JBL Live Beam 4 review: A feature-packed powerhouse with a smart trick up its sleeve

The sub-Rs. 15K market has a lot of options to choose from if you are looking for a pair of TWS earbuds loaded with features. You have choices from brands like Sony, Marshall, Bose, Samsung, and Apple, offering a range of features depending on your needs. Today, I have with me the JBL Live Beam 4. It ticks a lot of the boxes when it comes to standard TWS features while bringing one very interesting addition to the table: a display on the case. So, let’s look at answering two main questions: Is the case display a gimmick or genuinely feature-rich, and how good do these earbuds actually sound?

Table of Contents

What’s in the Box

The unboxing is a pretty standard affair. You get the earbuds, the charging case, four sizes of ear tips (which is a great inclusion), and the standard documentation—Warranty/Warning and QSG/Safety Sheet. It’s nice to see four pairs of ear tips, giving you more flexibility to find the perfect fit. A missing charging cable is a bit of a bummer, but we live in a day and age where you are bound to have a USB-C cable lying around.

Design, Build, and Smart Case Magic

The JBL Live Beam 4 comes in a bunch of different colours: Orange, Black, Sand, Green, Silver, and Blue. JBL sent the Orange one for review, and it looks quite complementary to the orange iPhone 17 Pro Max. The case is well-built and quite compact. It may not be the smallest case out there, but it’s small enough to fit in my pocket without hassle.

I personally prefer a slightly bigger case; its ring box design is ideal for single-handed use. Flipping the lid open and closed has a satisfying weight to it, though the case may feel a bit heavy to some. I prefer the slight heft because I like to feel the case in my pocket rather than scrambling to check if it’s still there. The case also supports wireless charging, and it boasts up to 40 hours of total playtime, which is a huge plus. The earbuds themselves feature an IP55 water and dust resistance rating, making them perfectly safe for workouts.

Moving on, let’s talk about the display on the case. Whether you feel it is gimmicky or not is a personal preference, but there are a bunch of features and controls you can execute directly from the case rather than resorting to your phone, which is a welcome change.

Let’s get the worst thing about the case out of the way first: the display is super bright, even on the lowest brightness setting in a pitch-dark room. I am someone who puts the kids to sleep and slips on my earphones for some podcast time in the dark. The minute I touch this case, it’s like someone lit up the Bat-Signal in the room. It isn’t an issue most will face, but I wish the display could get a lot dimmer. This is a nitpick, of course. On the other end of the spectrum, if I need a flashlight in the middle of the night, I don’t need to reach for my smartphone; the case display works beautifully as one—a nice touch for ageing people like me who don’t want to kick a toy lying on the floor in the dark.

When the display is locked, you have a bunch of wallpaper and clock options to choose from. One of the screens shows you the precise charge level of both the buds and the case, which is super handy. I don’t usually charge my TWS very often, and only when the case and buds are dead do I reach for the charger, so having this info front and centre is incredibly helpful. Slide to unlock the display, and you are greeted with a host of controls. You can manage music playback, volume, Ambient sound controls, the equaliser, spatial audio, case display settings, and more. If you don’t want to resort to your phone for basic controls, and if you, like me, hate the whole “tap and double-tap the earbud stem” routine, this case display is a godsend. I found myself using it more and more, effectively bypassing touch controls entirely.

Overall, this is the first time I am using a pair of TWS with a display on the case, and I find the features on offer to be far more useful than a mere gimmick.

Audio Performance and Customisation

Let’s move to the actual use of the TWS: the audio quality. The JBL Live Beam 4 pack 10 mm dynamic drivers, support Hi-Res Audio Wireless via the LDAC codec, feature Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint connection, and sound really good for a mixed-use case.

While I preferred the “Studio” equaliser from the preset list (which also includes Bass, Club, Extreme Bass, Vocal, and Jazz), I found that leaving the equaliser off entirely gave the best, most neutral-sounding audio. You can, of course, customise the EQ if you prefer.

There is also a “Spatial Sound” feature with three options: Movie, Music, and Game. The Movie mode gives you a more expansive feel when watching content, but this is a setting I mostly kept off. For both movies and music, I preferred the natural channel separation.

A really cool feature is the Private Call mode, where you can remove one earbud, hold it close to your mouth, and use it as a mic. This makes it easier to talk softly while ensuring your voice is heard clearly on the other end—a small but brilliant touch. You also get Sound Settings to adjust the vocal tone of the person on the other end, and Voice Settings to adjust how you sound to them. Again, some may find these gimmicky; I used them for a while and then switched them off.

Media Consumption & Everyday Use

Coming to the core sound performance, these earbuds sound fantastic. Let’s break down the performance across movies, podcasts, and music.

I watch a ton of movies on my phone. I binge-watched the entire season of Lanterns on JioHotstar, and it was a highly enjoyable experience with clean vocals, very good channel separation, and excellent dynamic range. Even in a movie like Top Gun: Maverick, during the dogfight at the end of the film, the channel separation of the planes panning from left to right was very pronounced. I actually preferred this natural tuning over the built-in “Spatial Sound” mode. The same goes for the race at the 11-minute mark in Ready Player One—very clear dialogue amidst all the chaotic action.

Whether you are watching shows like Young Sheldon, The Grand Tour, Mirzapur, or Slow Horses, dialogue clarity mixed with background scores and good separation is crucial, and that works exceptionally well here. The same applies to podcasts: clear vocals, great clarity, and excellent stereo separation.

When it comes to music, the earbuds impress once again. I listened to a lot of Alan Walker, Teddy Swims, Coke Studio, classical music, and more. The tuning naturally leans slightly on the bassier side, but it never gets muddy or uncomfortable. The “Studio” EQ mode helps flatten this out, but I still found switching the EQ off completely sounded best for my liking. This is subjective, of course, and you may prefer tweaking the settings.

I am someone who doesn’t prefer ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) on TWS, and I generally keep it off during long content consumption sessions. I found myself using the earbuds mostly with ANC off, but even when turned on, it wasn’t the absolute best at drowning out the noises around me.

There is also a setting called Personi-Fi, which plays a series of individual tones in each ear and asks you to confirm when you can no longer hear a particular tone. The process takes a good five minutes and gives you a detailed report of your specific hearing capabilities, customising the audio output to suit your exact ears. Considering how subjective audio is, this is an incredible touch to ensure the audio sounds the best it possibly can for you.

Verdict

Overall, “feature-packed with great sound output” is the best way to describe the JBL Live Beam 4. They are comfortable to wear for long hours, deliver very good sound with deep customisation options, and offer stellar battery life. The case display, which I initially dismissed as a gimmick, turns out to be genuinely useful. The only downside is that the ANC isn’t as strong as some of its direct competitors. If you are in the market for a pair of TWS under Rs. 15K, you should absolutely consider the JBL Live Beam 4. The fact that it is available in a few funky colours is definitely the cherry on top.

Editor’s Rating: 8.8 / 10

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