JLab Jbuds Frames review: A stepping stone to smart glasses
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Smart glasses come in many shapes and sizes, from the inconspicuous Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses to the bulkier display-housing frames of AR glasses like the VITURE Pro XR. However, there is something that a lot of smart glasses have in common: a fairly substantial price tag.
If only there were a way of enjoying some of that smart glasses functionality without needing to fork over hundreds of dollars. Thankfully, now there is a way. The JLab JBuds Frames are a clip-on pair of Bluetooth speakers that can attach to any regular specs to deliver an open-ear wireless audio experience for listening to music, taking calls, or communicating with an AI assistant.
They simulate some of the experience of owning a pair of smart glasses, typically outfitted with a similar open-ear audio solution, but at a fraction of the cost. Better still, you get to keep your old glasses in the process. However, can these budget alternatives stand up to the real deal? Let’s find out.
JLab Jbuds Frames: Price and availability
The JLab JBuds Frames are available for $49.99 at Amazon, Target, and Walmart, though routinely subject to discounts that see the Bluetooth speakers fall to around $10.
Included with your purchase is a small USB Type-A charging cable, a JLab branded travel pouch, and four silicone secure-fit sleeves for the arms of the speakers to better attach to the temples of your glasses.
JLab’s JBuds Frames aren’t smart glasses, but they will outfit your regular glasses with the audio smart glasses-like capability of products like the $39 Razer Anzu Smart Glasses or more premium $299 Bose Frames Tenor.
However, unlike both of these options, JLab’s Frames can clip onto any glasses you choose, allowing you the freedom of switching from glasses to sunglasses and retaining the same hands-free, open-ear audio experience, without investing in a secondary pair of frames — not to mention the additional costs of any prescription lenses you might need to fit.
JLab Jbuds Frames: Design
The Frames look fairly sleek by themselves, mixing black matte and shiny plastic in a way that doesn’t come across as cheap or tacky. Each of the Frames’ two halves features a raised matte point surrounded by a winding bevel. A small detail that gives the otherwise boxy body some character.
The flat matte surface of this point delineates the outer-facing wing of the device (with its opposite wing housing two plastic arms to hook over the temples of the frames of your glasses), which features a raised JLab logo. At the top of each speaker, more JLab branding joins a single tactile multi-function button and a small LED indicator.
At the base of each device, a pinhole microphone is adjacent to the magnetic pins used to snap the included charger into place, then a downward-firing speaker before curling up to the rear of the device — the rounded corner of which houses another open-ear speaker designed to send audio directly towards the ear of the wearer.
It’s a simple design, but effectively emulates other open-ear audio layouts and doesn’t feel shoddily made or flimsy by any metric. Perhaps my main gripe about the design of the Frames is with each speaker’s affixed plastic hooks, which don’t offer much space for thicker frames.
While there’s a fair amount of flex to be found in them, stretching them over the temples of thicker plastic sunglasses will leave you feeling like you’re pushing each one its limits — especially if you’re also using the silicone sleeves for their much-needed grip.
Placing the Frames onto a pair of glasses means attaching considerable bulk to their overall look. However, with each speaker weighing just 13 grams, it doesn’t translate into any noticeable shift in comfort.
JLab Jbuds Frames: Setup
Setting up the JLab JBuds Frames is relatively straightforward. All that’s required is to hold down the button on each device for a few seconds and they’ll quickly enter pairing mode. From here you can use your phone, laptop, tablet, or any other device outfitted with Bluetooth to connect to the speakers.
After you’re connected, place each speaker onto the temples of your glasses, put them on, and readjust accordingly. You’ll want them as close to your ears as possible to maintain clarity and volume while avoiding excessive audio bleed.
Interestingly, you can use each speaker individually, which, while underwhelming when it comes to enjoying music, could effectively double JLab’s claimed eight hours of lifetime (but more on those claims later).
JLab Jbuds Frames: Audio
Sadly, audio quality is where the Frames’ budget pricing comes out in full force.
The sound quality offered by an open-ear design like that of the Frames would never compete with some of the best headphones money can buy. An open-ear design like this is great for maintaining situational awareness, allowing you to listen to media without shutting out the wider world. This means they’re ideal if you want to work out, go for a jog, or go for a stroll without worrying about not hearing that ten-ton truck come rearing down the street.
However, there’s some audio bleed at higher volumes to contend with, which you might want to consider while wearing them in quieter public spots if you don’t want to commit any social faux pas when it comes to blaring your favorite tracks in the library. Sticking to the hustle and bustle of city streets will leave you very little to worry about though, especially if you drop the volume by a level or two.
While the 16mm drivers could be louder, their peak volume is the least of the Frames’ concerns. The result was thin and flat no matter what I let seep out from these speakers. Even enabling the Bass Boost (by triple-clicking the right-hand side speaker’s button) didn’t revive the kick of some of my most loved tracks.
Even listening to Kickstart My Heart by Motley Crüe, a song that goes so hard it makes me want to don lycra, frost my hair, and start an underground pro wrestling league in the basement of the local jazzercise hall, I was left wanting by the overall failure to elevate in any one particular area of sound.
Perhaps it was most exemplified when I listened to Mr. Brightside by The Killers. Typically, that low-fi audio introduction builds into a swell of full richness and flavourful snare shots by the time the first verse is over. However, listening to the track through the Frames just maintains that low-fi vibe indefinitely, never dragging itself out from the muddy middle ground it finds itself in.
It’s far from the worst audio experience I’ve had. But it’s also far from the best. Interestingly, call quality is fairly decent, though once again I’d be happy with a little more in terms of volume. The speakers do a decent job at handling voices, and it’ll come as no shock that I found them to be excellent when it comes to enjoying audiobooks or listening to YouTube videos in the background while I did other things.
JLab Jbuds Frames: Performance
Sure, they might not be the audio bargain I hoped for, but JLab’s Frames are still handy.
The number of shortcuts available by pressing either the left or right device’s switches is impressive, with single clicks handling volume and a double click on the right-hand speaker stopping and starting tracks.
There’s some impressive functionality to be found by double-trapping the left-hand button, however, as this will open up your device’s smart assistant. This allowed me quick, hands-free access to powerful AI assistants like Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini, which is more than handy when you’re busying about and need a quick answer or solution without pausing to Google. That slice of its capabilities alone will be worth plenty to some.
Several other inputs control skipping through tracks, individually powering off each speaker, and even handling incoming calls. All of these are well-registered and are plenty forgiving for speed. I never once misfired an input while wearing them.
While the audio experience is middling, it’s more than serviceable, though it pales compared to some of the rich soundscapes offered by more premium open-ear smart glasses like the XREAL Air 2.
JLab claims that its Bluetooth speakers can last up to eight hours on a single charge, though with the audio routinely cranked up to its maximum, I managed six at best. Still, that’s nothing I’ll sneer too heavily over; that’s enough to get me through spells of having an available USB Type-A port nearby to top things up again.
Bottom line
Budget buys will often cost you in ways their pricetag won’t. The JLab JBuds Frames cost you audio quality mostly, but they do provide plenty beyond the realms of Spotify playlists to counter that.
At their full price, the Frames might be hard to recommend. However, given how often I’ve seen them go on sale (and the size of that discount), I’d happily recommend them to anyone interested in sampling how some of the more premium smart glasses can sound or feel to use.
Just bear in mind, that the open-ear audio of all smart glasses is not created equal, and here are much better experiences to be found further up the chain.
