Back in late 2021, Jabra overhauled and expanded its line of wireless earbuds, which included the release of its new flagship earbuds, the Elite 7 Pro. It’s no secret that we here at Gizmodo are pretty big fans of Jabra’s previous efforts. We loved the Jabra Elite 85t earbuds so much that we wrote not one but two reviews, praising how fantastic these small, lightweight earbuds sound.
Before even cracking these headphones out of the box, there were certain expectations. So how do the Elite 7 Pro stack up against the level of quality laid out by Jabra’s previous earbud efforts?
Jabra Elite 7 Pro True Wireless Earbuds
What is it?
Jabra's revamped wireless, noise cancelling earbuds.
Price
$299
Like
Incredibly light, long battery life, sound great, solid noise cancellation.
No Like
Bass lacks punch, some brief issues with charging and Bluetooth connection.
The Elite 7 Pro at first look
Compared to the Elite 85t, the charging case and individual earbuds of the Elite 7 Pro are noticeably less chunky. The earbuds for the Elite 7 Pro have been redesigned and are pretty lightweight, which works both to and against their advantage. This new design does make for an incredibly comfy fit and while wearing them, it barely feels like they’re in my ears. I wore them for a few extended periods and never suffered from any earaches. The interchangeable ear gel tips feel good too and create a nice seal for noise isolation.
However, the Elite 7 Pro are so light that they kept tricking my brain into thinking they’ve fallen out. I found myself regularly touching them to make sure they were still in.
I also found that the earbuds tended to creep a bit when I was moving a bit hurriedly. At no point did the earbuds actually fall out of my ear, but I feel like I need to adjust them regularly. I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing vigorous exercise with them in, but I guess that’s why Jabra also released the Elite 7 Active which comes with a special coating called “ShakeGrip”.
Each earbud has a single button that takes up the entirety of the outward-facing surface, so it’s not hard to get a finger on it if you want to pause your music or answer a call. Each earbud can be independently customised so certain button pushes trigger certain functions – eg. single tap the left earbud to turn on ANC, single tap the right earbud to pause/play music.
The charging case is sturdy and compact and seals itself with an internal magnetic clasp. The only issue with the charging case is that there’s no groove or indent on the front edge of the case. The entire thing is smooth and sealed tight. Flicking up the case with one hand is incredibly hard to do.
How do the Jabra Elite 7 Pro work?
One of the best features of these earbuds is their massive battery life. The Elite 7 Pro come with a playtime of up to eight hours with another 30 hours stored in the charging case. Depending on how frequently you use your earbuds, that’s a charge that could easily last you a whole week – possibly more.
Like previous releases, these earbuds can be customised using Jabra’s Sound+ companion app. With Sound+, you’ll be able to customise the audio equaliser, adjust Active Noise-Cancellation levels and assign button functions – the first two of which you can conveniently do from the app’s homepage.
Its MyFit feature is designed to test how well your earbuds fit by measuring noise levels and will provide advice on how to adjust them to get the best seal for noise isolation. I found the MyFit function worked a lot smoother with the Elite 7 Pro than what I experienced with the Elite 85t. On the few occasions that I tested my fit, I got a perfect result right off the bat or would only need minimal adjusting to get it right.
The Elite 7 Pro also has a multipoint Bluetooth function that allows you to be connected to two devices at once. I had the earbuds paired to my phone and my work laptop, and had no problem connecting and swapping with either device (Well, mostly no problems. More on that in a moment)
How do the Jabra Elite 7 Pro sound?
Great. The Elite 7 Pro sounds great.
Similar to the 85t, the Elite 7 Pro uses 6mm drivers and everything I’ve played through them has sounded clear and crisp. Jumping around a few different genres, everything sounded pretty balanced. While messing around with the equaliser, it does a nice job of making the treble and vocals a bit more pronounced. The only major issue with the earbuds is that the bass is a bit lacking, even when boosted with the equaliser. That boost definitely makes it a bit more pronounced, but overall it just doesn’t feel all that punchy.
In terms of phone calls, you can expect the same crisp audio as your music. The microphones are also nicely sensitive and should pick up your voice pretty clearly. Although depending on the background noise around you, the microphones can be a bit too sensitive. On a few phone calls I made while walking around the city, the person I was speaking to mentioned they could hear the pedestrian crossing beep when I was waiting to cross the street.
The Active Noise Cancellation feature is as good as it’s ever been. The change in atmosphere when flicking them on during peak hour public transport was as clear as night and day. The Sound+ app lets you adjust the ANC levels to block out sound, but I think it performs best when cranked to the max.
On the opposite side of the ANC coin, the Hear Through function is nice and clear. I had no problem understanding people the few times I wore the headphones while ordering coffee or chatting to co-workers.
Some teething problems
For the most part, I was pretty happy with how these wireless earbuds worked but I did have some problems with the Bluetooth connection.
When I first connected the earbuds to my Macbook, they wouldn’t play audio during a Google call. The Elite 7 Pro would also disconnect by itself and then struggle to reconnect. And when it would reconnect, the audio would still play through my laptop’s speakers. Thankfully, this only happened once, but it was frustrating as hell.
Occasionally one of the earbuds would totally drop out. I was worried it was a faulty earbud, but the other earbud also began dropping in and out randomly (although never both at the same time). It was an incredibly annoying occurrence, but it seems to have stopped after I reset the earbuds.
When I went to charge the earbuds for the first time (after letting the individual buds and charging case hit around 5% each), the case/earbuds wouldn’t charge when plugged into my wall adapter and my laptop. I didn’t realise they weren’t charging, so after leaving them for about an hour I was surprised to see there’d been zero progress. Looking around online, it seems like I wasn’t the only person who was having this issue as well. The fix was easy – resetting the earbuds – but it’s a pretty disappointing glitch.
I also tried updating the earbuds’ firmware and was given an ETA of about 15 minutes for it to load in, but it ended up taking just over an hour.
Are the Jabra Elite 7 Pro worth your time?
Overall, the Jabra Elite 7 Pro are good, but if you already own a pair of Elite 75t or 85t that are still in good knick, then these earbuds aren’t an essential upgrade. Those battery and earbud connection issues I had to deal with were frustrating but easily remedied. They seem to have been a one-off occurrence, so I wouldn’t judge them as harshly if they persisted.
For the sake of comparison, if you’re after a pair of wireless earbuds with ANC, a big name like Apple’s AirPods Pro would set you back $399 while Sony’s WF-1000XM4 retail for $348. The closest competitor in terms of price is the Sony LinkBuds S at $248.
At $299, the Jabra Elite 7 Pro are pretty well priced (more so if you can snag them on sale). Apart from a middling bass, they sound great with solid noise-cancellation, are lightweight and fit snuggly. They easily live up to the expectations that Jabra has set and are earbuds that can stand toe-to-toe with the best of them.