CES 2024: JBL brings its touchscreen case to three new pairs of earbuds
JBL’s smart charging case is being rolled out to its Live 3 series models and numerous new speakers and mics are on their way, too
JBL has unveiled several additions to its product lineup at CES 2024, spearheaded by the arrival of its smart charging case to the JBL Live TWS 3 series.
The brand debuted its first touchscreen true wireless charging case in late 2022 and brought it to market with the JBL Tour Pro 2 early last year. And now the LED touchscreen display is making its way to the charging case of three slightly more budget-friendly earbuds: the Live Buds 3, Live Beam 3 and the Live Flex 3.
Set to release in mid-June 2024, the three models feature JBL’s True Adaptive Noise Cancelling, Bluetooth 5.3 LE and will deliver Hi-Res audio for a launch price of £180.
The upgraded charging case allows control of “nearly all features and functions” in real-time, removing the need for you to be constantly accessing the JBL Headphones App on your mobile device.
While our experience with the JBL Tour Pro 2 left a reasonably positive impression – the buds were awarded a four-star rating in our full-length Tour Pro 2 review – we’re eager to see if the functionality of the case has been extended beyond its previous abilities.
Previously, the display allowed you to control things like ambient sound, equaliser and playback controls and could display messages from certain platforms, but users could not respond to them.
Whether new features and options have been added remains to be seen but JBL’s new earbuds certainly impress in the battery life department. The manufacturer claims you’ll get up to 40 hours of portable playtime with the Live Buds 3, up to 48 hours from the Live Beam 3 and up to 50 hours when using the Live Flex 3.
Each pair of earbuds also comes in four colourways – Purple, Blue, Silver and Black – and promises decent protection against the elements thanks to an IP55 rating for dust and water resistance.
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Not stopping with earbuds, JBL also introduced three new speakers into its core range and two new PartyBox speakers in Las Vegas.
The regular speakers – JBL Xtreme 4 (£330), JBL Clip 5 (£60) and JBL Go 4 (£40)– are updates to existing models that incorporate Auracast technology for the first time, allowing for unlimited connectivity options including stereo or multi-speaker pairings. They will be released in mid-March.
Meanwhile, the PartyBox releases – the JBL PartyBox Club 120 (£350) and JBL PartyBox Stage 320 (£550) – are reported to refresh the typically bass-heavy sound of their predecessors while delivering dynamic lighting to illuminate dancefloors when they hit stores in mid-April.
Also revealed were a new JBL PartyBox Wireless Mic (£120) to use with all PartyBox devices, and a refresh of the JBL Quantum Stream microphone lineup. The new JBL Quantum Stream Talk (£40), JBL Quantum Stream Wireless (£80) and JBL Quantum Stream Studio (£130) are designed for podcasters and streamers and priced to cater for content creators of varying levels of experience.
Stay tuned for in-depth reviews on these products as and when we get them into the Expert Reviews offices over the coming months.