Jabra Elite 85t Review: True AirPods Pro Competitor
Jabra Elite 85t offer Qi wireless charging, active noise cancellation, good bass and much more. But should you buy it? Let's find out.
2020 has been a chaotic year, but it has also been a year of truly wireless earphones. With every new launch, Android users have been waiting for a truly great AirPods Pro competitor. Jabra with their Elite 85t finally brings in the Active Noise Cancelling along with really great sound quality to their TWS lineup.
The Jabra Elite 85t are true wireless earphones for buyers who want to compromise neither on style nor sound quality. Now if you are wondering whether you should spend your hard-earned money on these, continue reading to find out.
Jabra Elite 85t Review: Design and Build Quality
The design of the Jabra Elite 85t is well thought out and resembles its predecessors. The company describes the design as semi-open, meaning you don’t have to jam the ear tips all the way in your ears. The unusually oval-shaped ear tips fit your ear more comfortably according to the company.
Personally, I didn't find the 85t being more comfortable than the 75t which has the more traditional circle ear tips. The semi-open design means that there is very little passive noise cancelling. Jabra uses Qualcomm’s Advanced ANC to provide noise cancelling, which is great but not the best mainly due to its semi-open design.
The materials used by the company for the ear tips feels very reassuring of its quality. The six-microphones on the outside along with configurable buttons on the earphones offer a great look in one’s ears without compromising on functionality. The earphones are quite big and heavy compared to some other pairs partly thanks to the 12mm drivers. The earphones are also IPX4 rated which is a downgrade from the IP55 of the Elite 75t Active. However, the IPX4 rating is good for gym usage and slight rain which is good enough.
While heading outside with the pair of truly wireless earphones, you will also need to carry the case around. With bigger earphones comes a bigger case. Thankfully the case is still not so much bigger thanks to better packaging by the company. The case has a soft touch and feels nice.
Talking about the case, the case will be needed to charge the earbuds once they run out of battery as is the case with all these TWS earbuds. The earbuds run for around 5 hours on a single full charge with ANC on and around 7 hours with ANC off. The case can charge the earbuds completely for around 5 times before giving up if you use the earphones with ANC turned off. Even with ANC on all the time, the earphones last more than 24 hours which is great. When it runs out of battery, you can charge it back up using a USB-C charger or a Qi-certified wireless charger.
There is a single button on each side which can be configured using companies Sound+ app. The controls are intuitive and can be changed depending on the situation. The controls work reliably all the time which cannot be said for the touch controls on many earbuds.
Jabra Elite 85t Review: Sound and Performance
As for the sound quality, the Elite 85t sounds slightly better than the 75t. With the new 12mm drivers, you get a bit more bass. The semi-open design leads to a more open sound feeling, giving a feel of a bigger soundstage. The bass was great, the mids and lows were also good. They fall short of the best TWS in the market. If you want better sound, you can always check out the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 or the Sony WF-1000XM3 or Bose QuiteComfort Earbuds. However, all of those are not much better than the Jabra Elite 85t.
During movies or phone calls, sound syncing and sound quality are nice. The 85t can be paired to multiple devices, which helps when you are using your laptop and you get a phone call, the fast switching is really appreciated. The right earbud can be used as a mono earbud, which is helpful while taking calls on the move. The call quality heard on the other end was nice also, thanks to the six microphone design. The semi-open design will take getting used to. There was a firmware update during the review behaviour that updated audio performance, led behaviour and minor other improvements.
Jabra Elite 85t Review: Verdict
The Jabra Elite 85t is available to buy at Rs 17,999. At this price, they certainly are an upgrade over the Elite 75t Active, especially if you want wireless charging. If you have experience with high-quality audio products, these do justify their price. Using them with Windows, Mac, Android, iOS they work perfectly fine. Considering it's slightly more expensive than the AirPods with Wireless Charging case, it's not a bad deal.
However, the fact that the 75t Active has received a price cut now and the 85t is not marginally better than the 75t, recommending the 85t becomes quite hard. If you want the ANC or the wireless charging case, the Jabra Elite 85t will be a good buy for you. However, if you are willing to compromise a bit, you can go for the Jabra Elite 75t instead.