JBL Tune 220TWS

Since these headphones are worn in the pinna and not inside your ear canal like many other in-ear systems, your ear canal is relieved of pressure; this means that you don’t feel any pressure even during prolonged use. At a particularly low weight of five grams per side, the Tune 220TWS are hardly noticeable when worn, making them a good option for pressure-sensitive people. However their fit offers sufficient stability for everyday use, and they can even be worn during light sporting activities or a short sprint without the headphones falling out. A further advantage is that the outside environment can still be perceived, as this system’s insulation properties are significantly less than those of classic in-ears.

Our battery test gave differing results, as the run time increased after several charging cycles. On average, two hours and 45 minutes could be achieved at a good average volume before a power supply was needed. A very compact, handy transport case, which weighs 45 grams and has a (trouser) pocket-friendly format, serves as the charging station. In total, these EarBuds can be fully charged five times and when roughly half-charged, they give a total running time of 18 hours. The charging process takes about 90 minutes, and the same applies to the case, for which a corresponding USB charging cable is included in the package.

Device control

The Tune 220TWS is paired directly upon removal from the transport case, when the system is automatically switched on and put into pairing mode; returning to the charging case causes the system to automatically switch off. The right bud, which acts as the master, can be also be used in single mode, and manual switching on and off is enabled by a long press on the button. If a wireless connection exists, the button on the right is also used to control playback as well as to answer and end telephone calls. Voice assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant or Bixby can be called by double-clicking the same button. On the left side, track selection is enabled by pressing once to jump forward and twice to jump back. These controls react reliably and without delay. However, volume control has been omitted, and this must be done either on your device or via a voice assistant. We did not encounter any connection problems with various Android and iOS devices, and the range proved to be high, over ten metres, however, some isolated Bluetooth dropouts did occur. Another positive feature was the extremely good speech intelligibility on both sides during phone calls.

Sound

There was a high clarity to the sound image of these headphones, it was bright and was characterized by present but unobtrusive highs. Only at high levels was there a tendency to exaggerate sibilants, but no unpleasant harshness was perceptible. The reproduction of vocals and voices was pleasing and lively; the quality of spoken content fell into a similar realm to that which you would expect from in-ears. From my point of view, the only limitations were found when listening to bass-oriented productions with depth, because the bass foundation sounds well defined, but doesn’t go very deep. The powerful bass sound is not quite as good as advertised, in the sense that the presence is in the upper bass range, which made the bass sound slim and dry rather than powerful and full-bodied. Although I wouldn’t recommend these headphones for hip-hop or club music, they are good for all-round everyday use. While these headphones don’t support high-quality audio codecs like aptX or the AAC format, they do use standard Bluetooth SBC.