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So these are the new Jabra Elite 85T’s… they’re completely different from the 75T’s and 65T’s and in general jabra has been doing a great job of refining their truly wireless earbuds year over year. Now the most notable new feature on these ear buds is that they have active noise cancellation but personally I really like their brand new fit and improved ambient mode.
Now when it comes to pricing the 85T’s retail for $230… and for comparison sake the Jabra Elite 75T’s used to retail for $180 when they first came out but you can pick them up for around $140 these days when they’re on sale. And again for comparison sake you can pick up the 65T’s for around $80 bucks. Nonetheless if you want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below.
Now as with any pair of truly wireless earbuds first lets address the case. The 85T’s have a very similar case to the 75T’s. This case has a matte finish to it, the lid is easy to open and close, and this case has strong magnets in it which make taking your earbuds out and putting them back in super easy. Now I know this might all sound super basic but this is very important to point out cause the 65T’s don’t have the best case out there. Now personally I really like the 85T’s case and its not super noticeable when you’ve got it in your pocket. However the 85T’s case is a little larger than the 75T’s case. Now its not a huge difference, and the 85T’s case size is definitely acceptable for today’s standards unlike the Bose QC earbud’s case which is just way too big… but if you are somebody that has been daily driving the 75T’s for a while now you will notice a difference. But in general the 85T’s have a good case.
Now one of the reasons the 85T’s case might be a little larger is cause it now has wireless charging. Now there are plenty of other earbuds out there that have wireless charging all while still having a smaller case like lets say AirPods, Galaxy Buds Plus, or Galaxy Buds live… but nonetheless it is nice to see that the 85T’s have wireless charging.
Now when it comes to battery life, these earbuds have an advertised combined battery life of 31 hours with their Active noise cancellation turned off. And since im someone that only uses the ANC on any of their earbuds when they have to… these earbuds have an above average battery. And with their active noise cancellation turned off the earbuds themselves can go for as long as 7 hours.
However with their active noise cancellation turned on these earbuds have an advertised combined battery life of 25 hours which is still very impressive. And for comparison sake the 75T’s have a combined battery life of 28 hours with their active noise cancellation turned off and the 65T’s have a combined battery life of 15 hours
But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves and their fit. Now personally I absolutely love how the 85T’s fit. Now these are in ear ear buds but they don’t fit like your standard pair of in ear ear buds like the 75T’s or 65T’s. Now yeah the 85T’s do go into your ear canals… but not all that much. The 85T’s only go into your ear canals a little bit similar to how the AirPods Pro do. But unlike the AirPods Pro… the ear tips on the 85T’s are a little stiffer. So for me these earbuds have been doing a noticeably better job of staying in place when I put them in unlike the AirPods Pro which do constantly like to wiggle out. Now personally I am not the biggest fan of in ear earbuds for long use sessions and thats why still prefer options like either your standard AirPods or galaxy buds live… but the 85T’s are very comfortable to wear for long use sessions. Now I don’t think that these would be the best option for working out but for casual use these earbuds fit great.
Now when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity there’s good news and bad news. Now the bad news is that these earbuds are still using a hero and sidekick set up. So one earbud, the hero earbud, in this case the right ear bud actually establishes a connection with your phone and then relays that connection over to the other earbud. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time you gotta use the correct earbud, in this case the right earbud.
However, with the 85T’s they can actually be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you can easily hot swap from one device to another which could be a big deal for power users. Now yeah it is unfortunate that the 85T’s are still using a hero and sidekick set up cause these days we want earbuds to be independent of one another… but at least you are getting simulations multi devices connectivity with these earbuds. Cause there are other earbuds out there that still using a hero and side kick set up but can only be connected to one device at a time like either the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s or the Bose QC earbuds.
