JBL JBL Soundgear Sense True Wireless Earbuds (White) Review

The JBL Soundgear Sense scores in the 22nd percentile overall, with call quality hitting a rock-bottom 14.3/100. For $165, you get an open-ear design that sacrifices sound, mic performance, and noise cancellation for situational awareness. Only consider it if being able to hear your surroundings is your absolute number one need.

The JBL Soundgear Sense is an open-ear headphone that tries to be a jack-of-all-trades, but the numbers tell a pretty clear story. With an overall score in the 22nd percentile, it's sitting in the bottom quarter of our database. It's built around JBL's OpenSound tech, which uses air conduction to keep your ears open, and the rotatable earhooks are a neat idea for adjusting your awareness. But that open design comes with trade-offs, especially when you look at the performance data.

For a $165 pair of earbuds, the scores are a tough sell. The 'Best for' ratings are particularly low, with calls scoring a 14.3 out of 100 and gaming landing at a dismal 8.2. It's clear this isn't a product built for focused listening or serious communication. The decent social proof score in the 65th percentile suggests people like the idea of it, but the performance metrics paint a different picture.

Let's get into the data. The Soundgear Sense lands in the 47th percentile for sound quality, which is basically average. That 16.2mm driver is big, but the open design means a lot of that potential bass and detail just leaks out into the world. The microphone performance is even weaker, at the 43rd percentile, which lines up perfectly with that terrible 14.3 call quality score. If you take a lot of calls, look elsewhere.

Battery life is a slight bright spot, sitting in the 56th percentile. You'll get a decent runtime, but that's about it. Everything else—ANC (40th), comfort (40th), build (38th), and connectivity (36th)—falls below average. The open design inherently limits noise cancellation, and the connectivity score suggests you might run into more pairing hiccups than you'd expect at this price.

At $165, the value proposition is shaky. You're paying a premium for an open-ear design, but you're getting performance that often ranks in the 30s and 40s for percentiles. For the same money or less, you can get traditional earbuds with vastly better sound isolation, ANC, and call quality. The unique earhook design is the main selling point, but the core audio and communication performance doesn't justify the price tag when you look at the scores.

Stacked against competitors, the Sense struggles. The Nothing Ear (a) offers hybrid ANC and likely better sound for less money. The Anker Soundcore P31i has real-time adaptive noise cancellation, a feature the Sense can't physically match due to its open design. Even JBL's own Tune Flex has active noise cancelling. If you absolutely need an open-ear style for safety, a bone conduction headset might be a more focused and often cheaper alternative. The Sense tries to bridge a gap, but ends up being outclassed in specific areas by more dedicated products.

Skip the Soundgear Sense if you need reliable call quality, immersive sound, or plan to use them for gaming. The data is brutal here: an 8.2/100 gaming score and a 14.3/100 call score are deal-breakers. Also, if you want strong noise cancellation, the 40th percentile ANC score confirms these won't cut it. Basically, avoid these if your priorities are anything other than maximum environmental awareness during workouts.

We can't recommend the JBL Soundgear Sense for most people. The data is too clear: low overall scores, terrible call performance, and average-at-best sound don't add up to a $165 product. The open-ear design and rotating hooks are interesting, but they come at the cost of core functionality. Unless your top priority is situational awareness above all else—including audio quality and reliable calls—your money is better spent elsewhere on a product that excels in the areas that actually matter for headphones.