Jabra Elite 65t

Once you’ve experienced the joy of not being physically attached to your phone or laptop, it’s amazing how much reverting to being tethered ticks you off. Jabra, with its Elite 65t wireless earbuds, has plenty of boxes ticked as far as practicalities go. In the box with the buds are three sets of tips, the charging/ carry case and a USB cable for powering up the case.

The lightweight earbuds are made from plastic; each has a small protrusion with a microphone in. The right bud has a button for call answering, pausing and playing music, and allowing ambient noise in or out; the left has buttons for volume and track skip.

When not in use, the Jabra Elite 65ts sit in the charging case. There’s enough power in the earbuds for five hours’ listening, and the case can do two recharges. A 15-minute charge gives a claimed 90 minutes of battery life – enough for most commutes.

We stick the largest of the tips on each bud, and find that the Elite 65ts fit comfortably in our ears without ever feeling insecure.

Connection to a phone is simple, and we’re soon up and running. The Elite 65ts are easy to use, and practicalities such as phone calls are dealt with without fuss.

Listened to in isolation, the Jabras are decent at conveying a tune. But something doesn’t feel quite ‘on-song’. We aren’t enthused by the music – there’s no sense of drama or excitement here.

Tonally, music is relayed faithfully, with a slight emphasis, perhaps, on the midrange over the bass and treble – but should you be inclined to boost either end of the sonic spectrum, the equalizer can make a noticeable difference in those areas.

Still, no amount of fiddling with the app can bring the passion back into our music. It feels as though we should best describe the Jabras as being competent ‘audio’ equipment, rather than true ‘hi-fi’.

Nothing stands out as being particularly bad – it’s just that there’s no great spark in the presentation, no real dynamism.

And that lack of passion is brought to the fore when we compare the Jabras with, for instance, the Bose Soundsport Free, which are superior across the board, with greater musicality and a more entertaining delivery.

The Jabra Elite 65t true-wireless earbuds will be the ideal commuting companion for many people, but, for the hi-fi lover, we’d recommend spending a bit more for a superior performance.