Update!!!: ANC is now on the Jabra Elite 75t. That's right. It makes these one of the cheapest truly wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation. I couldn't believe it but it's real. Just check the Jabra site.
A worthy upgrade to the 65t and competitor to the AirPods 2. A nice, low profile design with good battery life. They have multipoint but don't allow connection stealing so you must disconnect a device first before connecting another, which can be a pain if they're connected to your tablet in your bag in another room!
I’ve previously reviewed the Jabra Elite Active 65t. My thoughts were that the 65ts were good but lacked refinement which detracted from the otherwise great experience. These Jabra Elite Active 75t earbuds address most of those refinements and a worthy upgrade. I would certainly buy these over the 65t. A lot of this review is written before upgrading the firmware to see if I could replicate issues reported and to confirm if a firmware upgrade fixes them.
Tested with iPhone XS Max, MacBook Pro, a generic Android phone and a Sony NW-ZX507 Walkman.
Upon receiving them I was excited because the overall package is a fair bit smaller. The unboxing experience is similar except the case has a nicer rubberised surface and has a USB-C charge port/cable which I think should be standard nowadays.
Case
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The case is slightly smaller than the 65t and although not as small as AirPods, I think it’s small enough. It’s smaller on one axis, slightly thicker and perhaps the same width as the AirPods 3 (if you’re comparing these to those) but these don’t have active noise cancellation. In my opinion active noise cancellation is nice to have, especially on a plane but not an absolute requirement for earbuds which have some passive noise isolation. You also have “Hearthrough” to hear surroundings without removing the earbuds.
Other improvements to the case that I thought the previous version should have are the use of magnets, both to hold the earbuds in so they don’t fall out and sit neatly, as well as for the lid. Overall, two very nice and much needed improvements. This now has USB-C which I would strongly frown on if it didn’t. The port is located on the back rather than the bottom which is now flat so it can stand neatly while charging.
Lastly, the “Jabra” logo is now silver which gives it it an extra sense of refinement. Another thing I noticed is that there’s an ever so slight “ratchet” that holds the case lid open so it doesn’t flap about. Nice attention to detail there Jabra.
Upon opening and closing the case, the rear LED lights up to indicate its charge level. You are also greeted by LEDs on the earbuds. Taking them out is easy and you can almost just throw them in and the magnets will bring them home to the right position. It’s quite an enjoyable experience!
Unfortunately, my case had a rattle inside. It may be the hinge which would mean all cases could be affected. Not a major issue, it’s just a shame after everything else they did right.
Earbuds
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The earbuds are significantly smaller that the 65t and I would say there’s no need to go any smaller, unless the case could be made smaller as well. I expect them to be fine for most ears. The microphone “boom”, which I didn’t really like, is gone although it did help to insert the earbuds. The design is nice and simple and they have a nice texture which is identical to their predecessors. Once in the ears, their profile is pretty low so you don’t look too stupid.
There is now a single, larger button on both earbuds which is difficult not to press while inserting, I feel that a capacitive touch button would be in order here which would be much better for double and triple taps/presses and in fact if you don’t press the button in the centre then it can be a bit hit or miss. There could be some improvement here, it’s not a major issue but I did find double and triple pressing a slight chore.
Unfortunately only the right earbud can be used by itself. I would really like Jabra to work on this because sometimes I have an “all day meeting” on computer where I have the audio in the background. Often I’ll use a full charge and just put the bud that runs out back in the case and then swap them over when the other gets low. That scenario isn’t possible with these. Since I feel these are somewhat marketed as a “business headset” I think this feature is lacking.
The 65t earbuds had an accelerometer which at the time I reviewed those I said that fitness tracking on them was a bit pointless and it appears that the 75t earbuds do not have one which I wouldn’t miss. (You can either track on your watch or phone)
Controls
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On the 65t you could push the front or the rear of the left button for different functions. The 75t have a single button so the controls are slightly different and implement the usual single, double and triple press for play/pause, skip back and skip forward. However for some bizarre reason, play/pause is on the right bud and skip forward/back is on the left. Why not just put them all on the same bud?! Having it like this makes it more confusing than it needs to be but of course it’s something you’ll learn. On second thoughts, if you’re only using the right bud then being able to play/pause and use the voice assistant could be better than being able to skip back/forward. Volume control is now a long press on the left for down and right for up. I don’t personally like this because sometimes it means you release too late and it gets too high or low, it also makes a single increment change more difficult and you might activate a different function if you don’t quite hold it long enough. In practice I found big adjustments in volume worked ok, but indeed single increment changes are difficult, you either do perhaps two increments or you activate play/pause or “Hearthrough”. You can of course use your phone or watch for single increment changes.
