Hands-on review: JBL Tour Pro 3 earbuds
It's hard to innovate something new in the technology industry in 2025 because the handy smartphone pretty much does most things we need in life. The same thing holds true for headphones because most of them don't need innovation; all we want to listen to is music.
Well JBL has introduced something innovative in my opinion because the company has released the JBL Tour Pro 3 earbuds recently. Aside from being the usual Bluetooth-enabled earbuds, it has a surprising feature about its charging case. Correct me if I'm wrong about this, but it's the first set of earbuds I've seen that has a charging case with a nifty touchscreen of its own!
Usually if you want to change the sound settings on your earbuds, you'd normally use an app on your phone. Sometimes volume controls might be attached to the headphones themselves in some designs. With this device, however, the charging case touchscreen has all the settings you want.
The touchscreen charging case allows you to control music playback, has a timer, and even sees caller ID when someone is ringing you up. It also has an equaliser for music, a flashlight, and even a feature where you can find your lost earbuds. People often lose their earbuds all the time, so this is a great feature.
The charging case has a 1.57-inch screen, and it's bright and colourful. Not to mention, you can also set the wallpaper on the screen of your own choosing. I have to admit, the screen isn't as snappy and responsive as a smartphone screen, but it is mostly still usable. The only type of people who might struggle to use the screen is those with huge hands and fingers as it's still tiny by today's standards.
Another cool feature of the smartphone charging case is that you can wirelessly transmit audio to the earbuds from an AUX or USB-C source. Audio cables are included if you want to transmit the sound elsewhere.
Speaking of extra features, the JBL Tour Pro 3 comes with five sizes of ear tips and a set of foam tips. If the default earbuds aren't to your liking, you can use the tips to suit your own comfort style.
The sound quality is excellent because it can output balanced sound no matter what genre of music you like to play. I usually love to listen to rock music with heavy bass, and these earbuds do the trick nicely. It also comes with noise cancelling functionality meaning you can drown out excess noise if you walking in a busy city or something like that.
Music lovers will also love to know that the device has a 44-hour battery life, so you don't have to charge it constantly. 44 hours is a pretty long time, so it can easily last a week or longer depending on the number of hours you use them.
While the JBL Pro Tour 3 earbuds have some amazing features, it isn't a perfect device. For one thing, I did have some trouble early on trying to turn the Bluetooth functionality on. The Bluetooth icon wouldn't turn on no matter what I tried. Eventually, I got it to work but you may want to return the device to the store if it doesn't work at all.
Another thing that might annoy some users is that the earbuds aren't comfortable in my opinion. It could be my unique ear shape, but the earbuds didn't fit into my ears nicely like other models. Again, this could be just me, but other users might have the same issue.
The last thing that might shock people is that the JBL Tour Pro 3 earbuds cost $429.95 NZD at its normal retail price. The high price is probably due to the touchscreen charging case, but it's still quite expensive. If you want to buy this device, be prepared to pay a high price!
While the JBL Tour Pro 3 is quite pricey, I do like the touchscreen and its many features. The earbuds still also output high-quality audio and they are able to cancel out a lot of noise. This is only worth it though if you can afford it.
