Jabra Elite 7 Pro | Test –

If you are a regular reader of Din Side, you may have realized that we have been praised many times. Jabra Elite 75t And 75t active, which to this day are among the best pairs of earplugs that we know, which at the time of writing you will get for 1200 and 1500 kroner respectively.

For thousands of dollars on a 75t model, not far from twice the price, you can get the new top-of-the-line Jabra model, the Elite 7 Pro, which we had pretty high expectations when they arrived at the office. In the meantime, the company also launched the Elite 85t, which we were a bit tepid with four on the dice when we tested them for Dagbladet Plus (subscription required) Last year.

And sadly we must say that we are disappointed this time too. Because even though the Elite 7 Pro delivers so it stays on paper, we think the company has made some strange choices this time around. And the promised premium quality of hands-free calling doesn’t get any better, as you’ll hear lower audio clips.

Great battery life

Let’s start with something positive, which is that the Jabra Elite 7 Pro scores very well in battery life. We have no reason to doubt Jabra’s stated 8-hour battery life in the ear, with roughly three additional full charges in the case, which then becomes a total of 30 hours. It is among the best.

The case has a new form factor this time around – lower, but deeper and wider, with both the top and bottom being completely flat. Those who like wireless charging can add an additional 200 kroner to the version with a wireless rechargeable case. With the cable, of course, USB-C is used, and a small diode indicates the remaining battery on the case when opened.

As with most other devices, the plugs lock into place when placed in the case via magnets, and are also easy to catch back when in use. The case opens relatively easily, and we can imagine it could open quickly in a bag or something.

The earplugs are also IP57 certified, and Jabra is still alone in offering a two-year warranty against water damage, as many other products of this type do.

Many people appreciate the ability to use one plug at a time while the other is parked in the case, and it works on both the left and right ear of the Elite 7 Pro. The music pauses when a component is removed, so it must be restarted by pressing afterwards. Depending on how the buttons on the left and right ear are set up, this may need to be done on the phone.

Unfortunately, multipoint is not supported, you can connect to two sources at the same time, but it seems to be Something Jabra will include in a future update.

The fit is as good as usual from Jabra, which through parent company GN Hearing (the maker of hearing aids) has analyzed tens of thousands of ears to find the shape that fits most people. We notice them very well where they sit in the ear and cannot do this for hours without a break or three, but this applies to most plugs of this type, which must be well inserted into the ear canal.

Good customization options

Another thing Jabra is good at is giving you the opportunity for the user to customize the earplugs to suit your preferences, which is also true of previous models.

First, it comes with 3 pairs of rubber tips in the box so you can find the best ones, and in the app you can do a proper test to make sure you have the necessary insulation in your ear. A good fit is a prerequisite for noise reduction and bass reproduction.

By sitting in a quiet place and taking a listening test, you can have an audio picture that adapts to how well you hear different frequencies, and via the five-level equalizer, you can pull the levers to adjust them further to your liking.

In terms of audio, we think the Jabra Elite 7 Pro sounds very good, but it lacks the fidelity and clarity we get from Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 And it also fails to deliver power as effectively and attractively as the above 75 hours no matter how much we pull the jacks. But we think most people will be well satisfied, at least after adjusting a bit.

What happens when you press the left and right earplugs once, twice, and three times, you are also free to configure – your finger is used to adjust the volume. We’re still a bit surprised we couldn’t switch between noise reduction, ambient sound, and “off” directly on the ear — just the last two. If you want to use active noise reduction, you must turn it on via the app (iOS/Android).

Eh… noise reduction?

It elegantly takes us to the next topic – active noise reduction. “Give the sound the silence it deserves” is the name of the Jabra promotion page, but here just to make it clear that Jabra isn’t even close to the best.

The function setting is also very strange, as you have to drag a switch with nine possible positions. It’s not explained – you just have to choose which one mutes the sound the most, but in our ears there is very little difference, as we can hardly pick a favourite, and the noise reduction is very modest anyway.

If you don’t hear a difference you will be asked to find a more noisy environment or make sure the plugs fit properly, but we had a good fit (app approved) and a lot of noise around us without much help. Even after a lot of fiddling, the difference between ‘ANC’ and ‘off’ is almost non-existent.

Here the sound is more muted when we try to use the Elite 75t Active, which In fact It didn’t have active noise reduction at launch, but got it through a software update and also Airpods Pro Attenuates the sound even more. The Bose QuietComfort earbuds are still the best in their class, which makes a huge impact on noise reduction.

But also “the other way”, where you want to let in sound from the outside, we don’t think Jabra’s HearThrough function is very good either, despite the fact that this was something the company was among the pioneers in 85h headphones. We don’t naturally hear the sound around us and our own voice like when we use the audio enhancement function on Airpods Pro, for example.

It should have been better on the handsfree

The new Jabra Edition is set to the highest standard with Elite 7 Pro which is hands-free quality, via the new MultiSensor Voice™ technology. It uses four microphones, bone conduction (bone conduction, transmitting sound through the bone) and a VPU (sound capture unit), which can detect wind noise. Then the algorithms combined the various sources, which according to Jabra should provide crystal clear voice for conversations in all environments. According to marketing, they should have been the best here, in other words.

but good. They’re better than average, but if we compare them to the Airpods Pro and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, both known for their good hands-free sound, we feel the Jabra falls a bit short.

Below we have recorded a short audio recording of each of the three – the first with approx. 70dB background noise provided by YouTube and living room stereo system:

So, one of the options where we are in a simulated storm environment, provided by the car’s air conditioning system:

Here we have to say that the Jabra plugs give the least pleasant sound in the first test, as it sounds quite choppy. It sounds better than both Apple and Bose, which are the two most capable of filtering out background noise. In the car, we press a button on the Airpods Pro in front of the other two, but even here it would be too tiring to have a long conversation on the Elite 7 Pro.

conclusion

Overall, we have to say we were disappointed with the Jabra Elite 7 Pro, which we had pretty high expectations – given how much we liked the 75t models.

It offers good battery life and rich opportunities to customize both the sound picture and how it plays, but it runs counter to what should be the biggest argument for why you should pay nearly double the price for 75 tons.

With almost zero noise reduction and without very Impressive hands-free performance, we think the price jump will be pretty big this time around.

Not that the number four on the dice signifies poor product on Din Side, but at this price we think you should get more.