All of this said, Jabra have pulled an Ace out here with a firmware upgrade and allow you to customise the controls! This isn’t some, “yeah, you can customise two controls but that’s it” as with AirPods (which don’t have volume control at all!) This is full blown customise pretty much everything. Thank you, thank you Jabra. No more complaining about the controls being wrong because you can set them up how you want now.
The pressure required to press the buttons as well as the responsiveness seems good. You get a bit of a clunk sound but nothing harsh.
Sound quality
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These are obviously capable drivers and have no problem producing highs and lows. They sound really good. However I did hear the odd artefact here and there, it’s very infrequent. I also felt they lacked a bit of tuning to make them sound really nice. But then these aren’t £250+ earbuds and the sound quality is good at this price point. I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed if I bought these with my own money and they’re certainly much better than AirPods 2 (which I actually think have better sound quality than people give them credit for). In an outdoor environment, there is no question, these would be way better than AirPods 2. At home in a quiet environment, that’s more of a debate, but yes, they would be at least a bit better.
The bass is strong but I feel it lacks a bit of control, sometimes feeling separated from the rest of the music. Mids are clear and well defined, as are the highs. I also found that the stereo imaging was very good resulting in a wide soundstage.
Once the firmware was updated Sound+ was available which supposedly tunes the earbuds for your ears. It asked my gender and age before asking me to respond when I hear a tone. It seems pretty basic, it may have made them sound better or it could have just been the placebo effect. The bass still seemed to have issues.
Noise isolation (cancellation)
======================
These do not have active noise/sound cancellation. The earbud design naturally gives some passive noise isolation. I feel this was less than other ear buds, please don’t believe these will block out all sound, but I was able to listen to a book while mowing the lawn.
Calls
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I’ve taken a call on these. Simply pressing the right button to answer. I had no complaints from the other end and I found it natural to talk with them. There is also “Sidetone” which allows you to hear your own voice on a call. This can be turned on and off as well as the level adjusted. I found the default fine but it’s good to know you can adjust as it can be strange and distracting to hear more or less of your voice than normal. There is even a basic equaliser for calls: Default, More treble and More bass. There is also a “Prioritise Bluetooth device with call” option which disconnects other devices to ensure the best call experience. I’m thinking all this does is prevent voice prompts and notifications coming through from another device, for example when a device disconnects because you’ve walked away to take the call.
Signal strength
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I have a small flat where in some circumstances my AirPods would breakup or even disconnect if I was in my kitchen and my phone is in the living room with the bathroom in between. These seem to have a slightly better connection. Even placing my phone beyond my metal sink at one end of my flat, behind some drying cutlery, I could go to the other end of my flat and I could just about get it to cut out with the right earbud (which I assume is the master) away from my phone. Mostly though, they still performed fine and never lost complete connection where my AirPods would have given up a bit sooner. Suffice to say, the connection is good. I don’t know how well they would perform in an environment with a lot more radio signals such as when commuting. That said, the previous 65ts performed well so I would expect these to perform as well or better.
Pairing
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When you first take these out of the case they go into pairing mode together with an audible message telling you they’re ready to pair. They appeared immediately on my phone and paired straight away.
Pairing to another device was simple, simultaneous press of both earbud buttons and they were ready to pair. Pairing on a second device was equally as fast.
Multiple connections
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These support multiple connections. To two devices at once, not any more, I’ve tried. There is a problem where if you have two devices connected, they fail to disconnect to a third. They won’t even drop the connection to allow a fresh connection to the latest device. You have to manually disconnect from a device before connecting another. This so far has not been fixed by a firmware upgrade. Plus points for multiple connections, but I’d rather be able to connect a new one without having to manually disconnect first so actually this plus has turned into a negative. Please sort this out Jabra. I have suggested this to them but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
When you have two devices connected, you have to pause one first before the next will play. Fortunately this works just fine pausing from the earbuds before playing from another device. It would be nice if the first device paused automatically and allowed the second to play. What happens is the second device pauses and audio continues on the first. This hasn’t been fixed by a firmware upgrade.
Using three ore more devices can be a major issue. Say you have your laptop and tablet both connected in another room and you want to play something on your phone, you can’t. Not only that, you don’t even know which devices they’re connected to so you don’t know which one to go to to disconnect. I also could not figure out how to get the earbuds to disconnect from everything, which solve the problem. Jabra, is this possible? I’ve tried turning them off by holding both buttons but they just connect to the last two connected devices. If you regularly use three or more devices, this could be an issue for you. Ideally they would give up the oldest connection. If you don’t realise you have two devices connected then you might think they are faulty. I can understand that it may be difficult to get them to give up a connection but I think the ability to at least disconnect them from all devices is very important.
