REVIEW – Over the years, I’ve got through dozens of headphones for various reasons, usually ones that come with my phone. Typically they don’t last long and with Apple’s decision to get rid of the headphone jack on their phones it has made Bluetooth headphones pretty much mandatory. As I have found that my new office has an abundance of very loud co-workers, I decided to take a chance with these Mpow Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones.

What is it?

These are over-the-ear wireless Bluetooth headphones with internal battery and USB charging cord.

What’s in the box?

• Headphones
• Charging and aux cord
• Storage Bag

Design and features

The headphones have simple controls, with the Play/Pause button acting as the power on/off button as well via a long press. A short press will activate the Play and Pause functions. Audible “Power On/Off” and a small LED indicator help you know the status of the headphones. There are simple pairing instructions. The Previous and Next buttons also work via a long press of the button, while a short press of each will turn the volume up and down. On the left earphone there is the ANC (Active Noice Cancelling) toggle switch to turn this feature on and off.

The active noise canceling, when activated, provides sound suppression via microphones on the inside and outside of the ear cup.

Additionally, when connected via Bluetooth to a cell phone, you can use the headphones in conjunction with Siri and your phone’s incoming and outgoing calls.

Performance

The active noise canceling is the first of two rather impressive features on these headphones. I use it rather frequently while working and listening to music. It may even work a little too well, as I have occasionally missed a call on my desk phone while listening to my music. Additionally, I have been able to effectively tune out a few co-workers who don’t quite understand volume control while they talk on their phones.

Next is quite possibly my favorite feature: 30 hours of battery life per charge. I go days and days without recharging considering I only use these at work. There is a warning when the battery gets low on power, but frankly, I’ve only heard it once. At 2-3 hours charging time, it doesn’t take long to get back to full charge.

The only qualm I would have with these headphones is the padding around the ears. Over long stretches, it does give some muscle fatigue to the ears and can be a bit warm as they trap in some heat. Taking short breaks is helpful, but I would say that I wouldn’t wear these beyond the 3-4 hours at a time that I typically wear them.

Finally, the audio quality is very good. I occasionally switch to my iPhone headphones and can tell a significant audio quality drop off between the two.

What I like

• Battery Life is PHENOMENAL
• Audio quality is great
• Noise canceling on these units works great
• Simple controls

What I would change

• Better ear padding

Final thoughts

Overall, these are some of the best noise-canceling headphones that I have had the chance to use. Once again, I can’t say more about the battery life on these headphones, I’m very impressed. Compared to some of the other names in the industry, I feel like the price point on these creates some incredible value as well. I recommend these without hesitation to anyone looking for a new set of headphones.

Price: $59.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by MPOW.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Bluetooth headphones

Mpow Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 22, 2019 at 9:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

REVIEW – Over the past year and a half, I have reviewed several Bluetooth earbuds with a wide range of results and conclusions. All of those earbuds were similar in design and function. Several years ago, I owned some bone conduction headphones, and while I loved the sound they produced, they were made of very rigid plastic, that would hurt to wear for an extended period. In addition, the rigid plastic meant very little flexibility, and eventually, they broke. Just recently, I got my hands on the Crane Bone Conduction Headphones. Since it has been years since my first experience, I want to believe that several design elements must have changed that would all but guarantee a different if not better experience. Let’s see!!

What is it?

The Crane Bone Conduction headphones allow you to listen to music and make calls without earbuds in your ears or anything heavy on your head and resolve the need to remove them whenever you need to hear other sounds or conversations. They also remain in place while you work out.

What’s in the box

1 x Crane Bone Conduction Headphones
1 x Micro USB Cable
2 x Ear Plugs
1 x User Guide

Design and features

Specifications
• Bluetooth: 5.0
• Weight: 26 grams
• Waterproof: IPX5
• Playtime: 4 hours playtime
• Receiving Sensitivity: 88dBm
• Frequency range: 20Hz-20KHz
• Mic: Anti-interference microphones, -42DB

Features

• Built-in microphone with background noise reduction
• On-bone detection (autoplay/pause)
• Siri / Google assistant
• Multipoint connection: Connect 2 devices simultaneously, you will never miss any calls from your devices
• Controls: volume, play, pause, next song

These headphones have one set of controls on the right side of the neckband. They are volume up, volume down and the micro USB charging port. There is also a mic and the LED status indicator light.


On the right side earbud, there is the multi-function button that controls power on/off, answer/hang-up calls, the Bluetooth connection, and Siri communication.

