What It Is
The Jabra Elite Sport headphones are sport headphones with no wires.Each bud fits inside your ear, and they’re linked to each other wirelessly. One of them is linked to your phone via bluetooth. The headphones have an integrated heartrate monitor, include stereo noise cancelling microphones, playback and call controls, and play for about three hours per charge. They come with a nifty case that doubles as a charger and spare battery pack – giving 2 full charges before needing to be recharged itself via Micro USB. The only part of the system that needs a wire is charging the case via USB.
“Catch every call while you’re exercising with these waterproof Jabra Elite Sport earbuds. These wireless earpieces have three hours of battery time and an additional six hours when topped up with the included charging case. These Jabra Elite Sport earbuds have an in-ear heart rate monitor and an integrated app for fitness analysis and coaching.
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Who It’s For
They’re great if you’re looking for a pair of headphones to do short daily workouts with, where a cord gets in the way. They’re best if you primarily listen to podcasts/audiobooks, occasionally music, and occasionally take phone calls. They’re good if you always carry a gym bag and can tote around the storage case/charger.
Testing Method
I tested these over about 3 weeks of almost daily use – going to the gym, running outdoors, and traveling with them. I’ve also talked a few hours with them, and have gone through a firmware upgrade process. I use Strava on my iPhone 7 for fitness tracking, which I used with these. I listen to music with Spotify, and podcasts with the native iOS podcasts app. I also tried the Jabra Fitness Life app. I recharged the headphones case with their included microUSB cable, both connected to my Macbook Air’s USB port, as well as my iPad’s charging brick.
First Impressions
The packaging is great, and they came in a giant foam padded box. I’m not really one for unboxing, but my general impression was that this was a lot of packaging for a small product – but they certainly were well protected!
In addition to the headphones headphones, the package comes with the charging/storage case, and a bunch of different eartips and fit guides, allowing you to pick and choose to get a customized fit in your ears. After playing around with a bunch of different size combinations, I finally found one that works well for me. I must say, it’s really really important to find a good fit – the headphones will sound terrible if you don’t. But as soon as you get the right fit, they sound great, and stay in well.
Like
Obviously, the key feature of these is that they’re totally wireless. And I love that. Lifting at the gym, running, and doing lots of other sports are all easy with these. No wire around the back of my neck means they’re snag-free, and I have total movement when working out. Also, since they are bluetooth to my phone, I can easily set up my phone to watch Netflix on the rowing machine, while getting full wireless audio.- They stay in my ears very well. Not once have I had them fall out while working out, and they always feel secure and lightweight.
- Love the microphone pass-through feature. I end up walking around with these in my ears all the time not listening to anything, but able to hear my surroundings.
- The charging case is really convenient for keeping them charged.. and I know that they’ll always be ready to go when i get them out of my bag.
- They turn on when the case is opened, and connect quickly and reliably to my iPhone 7. Also, the stereo sound seems to stay in perfect sync.
Don’t Like
- Although they fit very well and stay in place, the sound on them isn’t the best. Maybe I’m not getting a perfect fit, but they seem to be perfectly adaquate for podcasts etc. But for music, the quality is just not up to the quality I’d expect. I do think it’s a fit issue, as well as a wireless bandwidth and power issue – but that’s my main complaint.
- The bluetooth audio link has a significant lag on it – so much so that it’s hard to watch tv and movies on my iPhone because the audio is so out of sync. I’ve tried resetting, upgrading, etc – still audio lag.
- The battery life is only three hours – so for a quick daily workout these are great. But for a long race or all day hike, not so much.
Should you buy it?
Super active sports, listening to mostly podcasts, doing a short daily workout and carrying a gym bag, these are perfect! If you need all day battery life without recharging, perfect audio sync, booming quality for music, or perfect calls, maybe not so much. But overall, this is a very solid product.
Final thoughts
Overall a solid project with a lot of engineering know-how in it. I love using these during daily workouts, and can see the future of wireless audio coming full force.
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