hours with the buds alone and 36 hours with the case, 10 hours of music playback with ANC On, and 12 hours if ANC is Off.

In real-time, you get almost 9 hours of music playback with the ANC On which is quite impressive. It takes a charging time of 2 hours while charging from zero per cent to attain full charge. It supports both USB type C and wireless charging. A quick charging for 10 minutes can offer a playtime of almost 4 hours.