But nonetheless when it comes to watching movies or videos on your phone these earbuds do have zero latency across the board whether your using an iPhone or an android device which is always great and when it comes to audio codecs these earbuds have support for SBC and AAC.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these earbuds. Now these earbuds sound like your typical pair of jabra earbuds as in yeah they have good instrument separation and a decent sound stage but what’s really special about them is that they have a lot of bass. Now the bass on these earbuds hits hard and it does resonate a little bit. But over all these are a pair of warm sounding earbuds which I personally like. Now these earbuds do have a fully customizable EQ but nonetheless these are better suited for people who like a more bass heavy EQ. Now when compared to the 75T’s, the 75T’s and 85T’s are pushing out the same amount of bass… But the biggest difference about them sound quality wise is that the 85T’s does sound a little more open than the 75T’s. And then there are the 65T’s which are very mids focused and are super flat when compared to these other two earbuds. Overall the 85T’s are a pair of well rounded earbuds with prominent bass that do sound a little more open than the 75T’s.
Now when it comes to controlling your music… these earbuds have the same physical buttons as the 75T’s. So if you’re someone that just doesn’t want to have to deal with touchups on their earbuds then these are the way to go. You can play and pause your music, you can skip a track, go back a track, cycle between active noise cancellation and your ambient mode, you can activate your voice assistant and you can even raise or lower your volume all from the earbuds themselves. Now personally I love when earbuds can give you all of this functionality without having to use your phone cause not all earbuds can do this.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these earbuds. Now for those who may not know, the Jabra Elite 75T’s recently got a software update that actually gives them Active Noise cancelation which is super impressive. Now in general the active noise cancellation on the 75T’s blocks out the same amount of noise as the 85T’s… but the 85T’s block out noise with significantly less cabin pressure than the 75T’s which leads to overall better comfort.
Now I do want to taper expectations here, the ANC on these earbuds isn’t going to block out nearly as much noise as a proper pair of over ear ANC headphones… and these earbuds are going to predominately block out constant low frequency sounds like road noise or the constant hum of an AC unit.
But with all that being said, when it comes to ranking the 85T’s block out less noise than the Bose QC earbuds, but they’re neck and neck with the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s, but they do block out noticeably more noise than both the AirPods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM3’s.
But from a performance standpoint, like I mentioned earlier the 85T’s block out the same amount of noise as the 75T’s but with less cabin pressure which is good. And their microphone array does a really good job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors. However their active noise cancellation does change how they sound. They get narrowed up a little but and the bass doesn’t hit as hard. So if you do want to get the best sound out of these guys you do want to use them with their ANC turned off.
But like I mentioned earlier I only use the ANC on any of my earbuds when I have to and what’s really important is a decent ambient mode… which is something these earbuds have. The ambient mode on the 85T’s sound more natural than the ambient mode on the 75T’s…. And unlike the 75T’s, the ambient mode on the 85T’s doesn’t develop a hissing in the background if you raise it to high like on the 75T’s. And again their microphone array does a really god job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors.
But finally here’s the microphone test. Now over all the microphone on these earbuds is decent but you do want to take phone calls with these earbuds in a quiet room.
Now the microphone on the 85T’s is definitely better than the microphone on the 65T’s which does sound rather robotic.
But the microphone on the 85T does sound identical to the microphone on the 75T.
The microphone on both the 85T’s and 75T’s let in the same amount of road noise.
And they also let in the same amount of chatter
So like I mentioned earlier, you do want to take phone calls with these earbuds in a quite room.
So with all the being said, personally I really like the new Jabra Elite 85T’s. In general Jabra has been doing a great job of refining their earbuds year over year. What I particularly like about the 85T’s is their new fit which I feel is a better version of how the AirPods Pro fit. I really like their improved ambient mode and these truly are a battery champ if you only use their Active noise cancellation when you have to like I do. And in general the active noise cancellation on these earbuds is very decent as well. Add to the fact that these are a pair of very well rounded sounding earbuds with strong bass and a decently small carrying case with wireless charging… I don’t think that you can go wrong with these earbuds.