On the left side earbud, there is a button that controls play/pause.

Performance

When I received these headphones, I was so excited to try them that I was hoping that they were already partially charged. Much to my delight, they powered on, and immediately entered pairing mode. Once I easily connected them to my iPhone, they showed an 80% charge which allowed me to start my testing right away. I placed them around my neck/head and on my ears as shown below.

I took some time to find my comfortable placement, and I started the music. I was immediately delighted. The headphones while not audiophile, do provide a well-balanced sound, and because of their design are very likely much better for preserving your hearing. I can still hear the ambient sound around me, but there is noise management capability that does not allow the ambient sound to adversely affect the listening experience. It is a very nice balance. Winner Gear also provides a pair of earplugs should you want to completely shut out all of the other sounds around you. The headband that connects the two earpieces is extremely flexible and so much so that they would not be easy to break. I was concerned that the material was so flexible that they would not properly stay in place and that they would easily fall off. I was wrong again. Not only do they stay in place, but they never fall off despite my vigorous movement to dislodge them. These will work great when working out.

Most of our readers that have followed my earbud reviews know that I always experience major issues when using them for phone calls. This is not the case with these and neither myself nor the person on the other end of the line experienced any quality issues. For me, this is fantastic. I also test Siri, and that was as easy as it could get. I love the autodetection feature that allows them to automatically stop/pause the music when removed and start the music when I put them back on.

The only other issues that I notice is that the Bluetooth connection does not have the range of several other devices I own. If there is no line of sight, it seems to be limited to about 15 ~ 20 feet. (This is with no line of sight but still open doors from one room to another). Also, the battery charge only allows 3 ~ 4 hours of playtime with the longevity being closer to 3 hours if played at high or maximum volume.

What I like

• Build quality including that it is lightweight
• Simple controls
• Comfortable to wear
• Nice sound if worn correctly – including phone calls
• Flexibility
• Ambient sound management capability
• Auto-detection feature

What I’d change

• Better playing time between charges
• Stronger Bluetooth connection to enhance the range

Final thoughts

When I first removed these headphones from their packaging, I did not expect much from them. They felt way too flexible and quite different from the construction and design of the ones that I had previously tested years ago. However, my testing has made me a fan and quite unexpectedly they have become a fixture in my EDC bag. I take the railroad back and forth to work every day, and with conventional earbuds and headphones, I have frequently missed announcements that have left me scrambling to find out information when there has been a change or cancelation of service. With these headphones that is not an issue. For me, they provide more than adequate sound for non-audiophile, daily leisure listening, and no discomfort when wearing them for extended periods of time. My phone calls are always clear and the auto-detection feature is a winner. While they are not perfect, I give them a well done and two thumbs up!!

Price: $149
Where to buy: WinnerGear website
Sample: The sample for this review was provided by WinnerGear

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Bluetooth headphones

Crane Bone Conduction Headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 9, 2019 at 8:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

REVIEW – Over-the-ear headphones have grown on me over the past few years. I have preferred sport-centric earbuds due to their portability and ability to survive sweaty, nasty workouts. But I have come to appreciate the comfort, sound quality, and added features that over-the-ear headphones bring to the table. My current go-to earbuds are the Jabra Elite Active 65t’s that I carry with me most of the time. So, when Jabra announced their new Elite 85h active noise-cancelling wireless over-the-ear headphones, I raised my hand and volunteered to check them out, hoping they live up to their smaller sibling.

What is it?

The Elite 85h’s are Jabra’s first active noise cancellation (ANC) over-the-ear headphones, engineered to compete with the likes of Bose, Sony, B&O, etc. Their design is comfortable and compact, meant to go with you throughout your day and world travels while providing a top tier listening experience.

What’s in the box?

• Elite 85h ANC wireless headset
• Carrying case
• Audio cable
• USB C charging cable
• Flight adapter

Hardware specs

Design and features

As I mentioned, the Elite 85h’s are Jabra’s first ANC over-the-ear headphones but this is far from their first rodeo in term of bringing music or phone calls to your ears. The 85h’s include an impressive list of features and baked-in technologies including an 8 microphone array, 36 hours of battery life (w/ANC on), hands-free Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri support, 40mm custom-engineered drivers, SmartSound customization technology to name just some of the capabilities of these headphones.

