JBL Tune 130NC TWS Truly Wireless Headphones Review

These in-ears have a non-descript look, with the manufacturer's logo on both buds in a large, glossy print. They're also a bit bulky and stick out of your ear like similarly oval-shaped earbuds like the JBL Tune 125TWS Truly Wireless and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds Truly Wireless. They come in three colors: 'Black', 'White', and 'Blue'.

The JBL Tune 130NC have a comfortable fit. They're lightweight and don't enter your ear too deeply. They're a bit bulky, though, and stick out of your ear.

There's a touch-sensitive surface on each bud, which is easy to use and responsive. There are beeps to let you know when you've registered a command, and an audible tone to let you know when you're pairing as well as cycling between ANC on, 'Ambient Sound Control', and ANC off. You can also remap the controls to add volume and voice assistant commands. On the downside, if you want to use one bud while the other bud is charging, you'll lose some access to controls. In addition, there are no volume controls by default, so if you want them, you'll need to add the command via the companion app.

On the left earbud:

• Single tap: Cycle between ANC on, 'Ambient Sound Control', which allows you to better hear your environment without taking the headphones out of your ears, and ANC off.
• Double tap: Turns 'TalkThru' on and off. This feature lowers your media's volume and enables 'Ambient Sound Control' so that you can have conversations.

On the right earbud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double tap: Skips to the next track.
• Triple tap: Skips to the previous track.

On either earbud:

• Double tap: Answers and ends calls.
• Tap and hold: Activates voice assistant. Also rejects a call. When you're on a call, this function mutes and unmutes your microphone.

These buds are very portable, which is normal for truly wireless headphones. They're small, lightweight, and will easily fit into most bags or pockets without an issue.

These headphones come with a decent carrying case. It's nearly identical in design to that of the JBL TUNE 230NC TWS True Wireless, although the inner molding is designed to fit these specific earbuds. It's also made of plastic but feels cheap overall. The lid especially feels flimsy compared to the case's body. It has magnets to hold the buds in place, and LED lights display the case's battery life.

These buds have a good build quality. They're mostly made of plastic, although it feels a bit cheap. The ear tips also feel thin and could be a weak point of the build. However, they still feel solid enough to survive several accidental drops without taking too much damage. They're also rated IPX4 for protection against water splashes, which is good if you want to use them during a run in the park.

These buds are decently stable. They come with three differently-sized pairs of ear tips to help you get the best fit possible. While they won't move around if you're sitting at your desk, they can fall out of your ears during intense physical activity.

• JBL Tune 130NC headphones
• 3x ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

Out of the box, these headphones have a very neutral sound profile that ensures vocals and instruments sound clear and natural. As a result, their sound is well-suited for a variety of audio content. If you prefer a different sound, their companion app offers a parametric EQ and presets to adjust the sound to your liking.

These headphones have great frequency response consistency. Although there's a bit of deviation in the treble range, once you achieve an air-tight seal, they'll deliver audio consistently each time you use them.

The JBL Tune 130NC have outstanding bass accuracy. The range is fairly flat and neutral, resulting in thump, rumble, and body. A small dip in the high-bass slightly lowers their boom and warmth, but it's fairly minor.

The mid range is exceptional. This range is also very flat and neutral. Vocals and lead instruments sound bright, clear, and accurate, although intense. In songs like Taylor Swift's Karma, voices are detailed and easy to follow.

These buds have excellent treble accuracy. The low-treble is fairly neutral, so vocals and lead instruments are detailed. However, the mid-treble is underemphasized, so sibilants like S and T sounds are dull.

The JBL Tune 130NC's peaks and dips performance is excellent. Overall, there aren't many peaks and dips, meaning the headphones can follow their own sound profile well. Those present are also fairly minor in height or depth. There's a small mismatch between the left and right drivers, and some peaks and dips affect one driver more than the other. This happens most noticeably in the low-bass, as the left driver produces more thump and rumble than the right, and in the mid-treble, the left driver dulls sibilants like cymbals while the right driver makes them sound harsh.

JBL's products tend to have good imaging, partly due to the manufacturer's quality control and ergonomics, although there have been some misses. Although imaging varies across units, our unit's L/R drivers have a lot of phase mismatch that's audible with real-life content. This skews sound objects like instruments to one side of the stereo image. For example, the low-mid is louder in the right driver, while the high-mid to treble is louder in the left driver. That said, the peak in the high-bass is harder to spot. Conversely, group delay falls within good levels, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The drivers are also well-matched in frequency and phase response, which helps to ensure a stable image.

These headphones have a terrible passive soundstage, which is normal for in-ear headphones. To create an immersive and speaker-like passive soundstage, you need to activate your outer ear with sound. By design, they bypass your outer ear, and sound seems to be coming from inside your head rather than from speakers in the room around you. Since they also have a closed-back design, their soundstage won't seem as spacious as headphones with an open-back enclosure.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. Although there are some peaks in the treble range, it can be hard to hear with real-life content. Most of the frequency range falls within good limits, resulting in mostly clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using them with these settings.

The noise isolation performance is okay. The ANC doesn't offer significantly better performance than the headphones' passive isolation capabilities, and overall, these headphones block out less noise than the JBL Tour Pro+ TWS True Wireless. As a result, they struggle to isolate you from the low rumble of bus and plane engines. While they do a better job of cutting down office chatter, high-pitched noise like the hum of an AC unit is more challenging for the ANC to reduce well.

The leakage performance is excellent. Leakage is mostly concentrated in the treble range, which sounds thin. However, if you like to listen to your favorite tracks at a high volume, you won't bother others around you.

The integrated mic has a satisfactory recording quality, and your voice sounds natural but thin and lacking in body. You won't have problems being understood clearly if you're speaking in a quiet space, though.

While the mic's recording quality is satisfactory, the noise handling performance is just okay. The mic has trouble separating your voice from moderate ambient sound around you. As a result, it may be difficult for whoever's on the other end of the line to hear you clearly if you're taking a call from a busy street.

The JBL Tune 130NC have a good battery performance. They're advertised to last roughly eight hours with their ANC on, but we measured a bit less than that. However, battery life can vary depending on use. Their carrying case holds roughly three additional charges, and they have an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when you're not using them. You can also use one bud while the other one charges.

The JBL Headphones app is great. It allows you to adjust their sound using their parametric EQ and presets, turn on and off ANC, toggle between 'Ambient Aware', which allows you to stay aware of your surroundings without taking the buds out of your ear, and 'TalkThru', which lowers your audio and amplifies speech so that you can hold conversations without removing the buds, and remap controls. You can also toggle 'Smart Audio & Video' between the following settings: 'Normal' (for a stable connection), 'Audio Mode' (which is the default setting and is designed for the best sound for music), and 'Video Mode' (which lowers latency for streaming video). You can adjust the auto-off timer, turn the auto play/pause feature on and off, and access 'Find My Buds'.

The JBL Tune 130NC TWS have alright Bluetooth connectivity. Unfortunately, they don't support multi-device or NFC pairing. They also have high audio lag on PCs, iOS, and Android devices. However, their companion app has a low-latency 'Video Mode', which helps lower audio lag. It's still quite high on PCs but is much lower on iOS and Android devices, so you can stream video without severe lip-sync mismatch. That said, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently.

You can't use these truly wireless headphones wired. They come with a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge their carrying case.

These headphones are fully compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, you can't connect to a PC in any other way.

The carrying case holds roughly three additional charges. It only has a USB-C input so that you can charge the case.