JBL Tune 225TWS

This handy pair of Earbuds and their transport case, which serves as a charging station, come in six different colourful variants and weigh a total of 60 grams, 50 grams of which are accounted for by the case. One earbud weighs five grams, which makes for a very comfortable fit so that the Tune 225TWS are hardly noticeable even when worn for a long time. Particularly since these earbuds do not sit in the ear canal like classic in-ears, but in the pinna, which means that no pressure is exerted. Due to their design, shielding from the outside world is also rather low, which increases one’s own safety, especially in urban areas, as the environment is not completely blocked out and orientation remains possible. At the same time, the fit offers sufficient stability for everyday use, as the earpieces embed themselves well in the ear and only protrude slightly. In this respect, the housings also fit under a cap, if it is not too tight.

Compared to the previous model, the runtime has increased from two hours and 45 minutes to four and a half hours at a good medium volume, which is a significant improvement and also has an effect on the total runtime. Since these Earbuds can be fully charged four times in the transport case and once with a capacity of three hours of listening time, this increases from the earlier 18 to more than 25 hours. Other new features include a USB-C port and a quick-charge function, which means the earbuds can be used for a good 60 minutes after only fifteen minutes of power. A full charge cycle, on the other hand, takes at least 90 minutes, while the case’s battery reserve is replenished after 100 minutes via the supplied USB-C to USB-A charging cable. If the case is left open during the power supply, you can see the charging status display on three LEDs, which are active when charging the headphones and also show the remaining reserve, which is a nice design touch.

Device control

Pairing the Tune 225TWS, which support Bluetooth standard 5.0 and offer a range of up to nine metres within an urban environment, is done directly on removal from the transport case. This switches the system on and automatically puts it into pairing mode, the Earbuds also enable fast pairing with corresponding Android devices via Fast Pair. To switch off, the Earbuds can be placed back in the charger, but this can also be done manually by holding down the recessed buttons for a long press, and this action also switches the Earbuds on again if required. Once a wireless connection is established, pressing the right button once controls the start/stop function, while pressing it twice activates voice assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant or Bixby. The left headphone is used for track selection with a single press moving forward and a double press moving back. Calls can also be accepted and ended on both sides by pressing once while holding the button down switches the microphone on or off. There is no volume control, which is something of a limitation, but otherwise the remote works perfectly. In addition, a single-mode is supported, so that either the left or right side can be used individually. Here, the right earpiece is the default, so that title navigation is omitted, but there is direct access to voice assistants, playback can be controlled and phone calls can be made. The speech intelligibility on the phone proved to be flawless and excellent.

Sound

It is somewhat misleading that JBL advertises the Tune 225TWS as having a powerful bass response, since the bright, clean sound of these Earbuds, as with the Tune 220TWS, is characterised by present highs. The bass foundation, on the other hand, is by no means full-bodied or accentuated, but rather lean, dry and crisp. The reproduction has a presence primarily in the upper bass range, while hardly any low bass is noticeable. In this respect, bass-heavy productions that are carried by a massive substructure are not necessarily these headphone’s cup of tea. The tuning is geared towards good intelligibility of voices, which are reproduced extremely clearly but do not seem sterile or cold. Instead, they have a slight, warm rounding and are presented in a room-absorbing way, with pop and rock music as well as with films, podcasts or audiobooks. At higher volume levels, however, there is a tendency to exaggerate sibilants, especially as the lively highs can develop a certain bite. The new model has received an upgrade in the audio codec, in addition to Bluetooth standard SBC, the higher-quality AAC format has also been chosen, while aptX is not supported.