JBL Soundgear Clips Review: Who Are Open-Back Headphones For?

+ Advantages:

- Fashionable design, comfortable wearing experience.

- Lively sound.

- Strong battery life.

+ Limitations:

- Plastic box is easily scratched.

- Sound may leak out when playing high volume in quiet environments.

+ Editor's Advice:

JBL Soundgear Clips will be suitable for young users who love a headphone with a fashionable design, vibrant sound and a comfortable user experience, without feeling stuffy ears when worn for a long time.

In return, users will have to accept limitations in noise cancellation.

Design and user experience

Open Ear headphones (also known as open-type headphones) are designed to transmit sound to the ear without blocking the ear canal or covering the entire ear. Open Ear headphones are created with the purpose of helping users to listen to music while clearly recognizing the surrounding environmental sounds.

On the market, Open Ear headphones have two popular designs: neck-band (around the ear) and Clip-on (clip on the ear). Of which, the Clip-on design is compact and convenient, allowing users to use it for a long time without causing discomfort.

Over the past year or so, Open Ear headphones with Clip-on designs have become more and more popular in the Vietnamese market. Most recently, JBL has also joined this segment with the Soundgear Clips model.

JBL Soundgear Clips stand out with its compact design. Each earbud weighs only 6.5g, making it comfortable to use. The light weight sometimes makes users forget they are wearing headphones.

After nearly 5 hours of continuous wearing, the device did not cause any pain or discomfort in the ear. Even if the user was wearing earrings or glasses, the headset did not cause any feeling of being stuck or uncomfortable when worn. The open design also helps the user not to experience ear congestion at all.

Each earbud is made up of two main components, including a round part containing the speaker and a bean-shaped block. The bean-shaped block contains the battery and other components, and also allows users to perform quick touch controls right on the earbud.

The two areas above are connected by a C-shaped bridge. This bridge is made of soft silicone material, giving a comfortable wearing feeling. This part is highly elastic and can "remember" the original shape, helping to limit the deformation of the headset when used for a long time.

The outer surface of the headset is finished with a transparent shell, revealing some of the components inside the headset. This design also creates a highlight and unique feature on the appearance of the product.

JBL Soundgear Clips is not a specialized product line for professional sports training purposes. However, users can still take advantage of this device to serve the needs of daily training and running.

The open design allows users to be aware of all surrounding sounds, ensuring greater safety when running outdoors. The headphones are also IP54 water and dust resistant, giving users peace of mind when using them in a variety of environmental conditions.

The headphones come with a charging case with 5 different color options for users to choose according to their preferences. However, it is quite unfortunate that the case cover is only finished from glossy plastic, which is easily scratched and gets dirty during use.

Sound quality

The sound experience that Open Ear headphones bring is quite different when compared to in-ear headphones or over-ear headphones. Users will feel like they are listening to the sound coming from a speaker. The reason comes from the mechanism of transmitting sound through the air with the speaker facing the ear canal, helping the ear not to be blocked.

JBL Soundgear Clips are equipped with 11mm drivers with a frequency range of 20Hz-20kHz. The sound quality of this headphone model tends to be bright, detailed and vibrant. The headphones also integrate JBL OpenSound technology to help balance sound quality while still staying connected to the surrounding environment.

A common limitation of Open Ear headphones is the difficulty in reproducing bass. To overcome this, JBL has integrated Bass Boost technology into its headphones to enhance the dynamic range.

The efficiency of this technology is also quite good. JBL Soundgear Clips can reproduce bass that is stronger and more powerful than some Open Ear and Earbud headphones on the market. However, the bass is still not comparable to in-ear or over-ear headphones.

Therefore, if you like listening to strong music genres such as EDM or electronic music, this will not be a suitable choice. In addition, the headset also supports custom EQ with 6 available sound modes so that users can change according to personal preferences.

Another issue that users need to pay attention to when using Open Ear headphones is sound leakage. When used in real life conditions outdoors or in cafes, users will not need to think about this issue.

However, in quieter environments such as in the office or when sleeping, a volume level of 40-50% will ensure that the sound from the headphones and the outside environment is clearly audible, while not affecting the people around. With a volume level above 70%, the sound emitted from the headphones can leak out, so users need to be careful to use the device appropriately for each environment.

Besides, when choosing a headphone with an open design, users also have to accept the trade-off of noise cancellation.

JBL Soundgear Clips is equipped with 4 microphones with built-in AI noise filtering algorithms. Tested in an outdoor environment, users can easily communicate over the phone, the sound is easy to hear and not muffled.

The headphones also support a variety of connections with both iPhones and Android phones. For Android devices, users can quickly connect using the Fast Pair feature, the phone will display a similar control notification box when connecting AirPods headphones to iPhone.

In addition, the device also supports multi-point connection, allowing pairing two devices at the same time and quickly switching between phone and laptop without having to manually disconnect. Users can also connect to the JBL Headphones application on the phone to customize the sound, change navigation gestures according to usage habits.

Battery life is also a plus point of this headset model when the device allows up to 8 hours of use. In addition, the included charging case will help increase the usage by 24 hours. The headset also supports fast charging technology with 10 minutes for 3 hours of use.

Summary

JBL Soundgear Clips is sold in the Vietnamese market for 3.49 million VND. The device competes with some rivals in the same segment such as Huawei FreeClip, Honor Choice Earbuds Clip.

The device will be suitable for young users who love a headset with a fashionable design, vibrant sound and a comfortable user experience, without feeling stuffy when worn for a long time. This is also a choice worth considering if users need a headset that can meet the needs of outdoor sports practice.

However, the product still has some limitations that need to be improved, such as the plastic case is easily scratched, and the sound is easily leaked out when turned on at high volume. In addition, choosing an open-design headset means that users will have to accept the trade-off of noise cancellation.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/cong-nghe/danh-gia-jbl-soundgear-clips-tai-nghe-dang-mo-se-phu-hop-voi-ai-20251126154345312.htm