JBL Tune 680NC review

Ear-on-ear headphones very rarely deviate from what's expected.

You're after a comfortable fit, quality sound and also the ability to ensure there's noise cancelling, decent call quality and a battery that serves all your needs.

In many ways, the JBL Tune 680NC doesn't deviate from much of what's expected of it - the lightweight frame supports day-long wear, the sound quality is impressive enough for what's needed from headphones like this and the comfort of the ear-on-ear cups is more than enough to ensure you won't really notice that you're wearing them or be left with sweaty ears.

But the thing which sets the JBL Tune 680NC apart is really its incredible battery life. Checking in at 76 hours, this ensures that you won't need to get them charged up for at least 2 weeks if you're using them 8 hours a day. That's an almost unfeasible amount of battery time that such a small headset can offer - and it's such a welcome boost for those who get tired of having to keep charging daily.

(Though that battery life is dependent on the noise cancelling tech being disabled. When enabled, that slips down to a more market-familiar time of 50 hours.)

Charging of the headphones still relies on cables, but a 5 minute blast and boost can add up to 5 hours of extra power, so the minor inconvenience of needing a cable is still there - but the reward for doing so is clearer.

The Adaptive Noise Cancelling works to correct your surroundings, and ambient noise is dragged out by the headphones and the tech within, making the JBL Tune 680NC the kind of gear you can take anywhere and not expect a real change in any kind of performance. That stability and reliability is not something to be sniffed at in the marketplace, it has to be said.

While the output for music may not be to purists' high specifications, the quality is good enough for the casual user and even though the music doesn't pause once the headphones are off, they deliver an impressive specification of spatial sound to ensure quality isn't really a noticeable issue.

Overall, the JBL Tune 680NC are the kind of headphones daily commuters can use - with comfort and quality, as well as that impressive battery life, plus the ability to fold them up and go wherever whenever, these are the kind of mid-priced products that make audio life a pleasure.