JBL Tour Pro 3 review: Bigger screen, better sound, higher price

The JBL Tour Pro 3 are the third pair of JBL wireless earbuds I’ve reviewed with a charging case housing a touchscreen display.

The earbuds have received several upgrades compared to their predecessors, which is just as well given they’re the manufacturer’s priciest wireless in-ears yet at £280. That price puts them firmly in premium territory and in direct competition with our favourite true wireless options from the likes of Sony, Apple, Bose and Bowers & Wilkins.

The Tour Pro 3’s display is larger than those found on the JBL Tour Pro 2 and JBL Live Beam 3, and the case’s capabilities have been expanded. They do a good job of holding their own against their rivals in most areas and have the edge where breadth of features and customisation are concerned, but their main draw remains the case. If you want control of almost every aspect of your earbuds experience without needing your phone, these are the flagship buds for you.

JBL Tour Pro 3 review: What do you get for the money?

As noted above, the Tour Pro 3 don’t come cheap. They’re £30 dearer than their predecessors were at launch, and, at the time of writing, £130 more than the Live Beam 3 (£150). So, if you’re only interested in a charging case with a touchscreen display, there are more cost-effective alternatives available.

The Tour Pro 3 are the most advanced earbuds in JBL’s roster, however, and have a set of specifications worthy of their flagship status. They use Bluetooth 5.3, support multipoint pairing and are compatible with the SBC, AAC, LC3 and LDAC codecs. The latter enables high-resolution streaming, which is essential for a pair of premium buds.

There’s also support for noise-cancelling and ambient sound modes, along with three proprietary JBL Spatial 360 sound modes: Movie, Music and Game. These are bolstered by the addition of two new options – Fixed and Head Tracking – that lock the spatial effect in place and have them track the movements of your head, respectively.

The buds also get a new hybrid dual-driver acoustic system. This uses the same 11mm dynamic drivers found in the Tour Pro 2 in combination with balanced armature drivers handling frequencies above 8kHz, with each driver driven by its own DAC.

The case’s most significant new capability is Bluetooth retransmission. When connected to an audio source via the included USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to 3.5mm cables, it will function as a Bluetooth transmitter, broadcasting audio to the buds. JBL isn’t the first brand to incorporate this – Bowers & Wilkins introduced it with the PI7 and its latest flagship buds, the Pi8, also make use of it – but it’s a welcome addition to the Tour Pro 3’s arsenal.

Auracast is also supported via the case, allowing you to broadcast what you’re listening to to anyone within range. Auracast isn’t widely available yet, but it’s good to know the Tour Pro 3 will be ready to take advantage of it when it is.

Battery life when using active noise cancellation is unchanged from the Tour Pro 2; you’ll still get roughly eight hours from the buds, with the case providing three full charges. Switching ANC off pushes total battery life to around 44 hours, which is highly impressive. Wireless charging is supported too, which is also nice to see.

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JBL Tour Pro 3 review: What did we like about them?

While I’m reluctant to add yet another digital interface to the long list I already interact with (and said as much in my JBL Tour Pro 2 and JBL Live Beam 3 reviews), I’m coming around to the idea of a touchscreen charging case.

The more I used the Tour Pro 3’s case, the more I appreciated its convenience. You can use it to access every important feature the Tour Pro 3 have to offer and customise which features are displayed to a reasonable degree.

When testing the Asus ROG Ally X on my commute to the office, I had the case on my lap and could freely switch equaliser presets, engage spatial audio and keep an eye on alerts coming through Slack and Whatsapp. Doing so proved a lot easier than executing the same actions via my phone.

There are still a few niche settings like Max Volume Limiter and Left/Right Balance that can only be accessed via the JBL Headphones app but for the most part, you’ll set these once and forget about them.

The additional screen real estate didn’t make a huge difference to my experience but is welcome nonetheless, and I appreciate that JBL has added battery life, time and alert information to the lock screen. Having to unlock the case to see these things on the Tour Pro 2 was a pain, so being able to pull them up by simply tapping once on the screen is a great quality-of-life change.

