A review of the $250 JBL Tour Pro 2 wireless earbuds, whose case has a touchscreen for accessing earbud settings, along with extras like timers and a flashlight
and yes, the big draw is that touchscreen case. Is this the future? Will AirPods look like this someday? How long until you can just sync music onto your earbuds? Read more: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Eric Renner Brown / @ericrennerbrown : Wow exactly what I want in earbuds https://twitter.com/... Luke Wroblewski / @lukew : touch surface all the things (continued): https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
JBL first showed the Tour Pro 2 back in September 2022, promising customizable ANC and a charging case with a 1.45-inch touchscreen at €249 outside the US — an unusual bet when every rival was chasing Apple's minimalist case-and-stem formula. The Verge's verdict is in, and the reviewer treats the screen itself as the headline feature: settings control plus extras like timers and a flashlight, no phone required.
The $250 price point puts it directly against the last big premium earbud launch covered here, Beats' Powerbeats Pro, which leaned on Apple's H1 chip and physical controls instead of adding hardware surfaces. The open question the review leaves hanging — will AirPods ever look like this — is exactly what the rest of the market has since answered.
First-order effects
- Tour Pro 2 owners get a self-contained control surface on the case for ANC and earbud settings, removing the companion app from the basic adjustment loop that every other earbud in this price class still requires.
Second-order effects
- Samsung's answer came a year later: the Galaxy Buds3 Pro at the same $250 doubled down on an AirPods-like stemmed design and case rather than a smart case, suggesting the touchscreen-case experiment did not reset the category's design template.
Third-order effects
- If any vendor makes the case more than a charger — storage, playback, or standalone smarts — the case becomes a second device competing for internal space and battery budget, forcing earbud makers to choose between Apple-style minimalism and accessory-as-computer.
The trend: Premium earbuds are converging on Apple's case-and-stem design language while experiments like JBL's touchscreen case test whether the charging case can become the next control surface.