The Jabra Elite 85h has eight microphones in total: four dedicated for calls, two for the Digital Hybrid ANC, and two for SmartSound. In combination, six (of the eight) microphones are used in the Elite’s advanced call technology and four microphones for their SmartSound adaptive noise-canceling.

The Elite 85h charges via USB-C (cable included) and has a fast-charge feature with 15 minutes of charging that provides 5 hours of playback. In addition to the USB-C power port, the only other port on the headphones is a 3.5mm jack for hard connecting the headphones (via included cable) to your device.

There is a dedicated button for accessing Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa and muting the mics during a call on the bottom of the left ear cup. And another on the opposite side that toggles between noise-canceling ON, “Hear-Through” mode, and ANC off. The up & down volume and select/answer buttons are located on the exterior of the right ear cup. All the 85h’s controls are intuitive and easy to use.

The Elite 85h’s are water-resistant with a nano-coating to protect them from sweat and dust.

Setup

Like most Bluetooth headsets these days, Jabra makes connecting the Elite 85h’s to your smart device simple and easy. Once you pull the headphones out of the box and twist the ear cups 90 degrees for the first time they immediately go into pairing mode. Simply select them in your Bluetooth menu and you’re good to go.

Once paired, you should download the Jabra+ app to fully customize your listening experience. The app enables you to tweak the headphones to your liking. There are various situation profiles that give you a great deal of management and control over how your headphones sound and operate depending on conditions.

Performance

The bottom line is these headphones sound excellent. They have great precision with very good clarity, depth, and spatial definition. Everything I listened to had noticeable separation at all levels with a solid, yet not over done bass response giving a nicely balanced listening experience. While I played with the Jabra+ app for this review, I preferred the sound settings Jabra had right out of the box. According to Jabra, “SmartSound automatically analyzes your sound environment and applies your personalized sound settings, to give you the best calls and music experience, every time”.

The Elite 85h’s have Bluetooth 5.0, enabling it to be paired with up to 8 devices and actively connected to two devices at once. The headphones switched back and forth between my iPhone and iPad seamlessly. Their range is very good, I can leave my iPhone at one end of the house and be in the far end, rooms away with no connectivity issues.

The active noise-canceling is solid and gets the job done but is not quite as effective as the equivalent Bose and B&O headphones. They did a good job blocking out road, plane, and wind noise but I could definitely hear the kid making noise or dog barking in the background occasionally. Where the Bose and B&O’s filter out that sort of noise a little better.

That said, call quality is very good. The way Jabra has engineered the multiple microphone array makes for an excellent call experience on both sides of the conversation. It was as if the people I was talking to were right next to me.

The Elite 85h’s battery life has some pretty long legs as well, with up to 36 hours of uses with active noise-canceling enabled and up to 41 hours with ANC off. They can go around the world and then some without needing a recharge.

The Elite 85h have automatic ear detection that pauses playback when the headphones are removed and resumes after placing them back over your ears.

Build Quality

The build quality of the Elite 85h’s is very good as well, made from fabric, leatherette (PU), and PC/ABS with metallic paint. The main casing is constructed from a dense plastic that holds up well to use and folding/unfolding as you would hope/expect. I have yet to discover any marks or scuffs on the plastic casing from about a month of use.

The exterior of the ear cups and headband have a densely woven fabric covering that doesn’t get dirty all that easily. Though I did get flour on them that took a while to clean off/get out of the material but it did eventually.

The headband is lined with a padded leatherette making for a soft, comfortable ride.

The ear cups are made from the same leatherette material as the headband.

Comfort

As I mentioned, the Elite 85h ANC headphones are very comfortable and can easily be worn for hours at a time (though my ears do occasionally get overly warm). The ear cups are soft, form-fitting, and large enough for most ears. These headphones are average sized for this tier of active noise-canceling wireless headphones and weigh in at two-thirds of a pound. Both sides of the headphones can be extended for larger heads.

Portability

The Elite 85h’s are designed to be portable, engineered to twist and fold in upon themselves for minimal volume for their size. I think that Jabra has done a more than solid job pulling this off.

I was initially a bit hesitant taking them in and out of their case, not wanting to damage them. But Jabra has used metal internal components to strengthen key points that take the most wear and tear.

Here you can see the Bose and Jabra travel/storage cases compared. They both take up approximately the same volume with the Jabra case made from slightly tougher material.

Pictured left to right: Bose QuietComfort 35 II, Jabra Elite 85h, Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9, and Shinola Canfield headphones. When you consider size, weight, toughness, and portability/foldability the Jabra is the best of the lot.

