Household & Living

Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t – Great built in-ear headphones

Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t offers great sound, comfortable fir and water resistance. The model is easily a winner and a must buy product.

True wireless headphones are now way past the problems that plagued early attempts at this technology. There is now access to many options at many price points – and all offer a good range of features and solid connectivity. Launched in 2019 , the Jabra Elite Active 75t quickly became one of our favorite headsets – and the Elite Active 75t takes that solid foundation and makes them even more appealing to, well, active types.

Design and build of Jabra Elite Active 75t

  • IP57 waterproof
  • Three sizes of earplugs
  • 5.5 g each, 35 g box
  • Range of color options

The design of the Jabra Elite Active 75t is identical to the Elite 75t; to look at, you would only be able to tell the difference if you knew which models were available in which colors. Jabras’s distinctive model here is the Classic Blue – as you can see in our review photos – which is Pantone’s color of the year 2020.

What has changed is the level of protection these earphones offer against the ingress of water and dust, to an IP57 rating (from an IP55 rating in the idle model). Jabra says these earbuds are completely waterproof and sweat resistant, and come with a two-year warranty, so you can use and abuse them with confidence.

What we really like about the Jabra design is the fit. The earbuds are available in three sizes to fit your ear perfectly. These earbuds don’t hang around and don’t feel like they fall when you move your head – they’re secure and we’ll balance in your ears once.

That’s an ideal match for sports – that’s what these earphones are designed for – but the Active also works perfectly for everyday use. We’ve been using the Elite 75t as our daily drivers for many months – and the Active 75t offers the same great everyday performance and comfort, but now with that extra protection against water.

The included case – while not the most exquisite – does the job perfectly, housing and charging those earbuds, keeping them protected when in a bag.

Performance, sound and tuning of Jabra Elite Active 75t

  • MySound custom tuning
  • Equalizer or presets
  • Great isolation
  • Update for active noise cancellation

Make sure the Jabra Elite Active 75t fits perfectly and most external noise is locked out. That does two things: first, it ensures that you listen undisturbed. Second, it ensures that you maintain the sound quality of the audio you are listening to, so you don’t have to turn up the volume to compete with background noise.

This is in contrast to, for example, the Google Pixel Buds 2 , which are designed to let in some background music so that you remain aware of your surroundings. What Jabra offers, however, is something called HearThrough.

Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t

With the HearThrough function you can press a button so that it lets in outside sounds. It’s actually the best of both worlds: you can tap the button when you’re walking down the street, so you’re aware of the bike coming behind you, for example; or allowing you to shut the world out thanks to the great fit and insulation, with a late 2020 update that also adds noise cancellation to the mix.

HearThrough can be used when you are listening to music or you can use the app to pause the music when you turn on HearThrough – something you can do when you order coffee, for example. The choice is yours.

Following the launch of the Jabra Eilte 85t headphones, Jabra has released an update to the Elite Active 75t to add active noise cancellation to the older headphones as well. That can give you an extra layer of noise cancellation, but the newer (and more expensive) Elite 85t generally offers a better and more powerful active noise cancellation solution. For those with the 75t, the update is a bonus, but for those who want the best ANC, you’ll find the Elite 85t performs better.

Ahead, Jabras companion app offers a variety of sound customizations. First, there is MySound – which adjusts the left and right earcups to your hearing with a small test – and second, there are sound settings – bass boost, speech and equalizer sliders – so you get exactly the sound you want.

That means the Jabra Elite Active Active 75t can be as bassy as you want – you’re not stuck with anyone else’s idea of ​​what a good sound profile is.

And the sound quality of these true wireless earbuds is great. Not only because of the great fit and adjustment options, but also because the ‘buds naturally have the balance and volume to provide a great listening experience.

Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t

That also results in calls. Some headsets really don’t handle calls well, but thanks to a four-microphone system and noise canceling, you can call in crowded places and still be clear.

More functions through the app

  • Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa
  • Button customization

Flexibility is one of the useful features of the Jabra Elite Active 75t – and there’s plenty you can control from the app. We’ve already talked about sound, but you can also change the functionality of the button controls.

There is a button on both earbuds and these can be set for a range of functions: control music, activate a voice assistant on your phone (Siri, Google, Alexa) or control calls and in-call functions. There is potential here that things can get very confusing, so it’s great that you can start tweaking it however you want. That means you can assign single, double, or triple pushes on either side to do whatever you want. It is great flexibility.

Jabra Elite Active 75t

Battery life of Jabra Elite Active 75t

  • 7.5 hours; 28 hours in total

Fully charged, the Jabra Elite Active 75t offers a battery life of 7.5 hours according to Jabra specifications. That is a good result and a figure that appears to be realistic in our tests. Once you put your earbuds back into the case, the charge in the latter will naturally charge the earbuds.

Jabra Elite Active 75t

The case itself gives you a total of 28 hours of use, so several charges are available. There’s a USB-C socket on the back of the case to charge it and the battery level is displayed on your device in the app – as well as through the notification panel you get on Android phones when you’re connected. Using the active noise cancellation will reduce battery life, but we think it’s worth it and the Jabra still did a decent job.

For those who want to charge wirelessly, there is a version of the Jabra Elite Active 75t that also has a wireless charging case, so you can just place the case on your charger and let it charge itself.

Conclusion

Hailing from the same shape as the Jabra Elite 75t, there was no question that these headphones were going to be any good. The excellent fit and sound quality make for an easily recommendable product – and certainly one of our favorites for the balance of features at this price.

But when you’re this close to the Jabra Elite 75t’s features and performance, the question you really need to ask is whether you need that higher level of waterproofing from the Active model. If not, you may be able to save some money by opting for the less sporty model. Either way, you get a great, truly wireless headphone experience.

In favor of buying Jabra Elite Active 75t

  • Great customizable sound
  • IP57 water resistance
  • Comfortable fit
  • Great app with customization
  • Long battery life
  • Active noise cancellation via update

Against buying Jabra Elite Active 75t

  • Not vastly different from the cheaper Elite 75t model