Jabra Elite Active 65t review: More than just your regular AirPods alternatives
Finding a good pair of earphones is never an easy task – one that becomes even more difficult when you're looking for something in the truly wireless category. Options are limited, and more often than not, the price tag and feature set that truly wireless earphones come with just don't add up.
However, with demand for these growing, and the biggest names in the audio equipment business jumping into the fray, things are now looking up for what many expect to be the future of the earphones industry.
The Denmark-based audio equipment maker, Jabra, has been one of the brands attempting to help truly wireless earphones transition from niche to mass market products.
Earlier last month, Jabra added to its portfolio the Elite Active 65t, which, owing to its IP56 rating, is being marketed as more than just your regular Apple AirPods alternatives.
Apart from being dust and water-resistant to an extent, these truly wireless earphones also promise a host of other features, including integration with popular voice-based assistants such as Amazon's Alexa, or a choice between Siri and Google Assistant depending upon the operating system installed on your smartphone.
But, with a price tag of Rs 14,999, do these features justify the price? Let's find out.
Design
To begin with, the design of the Jabra Elite Active 65t is quite similar to the Elite 65t that the company introduced earlier this year. Except for the new colour scheme, the outer shell of the Active 65t looks very similar to its predecessor's.
The Active 65t comes in matte navy blue/red with copper-coloured buttons which makes it look a little flashier compared to the Elite 65t. The buttons offer basic functionality in terms of physical controls. The button on the right earbud is the master controller which can be pressed to pause/play and also fire up the phone's choice of voice assistant. The left one can be used to increase or decrease the volume as well as skip the track that is playing.
In terms of the finish, we found the look and feel of these in-ear headphones to be quite premium. The earphones also impress with their build quality and feel quite solid despite being lightweight.
Owing to the in-ear earbud design, the earphones fit snugly in the ear, making them a good option for those looking for a pair of truly wireless earphones that can be used while working out.
During the time I reviewed the Jabra Elite Active 65t, I found this to be particularly true. I took the pair out for a run once, and on another day, even tried playing football with them on. To my surprise, the earphones managed to not slip out of my ears on both the occasions.
Another thing that plays to the Active 65t's advantage is the design of the earbuds. Because of the soft silicone earbuds – that Jabra ships in four different sizes with the earphones – prolonged usage is also not a problem.
Features and performance
In terms of the features, the Jabra Elite Active 65t brings with it more than a few to win over users.
Using Bluetooth 5.0, Jabra's Elite Active 65t promises stable wireless connection. But does it do so? Well, yes.
Though Jabra is not really targeting multimedia consumers and gamers with the earphones, it is interesting to note the Elite Active 65t works great for them too. During my time using the earphones, I noticed no discernable lag, making them great for watching videos or playing games both on the smartphone and PC.
The other impressive thing about the Active 65t is its battery life. Jabra ships the earphones with a protective charging case that can also hold two cycles worth of charge for times when you are not close to a charging point. Overall, with the charging case and the earphones fully charged, the Elite Active 65t offers 15 hours of battery life which, to be honest, should be good for most users.
In terms of performance, the Active 65t does quite well. Despite the sound quality not being truly exceptional – majorly because of being truly wireless earphones in nature - the expensive earphones do not disappoint. The performance ranges between great and pretty good depending on the choice of music thrown at it.
The drivers inside the earphones provide deep bass, while the treble too is quite pronounced. The range of the earphone as such is quite impressive, with the Active 65t pushing clear audio even at high notes.
However, if you aren't satisfied with how the 65t performs, you can head over to the Sound+ app and use the inbuilt equaliser to tune the output to your preference.
Apart from tweaking the equaliser settings, the Sound+ offers a host of other features that help the Active 65t set itself apart from the competition. From within the application, users can choose from presets such as Commute and Focus which using the earphone's inbuilt mics and the applications Hear Through feature lets users decide how much ambient noise they want to let in while listening to music.
Despite only providing passive noise cancellation, the Elite Active 65t is good at blocking external sound, and thus, this Hear Through feature comes in extremely handy while traveling in the metro, at the railway station or at an airport where you'd like to be aware of your surroundings.
Talking about the Sound+ application, it's also worth mentioning that it doesn't always work as it's intended to.
Though I was more than satisfied with the functionality it offered, it was a nightmare to get the application working for me in the first place. More often than not, the application failed to recognise the earphones, despite them being connected to the phone. However, these are issues that should be easily fixed by Jabra with an app update in the future.
Should you buy them?
Well, the answer to that depends on what you desire from your pair of earphones. Make no mistake, the Jabra Elite Active 65t is not for the true audiophile. But having said that, no earphones currently available in the truly wireless segment really is. The Active 65t offers you above par sound quality, rugged build quality, water and dust proofing and good battery performance, all the while managing to remain wireless – that is no mean feat in itself.
The Sound+ app, despite the connectivity issues I faced, definitely adds value to the package that Jabra offers. The high price point could be a barrier, but then again, if you've decided to go into the market for a pair of truly wireless earphones, then the Rs 14,999 price tag shouldn't bother you too much.
Overall, the Jabra Elite Active 65t is one of the more compelling options available in the market right now, and despite its flaws, it comes recommended.