JLab already sells a budget-friendly pair of noise canceling wireless earbuds with its $59.99 ANC 3, but at $29.99, the company’s new Go Pop ANC are half the price while still offering features like an ambient sound boosting mode and up to 21 hours of battery life with ANC active.
Although we haven’t tested them, at $29.99, we’re not necessarily expecting the JLab Go Pop ANC’s active noise-canceling performance will rival the capabilities of industry-leading offerings from companies like Sony. The Go Pop ANC rely on just two microphones in a feed-forward system that detects and cancels external sounds. More advanced and more expensive ANC systems use a hybrid approach with additional mics inside the ear that can detect and remove a wider range of frequencies.
JLab says the Go Pop ANC’s battery life can be up to seven hours with the buds alone or up to 24 hours with their charging case while ANC is off. Once you start blocking out the noisy world, battery life drops to six hours for the buds or up to 21 hours with the case. If they die unexpectedly, a 10-minute charge provides an additional hour of playback, while the charging case includes an integrated USB-C cable, so you’ll never have to scramble to find one.
The 10-millimeter drivers in the Go Pop ANC are much larger than what JLab uses in similarly cheap earbuds like its $25 Go Air Pop. Like the pricier JLab ANC 3, the Go Pop ANC buds have touch controls for turning on ANC or ambient sound boosting and for controlling playback without reaching for your phone. But if you want to switch between EQ presets or modify how the earbuds’ touch controls work, you’ll need to grab your mobile devices and use JLab’s accompanying app.
Other features include IP55 waterproofing so you can use them in the rain or during a good sweat, support for Bluetooth 5.3, multi-device connectivity, and Google Fast Pair. Bluetooth codec support is limited to just SBC, which offers the lowest bit rate and sound quality. That could relegate the Go Pop ANC to being the backup earbuds you keep buried in your backpack instead of your daily drivers.
