I want to love these headphones. I really do. I don't want to be another douchebag finance bruh with an airpod sticking out (literally) of their ears. It's a pain for me to walk to my midtown offices where you'll most likely see them powerwalk to their corner offices in their custom-made suits. I'm not about that life. So I decided to see what's out there.
Samsung? eh.. I do use a S9+ but I've never been a fan of their audio products. Bragi? seems too startup-y and worried about them not being around for too long.. Bose or B&O? seems like they're behind the curve with the 4.x bluetooth tech when 5.0 is available.. plus wasn't too sure about their water/sweat resistance considering my active lifestyle.. Jaybirds? I've used their "wired" bluetooth headphones but wasn't really feeling the look. So the only option left were the elite 65t and the active version and I chose the elite 65t simply because of the low-key colorway.
Setup
Pretty easy. I connected it to my Galaxy S9+ and 2 laptops and it was a breeze. Just a simple long-hold of the right side bud button and find it available on the various devices.
Fit
The small bud size that is equipped as the default wasn't creating a tight fit in my ears so at first, it sounded very air-y. after trying on the other earpiece options, I found that the largest one fit my ears the best and creates the ideal fit & outside-noise blockage.
Material quality
It's plastic. Everything's plastic. And I have no issues with that. One potential issue I see is with thin piece of plastic that holds shut the case. That thing was not designed to last so optimistically (opening & closing the case around 10 times a day), it'll last 2 years at most. I've learned to be very gentle in my approach.
Audio Quality
Very good. Companion app helps a bit with equalizing the low, mid, high (also you should probably download it to get the latest software updates). I generally listen to hip-hop, rock, classical and personally I think it covers the various genres very well. You really need to get a good fit in order to fully appreciate the audio drivers.
Day-to-day usage
Ok so here's where the story goes downhill and never recovers. Is it just me or is Bluetooth "5.0" just a blanket marketing term? In my old job, I've used Bluetooth 5.0 headsets (connected to PC) and walked around my office without dropping any audio (I actually went outside to the 1st floor just below my desk on the 5th floor and it still worked. amazeballs). I was expecting the same from these headsets. Instead the audio constantly skips when my phone is in my pocket. Ok.. maybe my pants are lined with some sweat-wicking materials that's interfering with the signals possibly? So i try on my suit pants (I don't wear full suits thankfully) to check and yup, still skip city. OK so I guess I'll just have to adjust my life to fit the needs of the phone and start holding it while walking (I do walk alot living in the city).. But nope. Still cuts in and out. It's a shame really.
Another thing that irks me is that whenever I take out my headset there's a very subtle static-y noise. It gives me a nice wake-up around 2pm when food coma kicks in tho.
Another thing that annoys me is that sometimes when I take the earbuds out and I don't take out the left buds quickly enough, the right earbud will connect by itself thinking that I'm going 1-bud for a phone call so the left bud won't work until I take out the right bud, put it back into the case, and take em back out quickly or at the same time. Annoying.
One thing I do love is the hear-through feature (enabled by double-pressing the right earbud button). I bike around the city often and being able to hear the cars, other bikes, and pedestrians is really helpful and got me out of possible accidents. However I'm never certain about the direction from which the sound is coming from so I essentially go into a Meerkat-like state and check all my periphery to see what's going on. I do think the soundstage (available in more higher-end audio equipment where various audio sources can be "placed" in different "spaces" to give a spacial effect) is a lacking feature and/or is too subtle to even be called a soundstage. A big miss in my opinion.
Battery life
It's ok. I get a good 5 hours per charge and the case can give another 2 charges so at least the battery life is as advertised. I haven't figured out the battery life indicator on the case yet but wish it was a meter rather than a blinking light but i'll learn to live with it.
Mic Quality
It's great. It has more mics than you'll ever care but it's honestly the one redeeming factor of the day-to-day experience. I'm constantly on a skype call through my phone or laptop and after testing it with skype's mic test & hear-back feature, I can say that the quality is top notch. I've used it with Google Assistant while hitting around 20mph on 8th ave in NYC and even with the wind-noise, cabs, etc. it worked flawlessly.
One annoying thing is that when it's connected to 2 devices and I'm switching from listening to spotify on my phone to getting on a call on skype on my laptop, it doesn't always switch consistently. Sometimes I have to disconnect it from my phone for it to be "dedicated" to the laptop but I've seen that happen on other bluetooth headsets so can't knock jabra too hard for that.
Conclusion
Overall, if you're sitting at your cubicle and want to isolate yourself from the world (but maybe listen in on the office gossips using the hear-through feature), it's great. If you're on the move constantly and can't afford to hold your phone close to your ears, it's a hit or miss.
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