RW verdict: At just shy of £90, the JBL Endurance Peak 3 are an affordable pair of workout-specific buds for runners on a more limited budget. While they're not the lightest or most slimline design, and you're sacrificing premium features like active noise cancellation, they combine an extremely secure, sweatproof design with decent sound quality and a battery life that will easily see you through a month of training.
Pros
- Very secure fit
- Sweatproof
- Fantastic battery life
Cons
- Chunky design
- No active noise cancellation
- Bass can be a bit extreme
| Weight | 17g per earpiece (+76g charging case) |
|---|---|
| Battery life | 10 hours per bud (50 hours total with charging case) |
| IP rating | IP68 |
| Noise cancelling | No |
| Accessories included | Charging case, charging cable |
Finding a decent pair of running headphones that don't set you back in excess of £150 is harder than you'd think. So can the JBL Endurance Peak 3, which launched in February 2023, hit the sweet spot in terms of price, performance and durability? I put them to the test to find out.
Design and fit
The Endurance Peak 3 are made with athletes in mind, with a similar – albeit cheaper-looking – design to the Powerbeats Pro 2: a thick stem that attaches to an in-ear bud on one side, and a bendy ear hook on the other. JBL call this its ‘Powerhook’ design and it’s really where these earbuds shine: the hook bends around the ear impressively well, delivering one of the most secure fits I’ve experienced from any pair of headphones. Whether you're bounding over mountain trails or powering through a sweaty gym session, it's virtually impossible to knock these guys loose. The buds also come with two additional sizes of eartips (small and large), so you can customise your fit.
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The downside is that the Endurance Peak 3 are far from lightweight. In fact, at around 17g per bud, everything about them is chunky — including the charging case, which is about two and a half times the size of the Soundcore Aerofit’s and definitely not running belt friendly. I'd also note that while one-hour runs are fine in these earbuds, they do start to get a bit irritating over anything longer. If you're marathon training, it might be worth forking out for something more premium for comfort alone.
In terms of controls, the Endurance Peak 3 use gesture controls on both the left and the right buds for playback control and ambient sound/call control (in the JBL Audio app, you can customise the left and right bud controls). I maintain that I prefer a physical control button on workout-specific buds, particularly when I’m pushing the pace or wearing a pair of gloves in the colder months. That said, the gesture controls on the Endurance Peak 3 are some of the most intuitive I’ve tested. They require minimal pressure to activate, although there is a slight lag when pausing or playing music with a single tap.
Pairing is simple, too: just place the buds in the charging case, take them out, pop them in your ears and they’ll enter pairing mode automatically. From there, just select them in your Bluetooth settings.
The headphones come in a choice of four colours: black, white, burnt orange and navy.
Sound quality
When it comes to sound quality, the Endurance Peak 3 deliver decent performance for the price — but they’re not in the same league as more premium options like the Powerbeats Pro 2 or the Beats Fit Pro. The audio has a fairly warm profile, with some punchy bass, but I found it could occasionally feel overpowering, particularly on more layered tracks where it risked muddying the mids and vocals. When you're running or working out, this isn't so much of a problem, but true audiophiles might struggle when it comes to the day-t0-day listening experience. Here, the sound profile feels a bit on the thin side.
There are a few ways to tweak the sound to better suit your preferences, however. Within the JBL Audio app, you can toggle between three pre-set equalisers (Jazz, Vocal or Bass) or customise your own. You can also toggle between Smart Audio and Smart Video mode, depending on whether you’re listening to music or watching Netflix or YouTube, and even balance the audio output between the left and right earbuds for a more personalised setup. For a set of buds under £100, the customisation features are pretty impressive.
There's no active noise cancellation on the Endurance Peak 3, but a tight seal with the included ear tips does help to drown out most external noise. As for ambient sound features, Ambient Aware allows just enough of your surroundings to filter in so you stay aware when running outdoors — handy when navigating traffic or busy pavements. It’s not perfect, though: you still need to be conservative about your listening volume to avoid completely masking environmental sounds. For quick conversations or announcements, TalkThru mode is more effective, lowering your audio more dramatically so you can speak to someone without taking the buds out or pausing play.
Features
With an IP68 rating, the Endurance Peak 3 can last for 30 minutes in depths up to 1.5 metres of water, making these a durable option. However, the charging case isn't IP rated, which does limit their use somewhat for more extreme adventures.
Battery life
On paper, the JBL Endurance Peak 3 claims to last for 10 hours, with an additional 40 hours back-up from the charging case. In practice, I found they came up just short of this, with around eight hours per bud. However, with the charging case, you can easily get up to a month's usage with these, if we're talking workouts alone that is. If you're also using them around the office or on the commute, they'll stretch to a couple of weeks.
The rapid charge feature is a welcome bonus, with just 10 minutes on the plug providing up to an hour of playtime. In fact, if you're clever, you can get by on the quick-charge feature alone. If you take the buds out of your ears, they also power off automatically, further conserving battery life.
RW verdict
If you don't want to shell out £150+ on a pair of running headphones, the JBL Endurance Peak 3 are worth a look. While you're sacrificing the rich and balanced sound profile of more premium buds, and the chunky size can be a little cumbersome, they do provide a really solid fit, a great battery life that will see you through multiple weeks of training, and a surprisingly customisable audio experience for under £100.
The lack of active noise cancellation might be a dealbreaker for some, but for runners who prioritise a secure, sweatproof fit and don’t mind a slightly bass-heavy sound, these tick a lot of the right boxes. They’re not perfect, but as far as budget workout buds go, they get a lot of the basics right.
Alternatives
If you like the secure, in-ear, ear-hook design of the Endurance Peak 3 and have more to spend, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are some of the best running headphones money can buy. Not only do they deliver some of the richest and punchiest sound on the market, they come with active noise cancellation, up to 45 hours of battery life and heart rate monitoring. Or there's the Beats Fit Pro which use flexible, secure-fit wing tips to ensure they stay put, no matter how gruelling your workout.
On the other end of the spectrum, there's the JLab Go Air for just £29.99 — ideal if you're prone to losing your buds and want a cheap and cheerful option. Like the Endurance Peak 3, they have a stay-put ear hook design. The buds and case deliver 35 hours of runtime and there’s top-tier functionality here, including customisable sound and safety-boosting, race-friendly awareness mode.
