Review: Jabra Elite 85t

After a decade of selling your parents those embarrassing Bluetooth earpieces during the Entourage era, Jabra was one of the first brands to put forth a solid pair of wireless earbuds, the Elite 65t, before Apple made them popular.

Two generations later, Jabra’s best buds are still teetering at the top of the pile. The new Elite 85t have active noise canceling, an even more ergonomic design, and some of the best sound around, whether you're playing music or in a Zoom call. Plus, with physical buttons instead of sweat-sensitive touch controls, they’re some of my favorite workout buds too.

I'm also impressed with Jabra’s longer-term commitment to its products. It still sells the 65t (now for just $90) and recently upgraded the Elite 75t model with noise-canceling technology via a firmware update. Jabra also offers a better warranty than its peers; last year’s Elite Active 75t came with a two-year guarantee against water or dust damage. Other companies mothball whole products in that time.

The look of Jabra’s buds hasn’t changed much since the original, but they do get slightly more comfortable every generation. The earbuds eschew rubber earfins in favor of a more cozy, twist-in design that got steadily comfier from the 65 to 85t. In the time between models, Jabra claims it 3D scanned thousands of ears.

The Jabra Elite 85t.

Photograph: Jabra

Each time Jabra engineers were given the chance, they picked the right sections to chisel, based on actual data they collected. These fit both my partner and me much better than previous models.

The 85t has the same slight elephant-tusk design toward the front as the previous models, intended to aim the microphones straight at the mouth when on phone or Zoom calls. Nothing beats a well-aimed mic; these have some of the best call quality you’ll find, just as before.

The most significant upgrade between generations is the addition of active noise canceling (ANC) out of the box. When combined with the excellent fit, the 85t easily passes the “my own pets sneak up on me and scare the crap out of me” test. 

As with most noise-canceling headphones, they do particularly well with longer waveforms like my bassy refrigerator and HVAC system. Clacky keyboards and high pitched squeals from needy golden retrievers are less easily hidden, but the headphones do much better than nothing.

I turn ANC off when I'm out running because it can be very dangerous—cars really become that quiet, even when they're right behind you. That’s even more impressive when you consider that the Elite 85t are semi-open headphones like Apple's AirPods Pro, meaning they don’t form an airtight seal as the 75t do. The algorithm Jabra's using is every bit like the AirPods to my ears.

 Thankfully, you can choose between 11 different sound levels, from ANC cranked up to the max to piped-in ambient sounds. (Jabra calls it “HearThrough,” other companies have different names.) It makes it easier to hear your surroundings while listening to music. 

Though everyone from Samsung to JLab is making a “pro” pair of earbuds these days, the category is still dominated by the AirPods Pro for good reasons. Apple's premium in-ears have some of the best noise reduction and call quality you’ll find, and they sound pretty darn good to boot.

The internals of the Jabra Elite 85t.

Photograph: Jabra

And yet, I think the Elite 85t would give me pause if I was shopping for earbuds. They’re more comfortable, have better battery life with noise-canceling on—5.5 hours to Apple's 4—and also come with a wireless charging case. The Elite 85t can access both Siri or Google Assistant too, whereas the AirPods Pro won't activate the voice assistant on Android phones without third-party workarounds.

The reason I'd pick the Jabras above all else? Physical buttons. These once again have round, easy-to-find buttons on the outside of each earbud, which means your sweaty hair will never again accidentally play or pause music. (They're also sweat resistant thanks to an IPX4 rating.) You can even customize the EQ to change the way the headphones sound to suit your needs, though I mostly stuck with the standard tuning.

In the early days of wireless buds, it was easy to call any pair of headphones that actually connected, didn’t break after two uses, and had more than 4 hours of battery life a good product.

These days, sound quality matters. From Apple on down, companies have begun to discover how to deliver high-quality sound in a tiny wireless package, and the Elite 85t are no exception.

I listened to them a lot immediately after the passing of MF Doom, which meant they had to handle bold low end and shimmery (albeit oftentimes lo-fi) highs of my "favorite rapper's favorite rapper". They performed admirably, with a nice wide soundstage and no traces of mud down low.

The Jabra 85t's different colorways.

Photograph: Jabra

I also took them on long runs while blasting Outkast, Frankie Cosmos, and LA musician Nicole McCabe’s fantastic new jazz release, and they performed very well. They’re aided by support for Apple’s AAC Codec and Bluetooth 5.1, so the connection and digital fidelity are excellent. I especially like the mid-range, which never feels overcrowded, even when keyboards, horns, guitars, and voices are all stacked at once.

There are many great earbuds that now compete with Jabra’s earlier models in terms of price and performance, but the company's flagship remains a cut above most.

If you’re in the market for a pair of earbuds that can go from sweaty quarantined workouts to future unmasked adventures, the Elite 85t should be at the top of your list. And if history’s a guide, they’ll still be pretty good a few years down the line.