Quality headphones for almost every pocket. This is what Jabra proposes to us with its new Jabra Elite 4 headphones handset Designed to offer the durability and versatility that athletes demand, and which, despite costing less than a hundred euros, includes features that are usually only offered by more expensive headphones, such as active noise cancellation, IP55 certification or the interesting “Go Solo” function. which allows you to use one earbud to listen to music or make calls while the other is charging.

Of course, this price requires some compromises, and these are of course noticeable once we start using them. Made of plastic, the feeling they offer in the hand, their lightness and comfort when wearing, certainly distance them from other top models of the same brand, such as e.g. Jabra Elite 7 Active or Elite 7 Pro. Although the Danish brand offers different pads, the grip is not the same as that of other models, but even so it is not particularly problematic. In our case, they adapted well to our auditory pavilion and remained “in place” during exercise. Yes, the case is as fragile as it is light, and of course it does not include the option of wireless charging (we have a USB-C connector). There is no objection to this last pointJabra can’t do miracles either.

As with other headphones of the brand, on the outside earplugs we will find a button that will help us control the music, pause it or continue playing it in the case; and enable or disable ANC mode on the other side as well as transparency mode. The buttons are not a big mystery and we can only give them a small drawback that they are perhaps a bit “hard”, so with regular use we end up pushing the handset a little more into the ear. On the other hand, unlike other models, if one of the headphones falls out or we separate them, the music does not automatically pause, but continues playing.

more than you expect

In order to really listen to music from just one earbud, the other will need to stay inside the charging case, which is useful in many situations, from needing to use one earbud for calls to listening to music or a podcast. bed.. But despite some shortcomings, on the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised that Jabra decided to keep its Bluetooth Multipoint technology, which allows us to smoothly change the sound source (whether it is applications or calls) from two devices at the same time. Also, the autonomy, which behaves better than expected in this price category, reaches up to 28 hours of continuous listening if we do not activate its ANC technology, and 22 if we do.

If we download the Jabra app and register our elite 4, We will have access to some other interesting additional functions that go beyond the possibility of updating the firmware, such as the ability to determine how much noise reduction we want to use when we activate ANC or Transparency, adjust the volume of the voice, “play” with a small equalizer, check the battery status or device functionality Find My Jabra locate the last place where the headphones were connected to the device.

Internally, the Jabra Elite 4 Active has support for Bluetooth 5.2 s aptX and SBCwhich is synonymous with smooth audio streaming for all devices, especially Android, while we may be missing AAC codec support, which usually works better for iOS devices.

When it comes to active noise cancellation, we can’t forget that we have basic headphones in our hands, so we won’t get the experience that headphones like the Sony WF-1000XM4 or Bose QuietComfort can offer us, but still provide and noticeable noise reduction which surrounds us in most situations, more so in the middle and high sounds than in the lowest ones. However, since they fit well in our ears, it’s fair to say that their passive noise cancellation does a good job, and in general we could say that we don’t have much to complain about on this point.

Sound quality and clarity during calls

And the million dollar question…how do they sound Basically like most headphones aimed at a consumer audience in this price range. There is no significant emphasis on most frequencies and it maintains a “neutral” tone suitable for good listening to most of our music collection.

We don’t find particularly deep bass or surprising clarity in the middle or high tones. In other words, although the sound of these Jabra Elite 4 Active is quite flat, it is more than enough to satisfy the needs of 90% of the users for whom it is intended. Without our consumption, it doesn’t go further than listening to Spotify on our smartphone, we really don’t miss much.

To improve the quality of our calls, the new Jabra includes 4 microphones, more than decent to keep the conversation clear in most situations, even if there is a slight background noise, improving in this respect what we can find in headphones with similar functions.

As a whole, the Jabra Elite 4, while not having the advanced features found in many upper mid-range headphones on the market, delivers what users care about the most: more than decent sound quality, noise cancellation well beyond what we’re usually capable of . find in this price category and good autonomy. It is not so easy to find this combination with other brands.