The f-Five True Wireless are the latest wireless earbuds from Swedish audio brand JAYS. They feature a truly wireless design and come in at an affordable $79 price tag while claiming to offer much of the same quality and performance as more expensive products.
Design
f-Five have a typical in-ear truly wireless design, where the two earbuds come inside a compact carry case that also doubles up as a charger.
The case has a vertical design and is relatively small and lightweight. It is made out of hard matte plastic that doesn't feel particularly high quality but is acceptable for the price.
The front of the case has LEDs to indicate charge status for the battery inside the case. The USB-C charging port is placed on the back instead of the bottom so the charging cable sticks out at an odd angle when plugged in.
The magnetically held lid covers the two earbuds, which are fairly easy to take out. The earbuds also have a matte texture but feel much more premium than the case. The uniform unibody appearance is also quite nice with few distractions placed on the outside other than the large JAYS logo.
The back of the earbuds have capacitive touch controls built-in. Due to the large area of the touch surface, I found it was fairly easy to tap the touch controls unintentionally when putting in or taking the earphones from your ears or the case.
The f-Five don't have wear detection, so the music does not automatically pause when you take them out of your ears. While not a common feature in this price range, it's also not particularly uncommon.
While the overall build quality, fit and finish of the earbuds is quite nice, the f-Five do not have any dust or water resistance.
Comfort
Despite the in-ear style design, the JAYS f-Five don't actually sit too far inside your ears. The silicone ear tips go just deep enough to create a seal but that's about it. At first it feels like they may fall out but that doesn't really happen.
In terms of comfort, the f-Five are quite good. Because they intrude so little within your ears, it's easy to forget after a while that you are even wearing them.
Software
The JAYS f-Five don't have any companion app. This means you can't update the firmware and or customize the touch controls. Any audio quality adjustment will also have to be done from the connected device.
Performance
Audio quality
The JAYS f-Five have a single 6mm dynamic driver on each side. They pair to your device over Bluetooth 5.0 using SBC.
The f-Five have very good audio quality for the price. They have a fairly clean, mostly neutral sound that works across a variety of genres and content.
The f-Five have a fairly good bass response. It lacks some of the low-end thump and rumble but is still tight and punchy. On the other end, the treble response is also impressive, with good detail and resolution but without any sibilance or harshness.
The mid-range is decent but the weaker aspects of the sound. There is a dip in the mid region, which causes some vocals to sound hollow and lackluster. The same can also happen to any instrument that falls in this frequency range. Not all vocals and instruments fall in this region, so on many tracks it was difficult to notice this deficiency but on others it was hard to ignore.
The f-Five also have good imaging and soundstaging. The sound is relatively spacious despite being in-ear and doesn't sound as boxed-in as some of the wired earphones in this price range. This is one of the advantages of wireless audio as the DSP can just compensate for the limitations of the drivers or the form factor.
Overall, the sound quality of the JAYS f-Five is quite pleasing, especially for a set in this price range.
Microphone
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do my usual microphone test on the f-Five. I did make a few calls and no one had any issue with the audio quality but beyond that I don't have more to report on the subject.
Noise-cancellation
The JAYS f-Five are not active noise-canceling earphones. The in-ear design provides some isolation from ambient noise, which is generally adequate but you're not getting the same level of isolation as an active set.
Latency
Unfortunately, latency is a major issue with the f-Five. In my testing, videos were unwatchable due to the delay in the audio. This was tested over multiple applications, devices, and platforms but the end result was the same. I haven't come across this poor latency in a Bluetooth audio product in some time. Gaming is basically out of the question with these.
Connectivity
The JAYS f-Five had reliable connectivity in my testing. However, on a couple of occasions, one of the earbuds just switched itself off for seemingly no reason, and then had to be manually switched back on. This is not a connectivity issue, per se, but something to note.
Battery Life
The JAYS f-Five product page makes confusing claims regarding the battery life of the product. At one point, it claims the earphones last for 4 continuous hours and the case provides three additional charges for a total of 16 hours. And then on the same page you also see another figure stating 4.5 hours of continuous usage for a total of 18 hours with the case.
In my testing, I got between 4.5 to 5.5 hours of battery life. The results were inconsistent between multiple runs so it's difficult to nail down the final figure. Overall, though, it does match and occasionally exceed the claimed figures and is quite decent overall for a product in its class.
Conclusion
For $79, the JAYS f-Five True Wireless are good value for money. They are comfortable, have decent battery life and have good audio quality.
Unfortunately, the high latency makes them unusable for watching videos or playing games and there were occasional hiccups in reliability during my usage. They are also light on features, so you won't get things like wear detection and water-resistance that some other earbuds in this price range may offer.
If none of those downsides bother you then the f-Five True Wireless are worth considering.