I find the Jabra 85h more comfortable and better engineered than the Bose QuietComfort 35 II. The Bose just feel more flimsy and breakable when compared to the 85h’s. But to be fair, my wife (who is pretty rough on her tech gear) has been using the Bose for approximately a year and they’re still going strong.

What I like

• Well-built design
• Comfortable
• Excellent sound, call quality, and battery life
• Portable
• USB-C charging
• Water-resistant nano-coating
• Auto ear detection
• Bluetooth 5 and multi-connect
• Dedicated one-button access to Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri

What needs to be improved

• Active noise-canceling could be more pronounced
• My ears get hot with extended use

The Elite 85h’s are available in Black, Titanium Black, Navy, and Gold Beige. Jabra backs these headphones with a 2-year warranty against moisture/sweat and dust.

Final thoughts

I really like the Elite 85h wireless active noise-canceling headphones. Jabra has done a great job creating an ANC headset that competes in a pretty crowded tech-space. Their sound experience, build quality, comfort, and engineering are all excellent. I also prefer their hardier form factor, design, and portability to other headphones I have tried. Their impressive battery life and comfort make them a better option when compared to earbuds on long flights or all day @the office.

Price: $299.99
Where to buy: Best Buy
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Jabra.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Bluetooth headphones

Jabra Elite 85h wireless noise-cancelling headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 13, 2019 at 9:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

REVIEW – I use only earbuds when listening to my music and only those that are tethered together by a wire so that I don’t lose them. Jabra recently came out with their Elite Active 45e wireless in-ear sport headphones. When testing them, I discovered that they were way too loose in my ears, tended to fall out when moving around, and they started to really hurt my ears after just one hour of using them. The open design is meant to protect the user, but I didn’t like the fact that people around me could hear my music. Additionally, the audio quality was decent but lacked some of the deeper bass frequencies of my music because they didn’t seal in my ears. Despite these things, they maintain connectivity to my Pixel 2 XL throughout most of my home because of Bluetooth 5.0, have an adjustable equalizer in the Jabra Sound+ app, play for 9.5 hours, charge in 1.75 hours, and have basic calling features plus a mute/unmute feature.

What is it?

The Jabra Elite Active 45e are wireless (Bluetooth 5.0) in-ear sport headphones. They are IP67 rated and thus are dust-proof and can be submerged in 1 meter of water for 30 minutes.

What’s in the box?

• Jabra Elite Active 45e wireless in-ear headphones
• micro-USB cable
• Quick Start Guide

Hardware specs

Design and features

The Jabra Elite Active 45e wireless in-ear sport headphones that I received came in navy blue. There are two other colors available: Black and Mint.

The ear hooks and the wire connecting the earbuds together are coated in silicone. The control panels and earphones are made from hard plastic.

Each earphone has a control panel with one button on the face of it. The right earphone’s control panel (the earphone on the left in the photo above) contains the Multifunction button which allows you to perform the following controls: power on/off, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause music, and answer/end a phone call. The left earphone’s control panel (the earphone on the right in the photo above) has the Voice button that allows you to launch your voice assistant or mute/unmute a phone call. 
The tips of the earphones are coated in a thin layer of silicone and contain an earwing (or fin). There are no interchangeable silicone eartips for these headphones. The right earbud contains the volume up and volume down controls. There is also an LED which briefly flashes green when you turn the headphones on and red when you turn them off. It also very slowly flashes blue when the headphones are in pairing mode. The left earbud contains the micro-USB port and an LED that shines red when the headphones are charging and green when they are fully charged.

Setup

Powering on/off
To turn the headphones on, I long pressed the Multifunction button on the face of the right earphone’s control panel for about one second to power on the headphones, after which the LED flashed green and I heard the power-on tones. I then had to press the same button for about three seconds to power off the headphones, after which the LED flashed red and I heard the power-off tones.

Pairing
When I first turned on the headphones they were ready for pairing. If you need to put them into pairing mode, you must start with them turned off. You’ll then need to hold the Multifunction button on the face of the right earphone’s control panel for about four seconds to put the headphones into pairing mode at which time they will very slowly flash blue. You’ll then go into your Bluetooth settings and find and tap on the Jabra Elite Active 45e from the list of devices found to pair them. For Android 9 phones, go to phone settings>Connected devices>Connection preferences>Bluetooth (toggle it on)>Pair new device>tap on Jabra Elite Active 45e to pair.