I sent a support request to Jabra. They were fairly prompt but their first response was to factory reset the earbuds, so not very helpful when I’m trying to find out if there’s a way to simply disconnect all devices (not unpair them all!) I replied to clarify what I already thought was a pretty clear email and they replied saying it’s not possible to disconnect devices by using the buttons on the earbuds. Additionally that they don’t recommend using them with computers as the controls cannot be guaranteed. In fact I can say that all controls worked fine for me on my MacBook and a Windows computer. However on Windows I did have the occasional skip/break in sound, this was not an issue with the signal because it happens when I’m very close to my computer, unfortunately this issue was persistent for me and wouldn’t really be acceptable. This could be an issue with my computer but I didn’t have the issue with another pair of bluetooth headphones. I didn’t have this issue with a MacBook. On a positive note, I believe that all settings are saved to the earbuds and don’t rely on the app, at least the controls worked as I had set them so they’re the same across all devices.
Audio/Video sync/Lag
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I watched videos across various services on all devices. I noticed no sync issues with any. Full marks here.
Charging and battery life
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There is no wireless charging but they do use USB-C.
Both earbuds and the case show their charge level in the app and there are also LEDs to give a rough indication of charge level but note that you can’t see the level of each bud individually. The case takes a few seconds to indicate that it’s charging. It would be nice if this turned on straight away so you could immediately notice if the cable wasn’t plugged in, instead you have to wait a few seconds to verify it’s charging. Before the first charge I put the earbuds in their case with about 50% left in the case. The next morning the case was down to 3%, the earbuds indicated 80% and shortly dropped to 67%. I find it strange that the case still had charge if the earbuds weren’t fully charged. The firmware upgrade seems to sort out charge levels at least somewhat but it still feels a bit sketchy to me.
One thing I didn’t like is that the earbuds appear to immediately disconnect when you put them in the case so you don’t get the charge level of the case on the phone. Additionally they only connect again once you have at least put the right one in your ear and it can take several seconds to connect. It would be better if they started to connect as soon as you opened the case. This means that you can’t see the charge status or level on your phone while they are charging. You can however open the case as previously mentioned to get a rough idea of charge from the LED.
App
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I found the app is fine, it’s not buggy and works smoothly. I did sometimes find myself rooting around different sections to find a setting. For example, the “Headset” icon down the bottom is actually “Headset settings”, within that there are three separate sections you have to click into: “Audio experience”, “Call experience” and “Headset assistance”. “Headset assistance” sounds like it would be a customer support section but it has the Sleep timeout setting and the headset feedback i.e. Voice feedback and Tone feedback. It’s not even your smart assistant!
Not a deal breaker but I think this could be better organised, even if you just had everything on a single page with section headings, then at least you wouldn’t have the to and fro trying to find what you’re looking for. The firmware upgrade did add several sections to the “settings/headset” section so having it split out now makes more sense but still, it could be organised better. I think they would be better off renaming the “Home” section to “Headset” and the “Headset” section to “Settings” then move all the stuff that isn’t “Settings” (such as firmware, register, product rating and manual) to the “About” section. It’s not that important so it’s not a deal breaker but again, it just lacks the refinement that could make these an outstanding pair of earbuds.
The main section you would use is the “Home” section. This has “Moments” which allows you to customise between “My Moment”, “Commute” and “Focus” modes. E.g you could have “Hearthrough” and more bass during your commute. There are also “Soundscapes” which may sound gimmicky but actually I think it’s good for those times when you want to block outside noises but don’t want to be distracted by music. All of the soundscapes were high quality and sound great. Some examples are: Pink noise, white noise, ocean waves and rain.
Other
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The 65t had an “issue” where very slight static/hiss sound would get noticeably louder at 75%. These don’t have that issue however I have noticed slight, very quiet, pops when you change volume. This doesn’t happen all the time and the firmware upgrade seems to have sorted that.
Voice prompts for some reason have loads of artefacts and don’t sound good having crackles as if the earbuds are clipping. It’s not a reassuring thing to happen but I didn’t experience clipping when playing music, even at high volumes. Jabra, sort this out. You can switch between voice prompts and tones however, although when switched to tones there didn’t seem to be any tones output in some cases. The firmware upgrade seems to have fixed this but the voice prompts still aren’t as high quality as they could be for some reason.
Out of the box, as I mentioned, these sound somewhat un-natural. Not bad by any means, but something just didn’t quite sound right. I have found however that after a bit of burn in time I’m starting to like how they sound. I do however still feel that the bass is somehow too strong and disconnected, a bit of adjustment on the eq went some distance to alleviate this, but still there’s something about the bass that isn’t quite right. I can’t quite put my finger on it but once I just gave in and stopped focussing on the bass it sounded fine overall. I’m wondering if there’s not enough space in the buds, given all the electronics, for the bass to breathe.
