Jabra Elite 10 Review: Finally Offers Noise Cancellation

Overview

The Jabra Elite 10 are Jabra’s premium earbuds, distinguished by their exceedingly comfortable semi-in-ear design and cutting-edge compatibility with Dolby’s spatial audio technologies.

Introduction

Already well-established in the entry-level and mid-range true wireless earbuds market, Jabra aims to compete with industry giants such as Apple, Sony, and Bose with its new Jabra Elite 10. The Danish company has gone all-in with the built-in features, supporting Dolby Atmos-compatible tracks and incorporating head-tracking technology. Jabra claims that the Jabra Elite 10 feature the best noise cancellation the company has ever offered.

Build & Comfort

Earbuds

Jabra has completely overhauled the design of its premium earbuds. Gone is the hard plastic shell, replaced by a grippy silicone material that makes up most of the earbud; only the outer surface, serving as the control button, remains hard plastic. The ear tips are triangular, rather than the usual round design.

The craftsmanship is simply exemplary, showing no visible assembly marks. The overall build appears highly robust and is sure to withstand rough handling. Furthermore, the Jabra Elite 10 have an IP57 rating, making them water and sweat-resistant.

The earbuds stand apart from other Jabra products with their semi-in-ear form factor that avoids penetrating the ear canal. The angled tips conform to the ear’s shape, sealing the ear canal entrance without causing discomfort. Four different-sized ear tips are included to accommodate various ear shapes.

The Jabra Elite 10 fit snugly and are incredibly soft to the touch, offering extreme comfort during long listening sessions. However, it may take a few attempts to position them correctly. Once in place, they remain securely fitted, despite giving the impression that they might slip out.

Case

The case has also seen a design revamp. The lid is situated on the side, similar to Apple’s AirPods case, and its compact size and weight make it pocket-friendly.

The case exterior is hard plastic, prone to fingerprint marks but otherwise sturdy. The hinge mechanism appears robust, and the one-handed opening system adds to the ease of use. The interior is lined with silicone, which is soft to the touch but tends to attract dust.

User Experience

Controls

The Jabra Elite 10 feature responsive physical buttons with short travel and a soft “click”. These buttons are easily accessible and offer a wide range of controls—playback, volume, navigation, listening mode, and voice assistant are all covered. However, the controls are limited when using just one earbud, which then automatically switches to mono.

Voice prompts and audio cues guide the user, and Google Assistant can be summoned by voice. Siri and Alexa, however, require a button press. Additionally, a presence sensor pauses playback when the earbuds are removed.

Connectivity

Pairing initiates automatically the first time the earbuds are taken out of the case. Subsequent pairing requires holding down both buttons simultaneously. The Jabra Elite 10 use Bluetooth 5.3 and support SBC and AAC codecs. They also offer multipoint functionality for connecting to two different sources at once. Jabra promises future updates will include support for the new Bluetooth LE Audio standard, featuring the LC3 codec, which significantly reduces latency.

However, we did measure a latency of 270ms, causing noticeable lag between audio and video. Automatic compensation mitigates this for many video contents, but not for gaming, which remains impractical. We encountered no connection issues during our test.

Application

Available on both iOS and Android, the Jabra Sound+ app remains one of the most user-friendly on the market. It offers various features and settings, such as different listening modes, a 5-band equalizer, customizable controls, a sleep timer, and even a feature to locate the earbuds. Battery levels are also displayed.

Audio

Equipped with 10 mm speakers, the Jabra Elite 10 stay true to Jabra’s DNA by fitting in seamlessly with the brand’s other earphones, offering an energetic, crisp, and vibrant sound, albeit well-controlled overall.

Frequency balance has never been Jabra’s strong suit, and the Jabra Elite 10 prove this once again. The earphones strongly emphasize treble, with a particularly pronounced peak around 8 kHz. This results in a clear and exceedingly sharp sound that might not be to everyone’s liking.

The advantage of such a profile is that it allows for the detection of many details in higher-pitched instruments, as well as exceptionally clear and transparent vocals. The excellent extension in the high treble is also highly commendable. However, this emphasis also highlights some issues with accuracy, including instances of sibilance, which can sometimes result in a nasal or even acidic quality to certain instruments. The soundstage is fairly wide but suffers from this brightness by being very frontal. The Jabra Elite 10 can therefore become fatiguing over time, which is why we encourage you to adjust the treble in the app’s equalizer to bring back some warmth.

Bass

As for the bass, exaggeration is also present. The withdrawal of the lower mid-range leads to a lack of balance, giving undue emphasis to the bass. Nevertheless, the bass foundation is quite comfortable, benefiting from excellent extension into the sub-bass. But this emphasis does bring out some accuracy issues: the attacks are clean, but slightly sluggish. This is not a major concern, however, as the level of detail remains appreciable.

Special Features

The Jabra Elite 10 stand out from other Jabra earphones through compatibility with Dolby’s spatial audio technology. An option in the app enables Dolby Atmos playback on certain compatible apps, or 3D upmixing from any stereo content. The result is fairly successful, even if it’s a notch below that of Apple’s AirPods Pro (2nd generation). The sensation of an immersive sound bubble is effective and doesn’t result in a significant deterioration of sound quality, as is often the case with such technology. Moreover, the Jabra Elite 10 benefit from head tracking technology that allows for a stationary soundstage relative to the listener’s head, as if they were at a concert or in front of a cinema screen.

Noise Isolation & Reduction

With the Jabra Elite 10, Jabra finally delivers worthwhile noise reduction in one of its earphone pairs. Though there’s room for improvement when compared to market leaders like Sony WF-1000XM5 and Devialet Gemini, the Jabra Elite 10 do an excellent job at reducing noise. Both low-end and high-end noises are admirably diminished, especially due to solid passive isolation.

However, the earphones struggle with the critical mid-range frequencies (400 to 2000 Hz), where most ambient sounds lie. Unless you’re listening to music, the earphones have difficulty sufficiently reducing noise to enable complete isolation. This is where Sony and Devialet hold the upper hand, with a more complete and effective noise-cancelling profile.

Battery Life

The Jabra Elite 10 guarantee up to 8 hours of playtime on a single charge, with an additional 20 hours of juice in the charging case. A 5-minute quick charge will provide up to an hour of use. Our tests confirmed the earbuds’ battery life, with the earbuds still going strong at the 7-hour and 40-minute mark.

Conclusion

In the premium market segment, the Jabra Elite 10’s primary strengths lie in their build quality, comfort, and feature-rich app. Sound quality, while lively and vibrant, suffers from a high-end emphasis and a lack of tonal balance. These shortcomings are most evident in comparison with top-end competitors such as Apple AirPods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM5.

Still, if you prioritize build, comfort, and a customizable listening experience, the Jabra Elite 10 are worth considering. Their noise cancellation, although not at the level of market leaders, is still highly effective and makes them an option to consider for listeners who don’t want to sacrifice comfort and quality for effective noise cancellation.