Performance

Auto shut-off
The headphones are supposed to shut off after about 15 minutes when not connected to a device, but I could not determine when they shut off because there was no indication when shut off occurred. I knew that they had shut off because when I pressed the Multifunction button on the right control panel, the headphones turned on. In addition, the headphones are supposed to shut off after one hour of inactivity. And again, I could not tell when that happened.

Bluetooth connectivity
Bluetooth 5.0 is awesome. All the Bluetooth 5.0 earbuds that I have reviewed maintain connectivity up to 57 feet when in line-of-sight of my Pixel 2 XL. And I was able to listen to my earbuds with four walls separating me from my connected device without drops or interruptions. In addition, there were no connectivity issues when using the Jabra Elite Active 45e headphones.

Fit and Comfort
When it comes to earbuds, fit is everything. In this case, the Jabra headphones did not fit me at all even after adjusting the ear hooks with and without my glasses on. They were way too loose to stay in my ears when moving around, especially when exercising. I know that they were meant to have an open design in order to ensure user safety when running outside, but I only exercise inside my home so for me this is unnecessary. The design actually reminds me of Apple’s EarPods. However, my EarPods fit so much better and were much more comfortable than these.

On top of all that, they really started hurting my ears after only about an hour of wearing them. The ear hooks hurt behind my ears and the earphones hurt where they sit at the opening of my ear canal. These were horribly uncomfortable for me. But fit is different for each person and thus, these may work for some of you.

Jabra Sound+ app

The Jabra Elite Active 45e headphones have an app that works with them – the Sound+ app. When the headphones are powered on, the Sound+ app detects them, after which I was able to customize them. I could turn on location settings so that the app would save the last known location of the headphones, I could select which voice assistant to use, and I could adjust the equalizer settings for the earbuds.

“Moments” bottom tab: The Sound+ app’s default home screen is the “Moments” tab which is the first tab located at the bottom of the screen. The “Moments” tab allows you to select one of three tabs located in the left sidebar of the app: the “My Moment” tab, the “Commute” tab, and the “Focus” tab.

The “My Moment” left sidebar tab: If you tap on the “My Moment” left sidebar tab, this screen shows your current equalizer settings. And if you wish to customize your equalizer settings, you may do so by adjusting the dots above each frequency. However, it is important to note that you cannot save this setting.

By tapping on the gear icon located in the upper right corner of the “My Moment” app screen, I could further personalize my earbud settings like…

… adjusting the “Music equalizer” settings, “Call experience” settings, and “Headset assistance” settings (first screenshot above).

• • • “Music equalizer” setting: This is the same as the equalizer settings in the “My Moment” app screen (second screenshot above).
    • “Call experience” settings: you can set whether you hear your own voice on a call or not. If you decide to toggle on this feature, you can adjust how loud your voice will be to you. You may also select whether to hear more treble or bass frequencies of your caller’s voice (third screenshot above). These are pretty cool features.
    • “Headset assistance” settings: allows you to turn on or off voice prompts in the headphones (last screenshot above).

“Commute” left sidebar tab: If you tap on the “Commute” icon in the left sidebar of the Sound+ app home screen, you can select your preset equalizer settings for your drive around town.

“Focus” left sidebar tab: And if you tap on the “Focus” icon (person sitting in front of a laptop) in the left sidebar of the Sound+ app home screen and then tap on the menu icon located just below the gear icon, you can select some “Soundscape” or background noise to help you to focus while you work. Some of the selections include Pink noise, Diving, Waterfall, Rainy day, Songbirds, Cavern, and Crowd. These are pretty cool features too.

“Discover” bottom tab: If you tap on the “Discover” tab located at the bottom of the app home screen, you can get access to the Quick Start Guide for the headphones, register the headphones, share your opinion about the headphones and app, and see a pictorial overview of what each of the headphone buttons does.

“About” bottom tab: The “About” tab located at the bottom of the app’s home screen is a surprisingly important tab. It allows you to do things like check for firmware updates, choose your voice assistant, change the language of the voice prompt, link to the headphone’s FAQ web page, locate your headphones, register the headphones, and rate them.

Music and Voice Assistant controls
I tested the music controls of the Jabra Elite Active 45e headphones. A one-second press of the Multifunction button located on the face of the right earphone’s control panel allowed me to play/pause music or videos on Pandora, Amazon Music, Google Play Music, Netflix, and YouTube. However, I was unable to play or pause Amazon Prime Video content when using the headphones which were connected to my Pixel 2 XL. I think this is an issue with my phone because I’ve had this very same problem with other in-ear headphones.

