Jabra just made the perfect workout earbuds.
I’m not exaggerating. After more than two weeks of wearing the new $329 Elite Active 75t to run outside, listen to jams while working, and stay connected with phone calls to everyone I know, I can’t find a single flaw with these completely wireless earbuds. And I still haven’t run out of battery life, which is pretty damn impressive.
I’ve tried most of the completely wireless sweat-resistant earbuds on the market, from Apple’s extremely popular (and pricey) AirPods Pro and its Beats-branded Powerbeats Pro to more affordable fitness-focused options from Jaybird. Jabra’s sweat-proof Elite Active 75t is the best pair of Bluetooth earbuds that you can buy.
Jabra Elite Active 75t
What is it?
The perfect pair of workout earbuds
Price
$329
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Comfortable fit that doesn't budge when running. Lengthy battery life. Superior audio with customisable equaliser.
No like
Can't charge wirelessly, but that doesn't really bother me tbh.
Jabra took everything we loved about its $299 Elite 75t earbuds and made them waterproof for just $30 more. The base 75t earbuds have an IPX55 rating; Jabra bumped up the coating to an IPX57 for the Active model so you can fearlessly run outside in a rainstorm if you wanted to.
I think that peace of mind is worth the extra $30, but I’m a person who shorted out her AirPods by working out with them 4-5 times a week for a year. (I played with fire and had to spend $250 on a second pair of AirPods. Don’t be me!)
I really loved Jabra’s Elite Active 65t for workouts, but the fit wasn’t perfect. Jabra refined the design of the Elite Active 75t by shaving the earbud down slightly—gone is the microphone that juts out like a phone. That’s been trimmed down into a rounded bump that nestles right inside my ear.
I have small ears, and occasionally find that even customisable earbuds don’t fit quite right. The Elite Active 75t earbuds fit perfectly, and I don’t feel any pressure after lengthy listening sessions like I do with Samsung’s Galaxy Buds+.
Jabra’s new workout ‘buds don’t offer active noise cancellation like Apple’s $399 AirPods Pro do, but to be honest, it kind of sounds like they do. When running outside on the streets of Los Angeles wearing the Elite Active 75t, I can barely hear the sound of traffic while listening to my bass-heavy playlist. For safety purposes, you can toggle on Jabra’s HearThrough feature, a transparency mode that allows in ambient noise, in the Jabra Sound+ smartphone app. I don’t love using this on windy days, because the microphones pick up every rustle, but it will help you pay attention to your surroundings on the road.
The Elite Active 75t sports similar audio quality to its predecessor, with the ability to fine-tune your preferences in the Sound+ app. I prefer a bass boost when I’m running, so I toggled the equaliser to that setting, and the 75t earbuds handle booming tracks with ease. When it comes to phone calls, I still prefer Apple’s cheapest AirPods, both because they’re so seamlessly linked to my iPhone and because I can talk without sounding muffled to my own ears. But the Elite Active 75t made an outdoor, post-run phone call to my mum easy, because I didn’t have to take out my earbuds.
Aside from the fit and audio quality, my favourite Elite Active 75t feature is its battery life, which rivals Samsung’s Galaxy Buds+, lasting 28 hours on a charge. (The ‘buds themselves last 7.5 hours in between juicing up in their case.) I’ve been using these things for two weeks and I’ve only finally drained the charging case. The earbuds themselves are now at 25 per cent, so I guess I should plug them in. Jabra’s earbuds charge over USB-C—while they don’t offer a wireless charging feature, that doesn’t really matter to me.
When it comes to workouts, I need a lightweight, comfortable fit with high-quality sound that can power me through an outdoor run or an indoor gym session. Sweat-resistance is non-negotiable. With the Elite Active 75t, Jabra has undercut Apple on price—AirPods Pro and Powerbeats Pro are both $US250 ($408)—and surpassed its rival’s workout earbuds when it comes to audio quality and battery life. Buy these. You won’t regret it.
README
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Waterproof
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Incredible battery life
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More affordable than AirPods Pro, with better sound quality