Jabra’s Elite series of true wireless earbuds can be… a LOT. So let’s go through every true wireless earbud from Jabra – with pros and cons – and see if we can make a choice!
So let’s set the stage a little bit – there have been roughly 3 generations of Jabra’s wireless earbuds.
Generation 1
Generation 1 has two earbuds. The Elite 65T and the Elite Active 65T. These two models are somewhat old now, but still widely available. Let’s start with why you may not want to buy them. Four reasons – they come with a primary / secondary architecture, which means the right earbud does all the hard work of connecting to your phone and the left one just borrows the connection from the right earbud. So what does this mean? You can’t use just the left earbud on its own. The second reason is that they have an older micro USB charging port, which was fine for its day, but today we’re all about that USB C life. The third reason is that they have the worst battery life of all generations with just 5 hours on the earbuds. All the future generation buds have at least 7 hours on the earbuds. And the build really shows its age – no magnets to hold the buds, no magnet to snap the lid in place… basically no magnets basically unlike pretty much all modern buds.
But – here’s the thing, even today – compared to all the other buds out there – these buds sound fantastic! These OGs are still one of the best sounding wireless earbuds in the entire Jabra lineup – and pretty much anywhere! Very balanced and not veiled as some of the gen 2 buds – something we’ll touch upon in a minute. And these can also connect to 2 devices at once, which even many newer earbuds can’t! As with most Jabra products, they are pretty well protected against dust and water with an IP55 rating on the regular 65T and a slightly better IP56 rating on the Active variant. This regular / active theme will keep coming back in the newer generations as well. None of these earbuds have noise cancelling though, just a hearthrough feature. These are a pretty good buy still if sound is important to you because being the oldest, they’re also the cheapest to get – check out the prices in the description down below or the link at the end of this video to see which of these buds is the cheapest.
Generation 2
Then we have Gen 2 – the Elite 75T and the 85T. Rohan has used the 85T as long as any other set of earbuds. And I have similar feelings about the 75T – the active variant we have here. The 85T fits Rohan’s ears very well with its oval shaped eargels, but that’s not for everyone. The 85 T is also the first time Jabra released wireless earbuds without any dust protection – a mere IPX4. There’s also no active variant on the 85T. This might be due to the semi-open design which relieves some pressure on your ears. This should have made talking with buds in the ear very comfortable, since you don’t hear the resonance of your own voice through the skull – known as the occlusion effect. But weirdly – after an update, it felt like that stopped working! Very strange. And we’ve called the 75T Active the best value for money out of all true wireless earbuds for a reason – outstanding price, solid water and dust resistance – IP57 and a great fit. Both of these still have the ability to stay connected to two devices at once. And they’re the first generation with wireless charging. Do note though that not all 75T models have wireless charging, so be sure to check on that before buying.
These take a different approach to sound. The 85T is a bit dark and tends to focus on the bass which can make them sound a bit veiled, but using the in-app EQ really helps bring out the best in them. The Elite Active 75T on the other hand is bass in your face like it’s a race to space. Loud and bassy – it may not be audiophile, but is great for workouts, commutes and situations where critical listening isn’t what you’re after.
Generation 3
The 3rd generation of the Jabra family is a bit more confusing, especially since they now have a new naming convention. There’s an India-only Elite 2, then the next cheapest – Elite 3, an Elite 4 Active – no ‘regular’ Elite 4 – and the higher end Elite 7 Active and the top of the line – the Elite 7 Pro.
The differences between the models are a bit bigger now. Wireless charging, dual device and even the in-ear sensors are reserved for the 7 series only, not the 3 or the 4 active.
Starting at the bottom – the Elite 3 is the cheapest, but don’t let that fool you. They still pack a punch, in terms of sound. But frankly – the lower end of the true wireless buds market is so competitive that it’s not gonna be easy to recommend them. They do what they say well – they sound pretty good – on the bassy side of things – but of all the things Jabra did skimp on, sound isn’t one of them. It’s also worth noting that the Elite 3 doesn’t do ANC. It also didn’t have custom EQ at launch, but Jabra’s added that with a software update.
In terms of sound, this generation goes back to the OG sound signature – much more balanced like the 65Ts. Gone is the darkness of the Elite 85T and what you get with the Elite 7 Pro is a much more complete, detailed and lush sound. Even without EQ. Our favorite sounding Jabra buds by far. The 7 Active sounds a little less detailed to my ears and have slightly downgraded mics. Funnily enough – the 7 Pro and the 7 Active have the exact same IP rating – IP57. I’d say unless the price here is huge, just skip the 7 Active and go for the 7 Pro.
The Elite 4 Active live in a very good place price-wise, but they have one big flaw in our view. All Jabra buds use buttons which we like. You have all the controls on your fingertips without taking your phone out of your pocket. And you can use them with gloves on – something we need quite often here in the Netherlands when it starts getting cold. But the Elite 4 Active – at least the unit we have – has very hard-to-press buttons. And given the buttons are located at the end of your lug holes, you’re gonna feel every press. This is not the case for any of the other Jabra buds, so it makes us think something went very wrong here. Also – their ANC is OK, but it’s more of an extra rather than a central reason to buy these. You get the special Active grippy texture from Jabra and an excellent IP57 rating, but as we said – almost every other Jabra earbud has good IP ratings. So the Elite 4 Active isn’t a recommendation from us.
Now those were the earbuds at a glance. But you’ll notice we didn’t mention a few things.
