JLab Go Pop+ review

The ‘Go’ bit is fairly straightforward, but what does the ‘Pop’ in the JLab Go Pop+ earbuds refer to? The fact that they can ‘pop’ in and out of your ears and, by extension, your backpack, with the minimum of fuss? The ‘pop’ of colour they exhibit when daubed in one of their 14 bright, arresting finishes? ‘Pop’ in the sense of ‘popular music’? A sound that ‘pops’ with personality?

Hopefully, all of the above. The name ‘Pop’ evokes a bright and breezy outlook, something that budget brand JLab has clearly been keen to evoke with its titchy pair of wireless earbuds.

They’re small, they’re colourful and, unless you’re really in serious financial trouble, they’re extremely affordable. Their ultra-affordable billing will no doubt attract many who don't want to spend much at all on some earbuds, but the buds still need to nail the sonic basics to get a recommendation from us.

So, the JLab Go Pop+. Should you pop them in your basket… or pop them in the bin?

Price

The JLab Go Pop+ (or JLab Go Pop Plus) are priced at £25 / $30 / AU$50, making them some of the cheapest wireless earbuds we’ve tested for a good while. At this level, it’s the likes of the Earfun Air which offer the key competition, with these older budget pairs currently clocking in at £25 / $30 / AU$40.

If you’re keen to go up a step but still want budget buds that truly deliver the sonic goods, the five-star Sony WF-C510 are our top pick at around £40 / $50 / AU$80 – with regular deals seeing that price drop even further.

Build & comfort

We fear that if we don’t get this caveat out of the way early, we’ll be saying it every other sentence. These are very cheap wireless earbuds, and so we’d be kidding ourselves if we thought that we were going to be blown away by premium materials and luxurious adornments.

If you’re building a set of buds for £25 / $30 / AU$50, you’re going to have to keep costs down – that’s nobody’s fault, it’s just basic business logic.

While it’s clear that the Go Pop+ do indeed clock in at a super-budget level, they’re completely acceptable for the money you’ll pay.

The plastic case is perfectly fine and seems resistant to scratches, even if its lid is a little close-happy, while the buds themselves are small and lightweight yet solid in their construction.

Something we’ve not seen in other earbuds is a short USB-C charging cable that is permanently attached and nestled into the case’s base. So if you’re juicing up the JLab Go Pop+ battery, bear in mind you’ll need a compatible USB-C plug or socket as opposed to finding a separate cable.

It’s a slightly odd arrangement, but handy for charging the buds straight from a laptop or portable charger, say.

You’re furnished with three ear tip choices – the classic small, medium and large sizes – and we’d warn you that, if you’re used to the quality silicone tips offered by the likes of the Sony WF-C510, you may find these tough to get on with.

JLab’s gel tips are rather thin and flimsy, so you may find there isn’t much of a barrier between your sensitive ear canal and the hard plastic around which those tips are wrapped, making longer listening sessions tough for our test team.

Comfort aside, we find the fit itself to be fine, as long as your ears match up with one of the three sizes offered by JLab. If you do find a size that suits your case, the Go Pop+ are designed well enough so that they fit reasonably snugly within your ears, and rarely did we worry that either bud was about to pop (pun intended) out and be lost to the wider world.

We didn’t have to fret too much about taking our new earbuds out in the rain, either, as an IPX4 rating ensures that the buds will be protected from splashes of water and resistant to sweat during taxing workouts.

Features

Though we didn’t necessarily expect them to at this level, the Go Pop+ offer on-ear touch controls. That’s a big bonus for some wearers, and our experience of the JLab’s touch capabilities is a positive one.

The buds are unfailing in their ability to correctly respond to each command, even if there’s a slight delay between a given tap and our desired result.

JLab has gone big on battery life for the Go Pop+, with the budget earbuds boasting an impressive 9 hours of playtime from the buds and a total of 35 hours when the case is in play. Those are big numbers, besting the 7 hours of in-bud time offered by the rival Earfun Air, although they’ll also provide you with 35 hours of playtime with the charging case.