Bluetooth retransmission, meanwhile, is a handy addition. It enabled me to use the earbuds with my PlayStation Portal, which typically only supports the Pulse Explore and Pulse Elite headsets, and there was no discernible lag between video and audio. I’ve not flown with the Tour Pro 3 yet but their retransmission capabilities will undoubtedly prove useful when I escape abroad later in the year.

I had some issues with the sound quality on the Tour Pro 2 but was more positive about the Live Beam 3. I’m pleased to report that the Tour Pro 3 are another step in the right direction. They’re capable of going very loud and maintain composure at high volumes, while the balanced armature drivers deliver impressive clarity in the upper registers.

They’re not short on detail or lacking in tonal expression, either. I was able to clearly pick out less prominent elements of Radiohead’s Karma Police, and the haunting cynicism in Tom Yorke’s vocals was articulated adeptly.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the latest iteration of Harman’s Personi-Fi audio personalisation technology. This uses the results of an in-app test to tweak audio based on how well you hear certain frequencies and, in the past, I’ve found it to have little to no effect. I was actually able to discern a difference this time, however, and preferred how the buds sounded with my personalised profile engaged.

Battery life is another area in which the Tour Pro 3 deserve plaudits. They outlast all of their similarly priced rivals and I’m only just needing to top them up after ten days of extensive testing.

Finally, as I tend to do in all my reviews of JBL headphones, I want to praise the level of customisation available. Whether you want to create your own EQ, change your voice to sound more powerful while on calls or set a specific level of noise cancellation, the JBL Headphones app has you covered, with one notable exception that I’ll discuss below.

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JBL Tour Pro 3 review: What could be improved?

Though my time with the Tour Pro 3 was largely positive, a few niggling issues hold them back from receiving a higher star rating.

The most frustrating of these was their fit. I had no issues whatsoever with comfort; the buds felt good in my ears and remained that way throughout longer listening sessions. However, establishing an effective in-ear seal in my right ear proved tricky.

I had to do quite a lot of fiddling around with the left bud to get the thumbs up from the in-app “Check My Best Fit” test using the largest tips. I also found myself having to readjust it more regularly than I’d have liked as facial movements like chewing caused it to move ever so slightly.

This had a knock-on effect on noise cancellation, which was otherwise very impressive. With both buds optimally wedged in my ears, the Tour Pro 3 took a hefty chunk out of the sounds around me. But when the left bud shifted just a tiny bit, my perceived isolation from the outside world diminished somewhat. Your mileage will vary where fit is concerned, and with six sizes of eartips to choose from, most people should be able to find a pair that works for them. None of them were the perfect fit for me, however.

A more general gripe I have is that switching between the noise cancelling and ambient sound modes alters how the buds sound. They lose some bass presence in Ambient Aware mode and sound thinner and less satisfying as a result. This isn’t a dealbreaker given you’ll likely use the ANC mode more frequently but is galling nonetheless.

I’m also still not a huge fan of JBL’s virtual audio spatialisation for music. It doesn’t sound as natural or immersive as Apple and Bose’s takes on the format and I didn’t find myself engaging it outside of testing. The Movie and Game modes are more impactful but I still feel there’s still room for improvement here.

Lastly, for all their customisation options, the Tour Pro 3 don’t give you full governance over their touch controls. There’s no way to have volume controls, ambient sound controls and playback controls on the buds at once, which I find exasperating. Using the case to control whichever group of controls you omit alleviates this to an extent but having touch controls that tick every box would be preferable.

JBL Tour Pro 3 review: Should you buy them?

The premium true wireless earbuds market is a tough nut to crack and JBL is giving it a real go with its Tour Pro range. The Tour Pro 3 are a feature-rich, highly customisable package offering useful functionality that’s rarely found elsewhere and they improve upon their predecessor’s sound quality and noise cancellation.

They’re not class leading in either department, however, with the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 offering more authoritative, precise and full-bodied sound and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds attenuating external noise more effectively.

That said, there’s still a case to be made for them and that case revolves around their case. It’s really grown on me as a method of control and with the aforementioned upgrades to performance, the Tour Pro 3 are in a stronger position to take on the competition than their predecessor was. It’s just a shame they’ve received a bit of a price hike; at £250, they would have been a compelling proposition.