App
All these earbuds are compatible with the Jabra Sound+ app. The app adapts based on the features the earbuds have. Nice. While we’re on software, another thing about Jabra – we’ve found it to be a company that keeps improving their products with software updates. It’s not a good idea to buy a product based on the promise of future updates, but the 75T got noise cancelling, the newer Elite 7 Pro and Active got dual device support and the Elite 3 just got EQ – all via firmware updates. So Jabra’s software team is on song here.
Then there’s build and comfort. We’ve talked about water and dust proofing and these buds do exceptionally well in that regard. They have also been some of the most comfortable buds we’ve tried and surprisingly stable in our ears. The 85T is the only with a slightly different eartip shape, but all of them still do well for us. Sometimes it’s a question of finding the right types, but they sit just fine in our auricles. The grippier active variants to be honest never added much more grip for us, so while it’s nice to have at least for us, it didn’t matter if a model was ‘Active’ or not. You can get Active with most of the regular variants. But here’s our earhole disclaimer – you have different ears. I mean… you probably knew that, but what we mean to say is that just because these fit us well and feel comfortable to us doesn’t mean that will be the case for you guys to. The best way is to try them and see.
Phone calls
Then there’s phone calls. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Jabra has always been in the top bracket for phone calls and microphone quality. But hey – don’t believe us? HERE are some voice samples. Let us know what you think.
Most of these earbuds come with the ability to mute the call and change volume on the buds. They also have extra settings in the app like letting you adjust how much of your own voice you can hear – called sidetone and also change the how the voices sound by adding more treble or bass. Incredible calling customization. In short – all Jabra buds are ‘vakman approved’.
And last but not least – Jabra buds are not without their deficiencies.
Deficiency 1: Connectivity
About the connectivity. Jabra’s buds worked fairly well for me. But since dual device implementation is not an industry standard, we’re guessing Jabra has had to do some custom development to make it work. And that’s one of the biggest cons for Jabra products, pretty much across the board. Connection drops, sudden connectivity issues, audio not playing – these are problems that don’t occur very often, but when they do, they can be quite annoying. We also noticed that this happened in some locations more than others, so maybe the amount of bluetooth interference around the buds has something to do with it? Either way – the connectivity keeps coming back in the comments and it also happened when Jabra updated their latest flagship, the Elite 7 Pro with dual device connectivity. So – we don’t know. On the one hand, it hasn’t been a big enough issue for us to consistently highlight in the reviews, but on the other hand, one just can’t ignore you guys’ comments and the reddit posts complaining about this. So that’s something we thought you’d like to know.
Deficiency 2: Noise cancelling
And secondly – noise cancelling. Jabra’s noise cancelling is getting better, but they’re not top of the market yet. We had a bunch of tiers from 1 through 6 with being the best and the Jabas were more like Tier 3 / Tier 4 when it comes to purely cancelling out noises from the annoying world around you. It’s perfectly acceptable with music playing, but for pure silence they are not the best pick. But where they have gotten much better in recent times is with their transparency mode. The Elite 7 Pro has a Tier 2 transparency, just under the Airpod Pros and Galaxies of this world. Galaxies of this world? Sounds weird. Anyway – transparency.
In the interest of being transparent – all the earbuds we have here were sent to us by Jabra. But does that influence our review of them? Not really – as far as we can tell. What do you think?
Deficiency 3: Quality control
The last reason against buying these buds is a vaguer one – quality control. We’ve had a number of buds and headphones from Jabra sent to us. The buttons we spoke about – they are not always, consistently the same. We’ve had at least 2 pairs where buttons were hard to press. Which leads us to think that maybe there are some quality control issues at Jabra. Now – this is going to be an issue with most manufacturers and it’s very hard for us to say how much of an issue it is. But for us, it just feels that Jabra could be doing a better job of this. Having said that, it is mitigated to a large extent by the fact that they have a very good customer service network, so faulty units should be easily replaceable.
Sustainability
Last but not least, while on the subject of replacement – Jabra is very committed to sustainability and the environment at least on paper. And yes their packaging is now basically smaller, made of paper, free of plastics, which is at least something. They also support 5 of the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals through various ways, which is fantastic to hear. Paying less money for cheaper products can be counterintuitively more expensive for the environment. Think about single use plastics which cost you nothing but end up sitting in landfills or swimming in our oceans. So it’s good to hear that the company you buy your products from is doing its part to help improve this.
So which one should you buy?
Jabra’s known for its full-featured offerings. So the Elite 3 and 4 Active stick out a little bit as having a bit of a feature-poor set. We still think the Elite Active 75T is one of the best value for money buds you can buy. The Jabra’s Elite 7 Pro are great sounding and are very complete in every way – waterproofing, battery life, design, touch controls, full featured app, decent ANC and excellent HearThrough. So these are the two we’d recommend.
But hey – keep an eye on the price. A good deal can change the value proposition, so check out our affiliate links if you wanna buy these buds. It helps support us to continue making free content.
You’ve been on an Elite earbud adventure, and we’ve been DHRME. Namaste!
🎧 Buy the Jabra Elite 4 Active: https://geni.us/JabraElite4Active
🎧 Buy the Jabra Elite Active 75T: https://geni.us/JabraActive75T
🎧 Buy the Jabra Elite 7 Pro: https://geni.us/JabraElite7Pro
🎧 Buy the Jabra Elite 7 Active: https://geni.us/Jabra7Active
🎧 Buy the Jabra Elite 85T: https://geni.us/Jabra85T
🎧 Buy the Jabra Elite 3: https://geni.us/JabraElite3
🎧 Buy the Jabra Elite 65T: https://geni.us/JabraElite65T
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