JBL Live Beam 4 Review

The JBL Live Beam 4 are premium true wireless earbuds priced at around £150, and their headline trick is unusual: a full touchscreen built into the charging case, letting you change track, adjust volume, toggle noise cancelling and pick an equaliser preset without reaching for your phone. Alongside that gimmick sit a rugged IP55 build, an energetic signature sound and strong battery life. Independent laboratory testing found a well-made, engaging pair of earbuds with one clear weakness and one feature that promises more than it delivers.

Build quality is a genuine strength. The test found the earbuds and case free of any assembly flaws, with a lid hinge that shows no play and materials that inspire confidence — a clear step above cheaper rivals. The stick-style earbuds stayed stable throughout testing, whether on the move or during light exercise, and an IP55 rating means they shrug off dust, sweat and rain. Four sizes of silicone tip are supplied. The one drawback is the case: at 73 grams and three centimetres thick it is notably heavy and bulky, a direct consequence of the screen on its lid. Each earbud weighs 9.7 grams, heavier than the featherweight competition.

The screen is the marquee feature, and on paper it is appealing — control everything from the case without touching your phone. In practice, the test found its appeal fades fast. Almost every function it offers — track skipping, volume, switching noise cancelling on and off — is already covered by the touch controls on the earbuds themselves. Only the equaliser-preset selection is unique to the screen, and that is rarely something you change several times a day; the app would have handled it just as well. The verdict was blunt: the screen reads more as a marketing hook than a real ergonomic advance, and it makes the case heavier and thicker for little gain.

The Live Beam 4 carry JBL's familiar V-shaped signature, pushing bass and treble forward for a sound the test described as immediately engaging, mainstream and lively — well suited to everyday listening. More surprising for earbuds this size is the spatialisation: even without Dolby Atmos support, the separation between channels is clean and instruments are convincingly placed. The limitations are honest ones. The upper mid-range lacks bite and precision, and overall dynamics are limited — a shortfall the test found most obvious with classical music, where the shifts between quiet and powerful passages struggle to come through. For less demanding genres it is a non-issue, but exacting listeners will want more. The optional Spatial Sound mode was judged too artificial to be worthwhile.

Here is the main weakness. JBL promises adaptive noise cancelling with real-time calibration, but the test placed the result behind the best (and pricier) rivals: it lets through a good deal of high-frequency noise, so nearby chatter and small engines still intrude. Transparency mode fares no better, rendering voices unnaturally. The bright spot is Smart Talk, which pauses your music and switches to transparency the moment you start speaking, then resumes after an adjustable delay of 5, 15 or 20 seconds — the test rated its speech detection excellent. Call quality from the six-microphone array is average for the class: clear in quiet spaces, more troubled in noisy ones. The JBL Headphones app, by contrast, is among the most complete on the market — fine ANC control, a ten-band equaliser and remappable touch controls — to the point of feeling overloaded. Connectivity moves up to Bluetooth 6.0 with multipoint pairing.

Endurance is a clear plus. The test measured 10 hours and 27 minutes of continuous playback with noise cancelling active, matching JBL's claim, with up to 12 hours possible with ANC off and around 48 hours total when the case is counted. A five-minute charge returns roughly an hour of listening, and wireless charging sits alongside the USB-C port.

The JBL Live Beam 4 sit in the mid-range of our best wireless earbuds guide. Within JBL's own Live line they slot above the JBL Live Flex 3 and the older JBL Live Pro 2, trading a little value for the novelty screen and a newer sound. Anyone whose priority is class-leading noise cancelling should look at the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, while the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro and Nothing Ear (3) are strong feature-rich alternatives at similar money. Those who prefer over-ear cans should read our JBL Tour One M3 review. Check the price on Amazon

The JBL Live Beam 4 are a well-built, enjoyable pair of everyday earbuds: the energetic signature sound, unusually good spatialisation, exhaustive app and strong battery life all land, and the IP55 rating and flawless finish add real durability. The catch is that the two headline talking points underwhelm — the case touchscreen mostly duplicates controls you already have, and the noise cancelling trails the leaders. Judged as a sub-£150 pair rather than a flagship, though, they are a likeable, capable choice that gets the fundamentals right.

This review is based on independent laboratory testing rather than our own hands-on trial.