I was able to increase/decrease the volume levels with short presses of the Volume Up and Down buttons located at the bottom of the right earphone’s control panel. A two-second press of the Volume Up button skipped ahead a song and a two-second press of the Volume Down button skipped back a song.

To launch my voice assistant (when not on a call), I short pressed on the Voice button located on the face of the left earphone’s control panel. I was able to choose between my Google assistant or Alexa (it will work for Siri users too). I chose Google assistant. I was able to successfully use Google assistant to perform the actions I wanted it to.

Playing time
The Jabra website states that the headphones will play for about 9 hours on one full charge. In my tests, I was able to play the headphones for 9.5 hours on one full charge when they were set on a moderate volume level.

Charging
The Jabra Elite Active 45e documentation states that the headphones take two hours to fully charge. I was able to charge them in one hour and 45 minutes. Not bad.

Calling features and call quality
According to the Quick Start Guide, the headphones have the following calling features:

• Answer/end a call – use a short press of the Multifunction button on the face of the right earphone’s control panel to answer the call; repeat to end the call. In addition, you can use a one-second press of the Multifunction button to put the current call on hold and answer an incoming call.
• Switch between calls – use a one-second press of the Multifunction button to switch between callers
• Reject a call – use a double press of the Multifunction button to reject a call
• Mute/unmute – use a short press of the Voice button on the face of the left earphone’s control panel to turn on mute while you are on a call; repeat to turn off mute
• Call volume controls – use a short press of the Volume Up and Down buttons on the bottom of the right side control panel to increase or decrease the volume while you are on a call

All of the above calling features worked well, however, there doesn’t seem to be a redial feature.

During my tests, both the caller and I noticed that the call audio quality was very nice on both ends.

Audio quality
The audio quality of the Jabra Elite Active 45e headphones was decent before adjusting the equalizer settings in the Sound+ app. I enjoyed the sound better after adjusting the equalizer settings. However, when listening to bass heavy music like “High Roller” by Crystal Method and “Salute” by Little Mix, I found that I was missing out on the deeper bass frequencies of the songs because the headphones do not seal in my ears. The headphones are better suited for classic rock music like Bob Seger’s “The Famous Final Scene”.

When contrasting the Jabra headphones to my Jaybird X3 headphones, my music sounded MUCH better when using the X3 headphones, which are comparable in price. In addition, the X3s seal in my ears, are MUCH more comfortable, and capture the deep bass of my favorite music.

What I like

• You can adjust the equalizer settings for the Jabra Elite Active 45e headphones in the Jabra Sound+ app
• Bluetooth 5.0 headphones like these have great connectivity – they maintain connection for 57 feet and go through four walls without drops
• Playing time is about 9.5 hours on a moderate volume level
• Charging time fast (1.75 hours to fully charge)
• The call quality is nice and the headphones have a mute/unmute calling feature which some headphones don’t have
• The Sound+ app has a setting that allows you to play background sound to help you focus while you work (waterfall, rain, pink noise sounds, etc.)

What needs to be improved

• Fit, fit, FIT – they were too loose in my ears no matter how I adjusted them, they were terribly uncomfortable and holy cow, they really hurt my ears after about an hour of wearing them
• Sound quality – this would be greatly improved if the earbuds sealed in the user’s ear canals
• The Sound+ app should allow you to save your custom equalizer settings

Final thoughts

Honestly, I couldn’t stand using the Jabra Elite Active 45e headphones. They fit me poorly, fell out when exercising, lacked the bass frequencies of my favorite bass heavy music, and REALLY hurt my ears after wearing them for about an hour or less (note to self: don’t buy open-designed earphones or those with ear hooks). But they maintain connectivity to my Pixel 2 XL throughout most of my home because of Bluetooth 5.0, have an adjustable equalizer in the Jabra Sound+ app, play for 9.5 hours, charge in 1.75 hours, and have basic calling features plus a mute/unmute feature.

I don’t recommend these based on the fit, but if you like ear hooks on your in-ear headphones and like the open design, you may enjoy them.

Price: $99.99
Where to buy: Jabra or Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Jabra.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Bluetooth headphones

Jabra Elite Active 45e wireless in-ear sport headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 2, 2019 at 10:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.