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Updated April 10, 2024·
If you're on a budget and primarily need earbuds for music and travel, the Creative Labs Zen Air would be suitable; they're more affordable, have active noise cancelling, and a decent battery life with portable charging. They are stem-style earbuds that are sweatproof and offer app equalizer customization for sound adjustments. On the other hand, if you prefer over-ear headphones with better overall sound quality, comfort for longer listening sessions, and a longer battery life, consider the JBL Tune 760NC. They also have active noise cancelling and are foldable, which makes them reasonably portable, but they might be less convenient during exercise given their size and form. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Creative Labs Zen Air
The Creative Labs Zen Air has no clear advantages over the JBL Tune 760NC.
Advantages of the JBL Tune 760NC
Excellent for air travel
Key differences
Music
6.8/10
6.3/10
The Creative Labs Zen Air and JBL Tune 760NC are both only fair for music, though the Creative Labs Zen Air is somewhat better.
Podcasts and Audiobooks
5.4/10
5.9/10
The JBL Tune 760NC and Creative Labs Zen Air are both poor for podcasts and audiobooks, though the JBL Tune 760NC is somewhat better.
Battery
5.0 Hours
40.9 Hours
The Creative Labs Zen Air has 5 hours of battery life. The JBL Tune 760NC has 40.9 hours of battery life.
Cost
$30
$70
$0
$20
$40
$60
$80
$100
The Creative Labs Zen Air has a price of $30 and the JBL Tune 760NC costs $70.
Build Quality
9.0/10
8.0/10
The Creative Labs Zen Air has excellent build quality, while the JBL Tune 760NC has very good build quality.
"The Creative Zen Air’s weak points are its low battery life and rather short Bluetooth range. On the other hand, the strengths of these weatherproof True Wireless in-Ears are the sound and the wide attenuation of the Active Noise Cancellation. Considering the price range, the speech intelligibility during calls is also exceptionally good."
"The JBL 760NC offers quite a solid and moderately-above-average sonic performance for wireless headphones in this price tier. As usual, JBL outperforms more conventional big names like Apple or Beats. Listeners are given a clean, detailed, and mostly neutral sound that, typical to Harman, holds a universal appeal that seems unlikely to offend."
Get a great deal on the Creative Labs Zen Air or the JBL Tune 760NC
About Creative Labs
Creative Labs is a Singaporean technology company specialized in the manufacture of multimedia products. They created the world-famous Soundblaster soundcard back in 1989 which was a staple of the gaming community for a long time. Nowadays, besides still marketing their discrete audio systems, they offer a wide array of headphones, gaming headsets and speakers that still preserve that same heritage.
About JBL
JBL is an American audio equipment manufacturer. Owned by Harman International which is, itself, owned by Samsung Electronics. JBL markets a wide array of monitoring speakers, professional headphones and consumer market headphones and earbuds. It was founded in 1946 by James Bullough Lansing (whose initials give the company its name) and has become one of the most prolific audio companies ever. Their products were responsible for audio during the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
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This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec earbuds & headphones team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest earbuds or headphones information and makes it digestible for you.
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