We’re not at the bottom of the bag yet. The JLab buds feature ‘Dual Connect’, allowing you to use either earbud independently or both together at the same time, as well as Google Fast Pair for more seamless pairing with and discovery of Android devices.

There’s no active noise cancelling to be found here, but a ‘Be Aware’ mode is designed to let more noise in to keep you informed of your environment, something we find works well during testing near a busy road.

Practically every set of wireless earbuds gets an app these days, and it’s no different here. JLab’s own effort is neat and simple, and features basic options. It’s a well laid out interface which grants access to a 10-band equaliser, impressively deep levels of touch control customisation and battery indicators for both buds.

Voice call quality

Call quality through these JLab earbuds is something of a mixed bag. We’re able to understand, and be understood, when making test calls, yet we find that human speech sounds artificial, robotic and not particularly detailed as we chat away about this and that.

The low-cost buds don’t isolate you from the outside world that effectively, either, meaning that the whoosh of cars or even a reasonably light breeze will be picked up on the other end of your calls.

Switching to the speaker of our iPhone 15 reveals gains in authenticity and clarity over the Go Pop+’s performance, so if you’ve got a decent smartphone, we’d recommend simply using that instead, if possible.

Sound

We’ve been pleasantly surprised by super-budget buds in the past – the original EarFun Air are our peppy, likeable case in point – while other low-cost alternatives can be little better than an assault on the ears. As we boot up Tidal on an iPhone 15 and pop (pun intended) the JLab into our ears, we start things off easy and work our way up from there.

That ‘easy’ start comes courtesy of Tom Waits’ Martha, a simple and sincere ballad consisting of Waits crooning away to the accompaniment of a plinky-plonky piano. The rendition we’re treated to on these JLab buds isn’t the most subtle or refined, and there’s certainly a hard, slightly tinny edge to the music.

However, it hangs together reasonably well while retaining some of the core details – Waits’ voice and that slightly out of tune piano – with some skill.

We’ve certainly heard less clear buds at this level. Buds that are so low down the price ladder can end up sounding muffled or compressed, but the JLab are a long way from what we’d call muddy. Our music comes through confidently and clearly, so that George Benson’s breezy Give Me The Night isn’t dragged down in a mire of ill-defined sonic malaise.

Yet as things become more complex, the Go Pop+ begin to reveal their limitations. Grand orchestral numbers and large-scale works are generally too much for the earbuds to handle, leaving Hans Zimmer’s The Battle from the Gladiator soundtrack sounding thin, compressed and lacking in drama. This feels as though it’s where the Go Pop+ draw the line as they begin to show signs of strain.

Spending about £20 / $20 more gives you Sony’s more musically and dynamically enjoyable WF-C510, qualities that are sadly lacking in the Go Pop+. Tunes retain their general aura of cohesion, but if you’re expecting any feeling of punch or weight to your music, not to mention a talent for dynamics or genuine drama, you’ll be left wanting.

The older Earfun Air are better in these areas, and while they’re not as clear as the Go Pop+, they do a finer job of making your music sound genuinely involving and three-dimensional. Those, sadly, aren’t adjectives we’d use to describe the performance of the super-cheap JLab contenders.

Verdict

For the money you’ll spend (or lack thereof), the JLab Go Pop+ offer some value. Getting this many features for such little money is a notable achievement, and for budget-conscious wearers who prioritise what a pair of buds can do rather than how they sound, they could be a decent buy at this level.

That said, if sound is a priority, we’d advise you to look elsewhere. The Go Pop+ are too sonically limited to earn a recommendation, lacking the verve or dynamism to make your music sound, well, musical.

To enjoy such talents, we’d still recommend the older and price-comparable Earfun Air, or that you spend only a little more and seek out the Sony WF-C510 instead.

Review published: 29th July 2025

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 4
• Comfort 4

MORE:

Read our review of the five-star Sony WF-C510

Also consider the Earfun Air

Want ANC on a budget? Read our Sony WF-C710N review

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