We all made fun of AirPods back when they came out but look where we are…
While I still think the stems look super weird, I can’t deny that the convenience of wireless has a certain appeal.
But like a lot of Apple products, AirPods (Pro or Amateur) will give you a rude awakening once you see the price.
But there’s cheaper alternatives, right?
Definitely, but the answer isn’t whatever the fuck I ended up buying.
JBL Endurance Peak II
I wanted to buy something nice for my dad, who listens to a lot of music and radio shows.
Instead of buying actually good headphones or IEMs, I suddenly got brainworms and decided that the mystical idea of “convenience” as important and went for a pair of wireless earbuds.
At around $100 bucks (15k Rupees for me) JBL Endurance Peak II is less than half the price of AirPods Pros and felt like a good enough budget option.
JBL wasn’t exactly a jank Chinese brand, and I was buying it from an “official” showroom (EvoStore, Nepal).
Plus its waterproof! Perfect for the garbage summer weather in my hometown.
Little did I know, I should have bought him another tie instead.
Now, it did work and play music…. at first. Once I went home and tried to test it, a whole mass of new problems started to surface.
For one thing, a big part of the advertisement is the easy pairing. Just look at the manual:
Touch the icon and connect the earbuds. Sounds simple, right?
But actually trying to get it to connect is like chewing nails. The iron ones, not the ones on your fingers.
So, this JBL garbage connects sometimes, doesn’t connect the other times, connects with one ear the rest of the time and so on. Anything except normal functioning.
That’s an amazing sales pitch right there. For a hundred bucks, you can get something that works… sometimes.
One thing to note is that sometimes electronics mess up on us. Maybe it was a faulty model? Maybe I’m too dumb to use it? JBL babbity babbity could still work for you.
But the sound though…
It’s not good. It’s not as bad as those bootleg earbuds that cost less than a dollar, but it’s not winning any awards anytime soon.
The bass is thin and the trebles feel like someone dragging nail on a chalkboard.
JBL Endurance Peak II sounds far worse than my $22 (3000 Rs) QKZ VK4, let alone something like Audio-Technica M40x which is around the same price.
But they’re wired earbuds and headphones, and you’re paying for the convenience, right?
Well, it sounds worse than Soundcore Q30 which is wireless, cheaper, comfy as hell, and has active noise cancelling.
Sure, Q30 isn’t waterproof but you can carry a god damn umbrella and save yourself the pain.
It’s just a bad pair of earbuds. If you check reviews on YouTube, they’ll say the usual things (well built, good battery life, shiny box) and skip past the bullshit. And there’s so much bullshit.
The charging indicator is so badly placed that the lid blocks the view most of the time. You’ll need to rotate the thing to check if each earbud is charging individually.
And you definitely need to check since it’s not wireless charging, there’s a small metal bit that connects to the metal charging port on the earbuds. So, it can get dislodged easily since the case isn’t super tight.
Speaking of the case, it’s wobbly and just feels delicate. The earbuds aren’t being held by magnets or anything like that, so you can just drop them.
The case just feels cheap. It rattles, gets lose, has cheap looking plasticky finish along the edges. But the most annoying part is the sheer fucking size of the case.
This is marketed for athletes and people who’re working out but good luck fitting this massive chonkster in your pocket when you’re running.
Apple fucking nailed the right size for the case and everyone else has been fucking it up in different ways.
From Galaxy Buds to Sony WhateverthefuckXM4, they all have cases that are just thicker and less convenient to carry around.
And then there’s the touch controls. Since these feel like shit, I often have to adjust them or shove them back in.
And every time I do that, the music stops or the song skips or Google’s stupid assistant pops up again.
Again, why can’t other companies rip off Apple in good ways (actual buttons) instead of braindead ways (no headphone jack).
3 Months Later
Now it’s been 3 months since I bought JBL Endurance Peak II, and I ended up not gifting them to my dad.
What do I think of them now? Did I continue hating it even more, did I end up appreciating them for what they were?
Well, here’s the fun part – they stopped connecting to one ear entirely after 1 day of use.
Naturally, I took them to EvoStore, where I bought them from. They told me that they’d send it to their technicians and check if there really was a problem.
They told me they’d call me back in 3 days, and just like I expected, they didn’t call me back.
After waiting a while, I called them and they asked me to call the repair place and ask myself.
So, I made the call and the repair people told me they’d check and call me back. Like I expected, they didn’t call me back either.
It’s amazing how I can get worse service than a government bureaucracy from an “official” Apple store.
Now after a couple of more phone calls, I got my earbuds back and both of them connect now.
Sadly, it still occasionally does stupid things like skipping or randomly disconnecting or speeding up the music for a second, and whatnot.
So I’m guess that’s a part of the package? Whatever.
When it’s not fucking up, it’s pretty neat to listen to music without wires..
But the price of convenience is that you’re buying something doesn’t always work normally.
As weird as it sounds, this garbage JBL made me appreciate Apple’s AirPods a bit more. Sure, JBL is cheaper, but it’s built like shit, not as convenient, and sounds far worse.
In conclusion: I don’t think I need to tell you if I recommend JBL Endurance Peak II or not.