Firmware upgrade
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I did a lot of this review before upgrading the firmware to see if I could replicate any issues reported in other reviews. Looking at the release notes, the upgrades do address connection issues. During my review before the firmware upgrade I experienced some dropouts at the other end of my flat. I can’t say the firmware upgrade made it any better but I thought they performed adequately anyway.
The firmware upgrade took 11 minutes. A bit long in my opinion so make sure to do it when you don’t need to use them. The update applied with no issues. Once done it enabled the Sound+/MySound and MyControls. For some reason the case was reporting 0% charge even though its status LED was green when opening it. The earbuds were reporting 86% and after putting them in the case for five minutes the earbuds then showed 100% and the case 51% so hopefully this is just a one off issue when upgrading the firmware. On further use the battery levels seem to be more consistent.
MyControls (Mega plus points Jabra!!!!)
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MyControls (available after firmare upgrade) allows you to customise single, double and triple presses for both left and right ear buds. It does not allow you to customise press and hold which is hard coded to volume up and down. The controls you can chose from are: No functionality, Play/pause, Next track, Restart track, Voice assistant, HearThrough. You can also duplicate controls, for example I didn’t change the left bud (which has “Next track”) and duplicated “Next track” as a double press on the right and changed triple press to Voice assistant. This way if I’m just using the right bud I can still skip a track. No more moaning about the control layout! That said, a combination of capacitive touch and a physical button could be nice, not that I see any other manufacturers doing this (B&O have capacitive). That way you could have 6 controls on one button if you have single, double and triple press/touch! That’s how you could get single increment volume control in there as well as everything else.
Why no other manufacturers give such comprehensive customisation of controls I don’t know. (Yes I know you can customise AirPods but that’s only the double tap on left and right so you can only customise two controls, in fact they only have two controls)
Conclusion
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These are a very solid contender among the usual alternatives. I feel that there is a little bit of improvement that could be made to the tuning but I expect most people won’t be disappointed at all, in fact I wouldn’t be. I have been very critical, comparing these to what I’ve experienced with wired earphones that are over triple the price and connected to a high end player. These are a really great all round package, great for listening to music, great for watching videos, great for calls. Physically it’s all nice and I think the earbuds are the perfect size, big enough to have good battery life and to support the acoustics but not so big to hurt peoples’ ears or even not fit at all.
They don’t have active noise cancellation but then they’re a lot cheaper than options that do have it, you can also go for the non-active version and save yourself even more money if you don’t need the extra dust/water protection.
I have a pair of AirPods 2. I was sent the previous version 65t earbuds for review but I continued to use the AirPods 2 as they’re more comfortable, convenient and the case is that much more compact, plus they charge wirelessly or with a lightning cable where the 65ts use micro usb. All that put together meant that the 65t lost apart from in noisier environments. With the 75t earbuds I think I may actually be switching to them.
If I didn’t have any truly wired earbuds then I would probably get these. You get a lot for your money and they are fully featured. They lack active noise cancellation and wireless charging but they also lack the price tag that goes with them, so if you don’t need ANC and wireless charging, get these.
I would give these 4.5 stars but I can’t, so is it 4 or 5? I’m not going to mark them down too much for not having wireless charging or ANC because I think the price reflects that. The right earbud being “Master” could be an issue for some people. My case rattled, the buttons could be capacitive (I don’t know why Jabra say physical buttons are better) but on the plus size you can customise them. Bass is not quite right. I’m swayed to give them four stars but something makes me want to give them 5 so I’m trying to think long term and whether I would be happy with them. If the right earbud does stand up to a full day of background audio then the master/slave setup isn’t an issue. Wireless charging could be expected. That bass... I’m going to have to give them a try for a couple of days...
Ok, so after a few days. I’m getting used to the bass but I still don’t think it’s quite right. Generally I’m very happy with them. I haven’t specifically measured battery life but I have no complaints about it and that’s after using them for several hours each day and not charging the case for a week.
My number one issue with these, which is kind of bitter sweet is that you can have two devices connected but if you have more than two devices paired then you can run into issues where you try to connect a third device. You just can’t without disconnecting another first. Whilst being able to connect two devices connected is nice, I would almost prefer the earbuds to only connect to one device and be able to drop connection when a new device requests connection. This of course may not be an issue for you if you don’t intend to use them on more than two devices. But when you consider: phone, tablet, laptop and maybe a desktop or watch then it’s pretty easy to get to three devices. Since you can’t drop all connections from the buds themselves then I consider this a major issue. I don’t want to have to go into my bag or another room to disconnect from that device!
In my heart I fully recommend these. Objectively there are a couple of improvements that can be made and these may not be issues for you. At this price level I think they definitely should be near if not at top of your list.
