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The Jabra Elite 4 earbuds offer high quality and lots of functionality at a competitive price. Unfortunately, things aren’t free from avoidable sloppiness. Jabra is not yet ready
The Jabra Elite 4 earbuds offer high quality and lots of functionality at a competitive price. Unfortunately, things aren’t free from avoidable sloppiness.
Jabra is not yet ready for its test piece with the Jabra Elite 4 (91 euros incl. VAT). Here’s what we see: The wireless earbuds come in a compact but lightweight box that feels quite premium. That goes for the earbuds themselves too, which we think have an excellent fit. Jabra ships the Elite 4 with three earbud sizes, with the medium one fitting perfectly for us.
Both the earbuds and the box of the Jabra Elite 4 are equipped with a very subtle but practical LED light. This will light up briefly each time you take the earbuds out of the box or put them back in. Green indicates the battery is full, orange means the charge is medium, and red means it’s time for a charge. With the lights, Jabra ensures that you always know what the state of charge of the box and earbuds is without any additional effort, so that you can recharge in time.
Charging is done via the box and USB Type-C. Jabra states that the earbuds last 5.5 hours on a single charge. If you keep them in the box, they will recharge, so the total autonomy will be 22 hours with active noise cancellation on. We started using the Jabra Elite 4 for three months and found that these numbers are not exaggerated. Commuting isn’t a problem anyway, since we don’t usually drive more than 5.5 hours from our place of residence to work with the NMBS.
For longer sessions, such as a flight, the five hours of autonomy are feasible. During that time, the Jabra Elite 4 also remain quite comfortable, although after around four hours we realize that it’s comfortable to take them out for a while. If you then put the Elite 4 back in the box, a ten-minute break is enough for an additional hour of listening pleasure.
On one occasion during our testing period, we managed to hit the road with empty headphones, and that’s after ignoring several opportunities to charge, despite the clear red light on the pits lighting up in good time. This means that you can commute a few more times to the pits with a red light if necessary. The box is fully recharged in less than four hours.
Jabra equips the earphones with two large push buttons. This lets you record when someone calls, pause your songs or select the next song, adjust the volume, and more. The surface of the earphone that is easily accessible in the ear is part of the push button. Visually, this button is perfectly hidden, it is practically impossible to press it next to it. The solution is very elegant, easy to use and we prefer touch-sensitive alternatives.
The sound quality is excellent in our opinion. The neutral equalizer profile is balanced, with nice bass that doesn’t dominate. The upper part of the spectrum also comes into its own without crowding out the middle part. In its price range, the Jabra Elite 4 does an excellent job, with a balance that we prefer over the OnePlus alternatives, for example.
Active noise cancellation (ANC) is a little less spectacular compared to the same OnePlus Buds. When music is playing, the Elite 4’s ANC certainly does its job, but we do notice that in noisy environments, a little more noise reaches our eardrums than some alternatives. Even repetitive noises sometimes dare to be insufficiently filtered out, although theoretically ANC can handle exactly this type of noise very well.
The Jabra Elite 4 works with an optional app on your phone that allows you to personalize the ANC, so to speak. From our point of view, this is a tangled mess with no audible added value. The ANC isn’t bad by any means and we enjoy the soothing cocoon that the Elite 4 earbuds create, but there are alternatives on the market in this price range that filter out a bit more noise.
You can turn off ANC by pressing the left earbud listen through switch. For example, Jabra transmits ambient noise without having to remove the earphones. This is useful when you want to say something quickly, and it works well. Only: listen through activate, the music is not paused. You do this by pressing the right earcup, but if you press both buttons at the same time or very quickly, the Elite 4 sometimes dares to ignore one of the two commands. As a result, it sometimes takes longer than we would like before we are ready for a short conversation with the headphones.
Jabra positions the earbuds as suitable for both work and play. Multipoint Bluetooth connectivity should help with this. There is no certification for professional communication services such as Teams, but of course it works perfectly. The earphones are compatible with Tap Spotify. This makes it theoretically possible to continue playback via Spotify by pressing the left earcup. Double-tapping lets Spotify select a song. We are not convinced of the function because it more or less doesn’t work in combination with our Oppo Find X5 Pro.
A phone call or video call with the headphones works perfectly. Even in noisy environments, our conversation partners usually understand us well. Conversely, we also hear what the other says. Jabra integrates a function in which your own voice sounds over the headphones when you make a call. This is a useful addition, because it is sometimes difficult to judge the volume of your voice when the sound suppression is switched on.
Jabra knows how to make good headphones and the Jabra Elite 4 is a good example of that. We are a fan in daily use. Within a very short time, the earphones proved to be a loyal and comfortable companion that was responsible for the soundtrack of many a commute and business trip.
For such use, we particularly recommend the Elite 4. If meetings and phone calls are the main purpose, there are more suitable products, such as Jabra’s Evolve series itself. Listening to music and having an important conversation every now and then is quite possible.
A few inaccuracies prevent the Jabra Elite 4 earbuds from being perfect. Slightly more aggressive active noise cancellation is possible at this price point. We also find the fact that pressing a button is not enough to have a short conversation with someone standing next to you to be sloppy. This is offset by high processing quality with practical LED lights and buttons, a good fit and high reliability. Feel free to buy but know the small limitations.
Source: IT Daily
As an experienced journalist and author, Mary has been reporting on the latest news and trends for over 5 years. With a passion for uncovering the stories behind the headlines, Mary has earned a reputation as a trusted voice in the world of journalism. Her writing style is insightful, engaging and thought-provoking, as she takes a deep dive into the most pressing issues of our time.
