Jabra elite 85H
Impressive Enough to Give You a Premium Feel
Danish audio brand Jabra recently introduced the Elite 85h headphones in
India. The new headphones are engineered with Jabra Smartsound, based on AUDEERING context intelligence technology and include Active Noise Cancellation and Jabra’s Hearthrough technology. Priced at Rs 28,999, the
Jabra Elite 85h comes with eight microphones in total.
The headset comes equipped with 40 mm customengineered speakers and has a 36-hour battery life with ANC enabled and 41 hours without ANC. Although I tried and tested the Gold Beige variant,
the headset also comes in Titanium Black, Copper Black and Navy colours. Here’s the review.
Design
First impression is the last impression! This is what you’ll say if you look at its design which is very neat and follows a minimalistic approach. The Jabra Elite 85h is built using a good quality plastic with a fabric mesh layer on the earcups and headband. It is light in weight and features rotatable earcup design which makes it very portable. There is a soft cushioning on both the headband as well as the ear cups which along with the lightweight design makes the headset extremely comfortable even if you wear it for a long time. An interesting advantage of the big earcups is that they add to the comfort and also blocks the outside noise.
The Elite 85h comes without the power key and the remaining media control keys are placed on the earcups. It sports a virtual Assistant key along with the USB
Type-c port and the 3.5mm audio port on the bottom of the right panel. There are separate buttons for volume adjustment and Bluetooth pairing, which are smartly placed inside the fabric mesh on the rim of the right earcup. On the left, the headset offers you the control to switch between the pre-set sound modes – ANC on/off and Hearthrough. For switching on the device, just rotate the earcups in wearing position and it’s ready for service. All the keys are very responsive and work fast.
On the whole, the Elite 85h is well-built and gives you a premium feel. Jabra can give its competitors a run for their money in the given price segment.
Performance
The headset produces good sound, and its bass is punchy and precise. Its mid-range is very well-balanced, which perfectly reproduces vocals and lead instruments. Similarly, this Jabra device has a great treble range,
although its experience may vary from one user to the other. The headphone has a nice
ANC feature that lets you block out ambient noise, which allows you to listen to your favorite tracks clearly.
Moreover, the Elite 85h doesn’t leak much at high volume, which means you can drown out even more ambient noise when playing songs without disturbing the people near you. The Jabra Elite 85h has decent microphones, which are better than most Bluetooth headphones. The voice recorded or transmitted with this mics is very clear and fairly detailed to understand. The device works quite well in both quiet and noisy environments. It’s a good option for talking to people over phone and I faced no issue while making and taking a call.
Functionalities
It’s very simple to pair the Jabra Elite 85h with your smartphone, as the headset comes with Bluetooth v5.0 connectivity. You need to turn on the headset first by rotating the earcups and then head to the settings menu to complete the pairing process. It offers a maximum connectivity range of 10 metre beyond which the audio starts distorting. It supports multiple device connectivity and you can pair two devices with the headset simultaneously. I had paired this headset with my iphone 7 and an Android phone and it worked perfectly. What’s more interesting about this Jabra headset is that the sensors packed inside the earcups not only power on the device but also auto-pause music when you take them off your head. This functionality is of great benefit, as it saves the headphones from excessive battery drainage when not in use. The
headset also offers you an audio cable to use them passively.
Furthermore, the Jabra
Elite 85h can also be operated via the Jabra Sound+ app, which is available for download on both Android as well as
IOS platforms. As soon as you start with the app, it presents two options-- ‘Find My Jabra’ and Pair new Jabra’. Use the first option to find your device remotely using a smartphone, whereas the second option will allow you to pair a new device with the headset.
The app performs a number of functions, which range from tweaking the equalizer setting to manage music and voice call sound preset. There is also an option to customize the music profiles as per the background and switch between the ANC and Hearthough sound modes.
The companion app also offers you a feature called ‘Moments’ having different sound profiles/ modes-- Commute, In Public, and In Private. Interestingly, these profiles are automatically selected when you turn on the Smartsound feature. There is a visual in-app indicator to track battery usage, and install software and device updates directly in the app. There is no need to plug your headphones into your computer.
Battery
The company’s claim stands almost true with regard to the battery life. In our review, we found the Elite 85h has an outstanding battery life of over 32 hours on continuous playback with its ANC activated. It took just over 2 hours to charge fully via USB-C. Even if the battery is dead, we can use this headset while charging. Its claim of offering 5 hours of playback with 15 minutes of charging also stood true in our test.
Conclusion
The Jabra Elite 85h has an excellent design and performs smoothly. Its sound quality is par excellence and the device easily gets paired with your smartphone and has top-notch battery life. Besides having ANC and Hearthrough technology, the app-based controls make it even more interesting. Loaded with some exceptional features, it’s a good option to look at in a price-sensitive market like India. ■ ramesh@mymobile.co.in