I am a long time user and fan of Jabra products and when they announced the 85h I was eagerly waiting to see what was on offer here to see if there is any competition to the Bose QC 35s and Sony WH1000MX3s which are the rave these days and having tried them both Jabra are giving them a good run for their money and something else for the consumer to think about when they are looking for their next set of noise cancelling headphones.
First up if you missed it check out the unboxing experience below and the great presentation on offer from Jabra.
Before I go any further YOU NEED TO USE THE SOUND PLUS APP. This app is excellent and I have been using it some time now and this underpins the excellence with your Jabra experience as a whole and I have said it many times all manufacturers need their own EQ app at least to enhance the experience and you can see more on the app in the review below.
The colour I have may not be the best for some as it easily gets dirty but the materials used makes them easy to clean which has water resistance then again you have a protective case to keep them out of harms way when not in use which as always is a bonus and something all manufacturers need to consider as part of the package.
Build quality is great and I do expect a few years of life out of these once they are treated right ,Ok they are plastic but so are most headphones at this price point and this also keeps the weight down. Comfort is great and can be worn for hours I would wear mine easily two hours a day and no issues here with discomfort or sweat I actually use my cans for watching You Tube and listening to music for long periods in the evening or during the day when wandering around the house and put them to the test and this goes for and earbuds or headphones I use its not your typical 30/60 mins try em out situation and give a score.
The cups are really soft and sink onto your ears and block put much of the outside world without ANC turned on and the soft underside of the headband adds to the comfort levels and after a while you would almost forget they are on your head this is a win win. I also like the slider mechanism to lengthen the arms this is cool and does not have that clicky sound you get on many headphones.
The fabric material is nice and complements the leather and looks well and almost has a two tone effect.
The cups as I said cover the ears nicely and the headphones do not clamp on your head and the controls are easy to use and kept simple compared to what you find on earbuds these days. On the left side is the ANC button if you will which turns ANC on/off gives you the hear through option this can also be done in the soundplus app..
On the right we have a bit more action with the Assistant button be it siri or Google this works every time and we also have our USB-C charge port,3.5 mm jack and an indicator LED for status, On the outside of the cup we have controls for volume,call answer/reject play/pause and these also have on ear detection which is great and a feature again needs to be seen more often. Another great feature is how they power on/off which is a simple twist of the cups.. You can also skip tracks and restart but no skip back to previous track.
You now also get plenty of voice commands here with a better sounding voice than older models this I like as it’s not robotic and kind of easy on the ears.. YKWIM..
Battery life is on par with what Jabra claim (36 hours) which is pretty good and call quality is again excellent which is always a feature of Jabra products I have used these extensively over the last while and more so than other headphones putting in some 60 hours before I came to my conclusion and call shine on this a I did take quite a few and another thing to note there is no lag latency( for those that do not know, the lips do not fall behind the visual) on calls or consuming media such as you tube or netflix
The sound, I guess this is the vital bit. Lets just say this…. Its top notch and plenty aloud and as I said with the soundplus app you can make it your own, When listening to all genres,highs,lows and mids they excel and with the bass and treble you are in for a treat end of story Bose and Sony have met their match here with the audio experience and then with SmartSound which uses AI to get your surroundings this is also a great feature and has worked all the time for me and you also get the voice command to let you know you have changed environment.
All in all the Jabra 85h are a win coming in at a good price and cheaper than its main competitors. I am huge headphone and earphone fan but don’t claim to be an audiophile expert but I can honestly say from testing countless pairs of both now over the years and owning a huge collection these will not disappoint you if you can shell out the price, You have to pay to play as they say and these will play music to your ears in one the best audio experiences out there. With the ANC turned on they shine..
Key features of the Jabra Elite 85h
- SmartSound: Audio that automatically adapts to your surroundings
- One-click access: Voice Assistant access at the push of a button
- Four colour variations: Black, Titanium Black, Gold Beige and Navy
- Battery: Up to 36-hour battery with ANC activated and 41 hours without ANC
- Microphones: 8 microphones in total. 6 dedicated for calls, 4 for ANC and 2 hybrid mics for both calls and ANC.
- Speakers: 40 mm custom-engineered speakers
- Durability: Unique IP52 dust and rain resistance, backed by a 2-year warranty against water and dust
- Personalise: Jabra Sound+ app for SmartSound features, including customised settings
- BUY – http://www.jabra.co.uk/bluetooth-headsets/jabra-elite-85h
VIDEO AND APP REVIEW