Jabra Elite 85t earphone review
DAVE BULLARD road-tests the flagship Jabra Elite 85t – noise-cancelling Bluetooth earphones with top-notch sound that can be tailored to your hearing.
I first came across Jabra about 10 years ago, when they were making some of the world’s best wireless mono headsets – those units that fitted into one ear and had a short mic boom.
The company was always ahead of the curve. For instance, in 2012 they introduced the Supreme UC, which was the first headset to incorporate active noise cancellation (ANC). They also paid more attention to audio quality and noise cancellation than most of their competitors – and still do in their earphones, headphones, call-centre and office headsets, and mono headsets (yes, they still make them).
Jabra’s prowess shines through in its flagship Elite 85t wireless earphones, which stand out from the pack for their sound quality, noise-cancelling abilities, comfort and adjustability.
Like most modern Bluetooth earphones, the 85ts are slightly chunky individual earpieces that plug into the ear canal and sit snugly within the outer ear. Unlike many, however, they are very light, not very bulky and have a short, oval ‘tower’ that fits snugly without going too far into the ear.
Each earpiece has a push button for control, and you can also use voice commands using Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa.
Top-quality sound
I found the audio quality via the 12mm drivers (speakers) to be excellent. It’s clear, detailed and balanced, with a natural quality warmed by a powerful but not overwhelming bass.
The great thing is, through the Jabra Sound+ app you can set your personal hearing profile and optimise the audio for your ears by taking a MySound hearing test. This is particularly good for those with less than perfect hearing and those getting on a bit in years.
You can also use the app for a number of other functions, including adjusting the sound profile through an equaliser, setting the noise-cancelling level, configuring the control buttons on the earpieces and even finding your earphones by letting your phone record the GPS position when you disconnect.
The Elite 85t earphones’ noise-cancelling ability is among the best I’ve heard. When turned on, four microphones on the inside and outside and a dedicated ANC chipset cancel ambient sounds, such as traffic, and sounds already in your ear, like your heartbeat.
When used on a busy commuter train, they very effectively blocked the train noise and the irritating and self-important bloke on the phone next to me. The feeling of pressure that you so often get from ANC earphones is relieved through the earphones’ semi-open design and pressure relief vents.
When you do want to hear what’s going on, a press of an earpiece button activates HearThrough mode, which turns the ANC down or off. The level of both the noise-cancelling and the HearThrough modes can be adjusted via the app, which is a great feature.
Call quality is also very good – I could hear my calls perfectly, and the people I was calling said it sounded as if I was just speaking on my phone itself. Each earpiece used three mics to achieve this – two outside and one inside.
The earphones can be paired to two devices at the same time and can accept incoming calls from either of them.
Jabra specifies a battery life of up to 25 hours when playing music with ANC activated – 5.5 hours for the earbuds, and another 19.5 hours available from the charging case. Without ANC it’s up to 31 hours, with a 7/24 split. All I can say is it seems like they just keep on going without having to be recharged – which can be done with wires or through a Qi-certified wireless charger.
The 85ts are available in four colours: Copper/Black, Gold/Beige, Black and Grey.
The bottom line
Buying earphones is always a bit of a gamble as you can’t try before you buy. But I can say that you have nothing to fear when buying the Jabra Elite 85ts. They are excellent quality in every way, from their solid build and well-considered comfort to their top-level audio and noise-cancellation.
THUMBS UP
- Excellent audio quality
- Top-quality noise cancellation
- Very comfortable (but see ‘Thumbs Down’)
- Very good battery life
- High level of customisation
THUMBS DOWN
- The earpieces may be a little bulky for some users; my wife found them to be too big for her comfort
Jabra Elite 85t price
RRP $299
