Jabra Elite 85H Wireless Bluetooth: Great Sound Quality, Buggy Software
Of late Jabra has been making deeper inroads in the headset market. Targeted mainly at the premium as well as enterprise segment Jabra has given a few good hits in the recent past. Elite active 65t for instance received great reviews competing head on with Bose Soundsport. Here is reviewing their latest offering Elite 85h
Jabra Elite 85h
The Jabra SmartSound engineered Elite 85h headphones come with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Jabra’s HearThrough technology. The SmartSound ensures the audio of the Elite 85h automatically adjusts to your surroundings to offer the calls and music experience.
Battery
It has a massive 36-hour battery life with ANC activated.
Headphone speakers and mics
The Elite 85h has 40mm custom-engineered speakers. The headphones also feature 8 microphones, 6 of which are dedicated for making calls, 4 for ANC and 2 hybrid mics for both calls and ANC. Though available with Alexa as default voice assistant users have the option to switch to Google Assistant or Siri.
App based
Users can personalize their calls and music settings even further through Jabra’s Sound+ app, which will remember your preferred settings within the mode for future similar situations.
Pricing
Priced at around 24,000 on amazon
Jabra Elite 85h Features at a glance
SmartSound: Audio that automatically adapts to your surroundings
One-click access: Voice Assistant access at the push of a button
Battery: Up to 36-hour battery with ANC activated and 41 hours without ANC
Microphones: 8 microphones in total. 6 dedicated for calls, 4 for ANC and 2 hybrid mics for both calls and ANC.
Speakers: 40 mm custom-engineered speakers
Durability: Unique IP52 dust and rain resistance, backed by a 2-year warranty against water and dust
Personalize: Jabra Sound+ app for SmartSound features, including customized settings
What’s Great
Excellent Sound quality
The headphones create an overall acoustic experience that does bring out clearly the finer high mid and low range well. The sound quality is true sound. There is a clear distinction of different sounds and the finer sounds are very clear. After using these if you use one of the cheaper ones you can easily make out what was missing in the latter one.
Powerful Backup
Jabra claims 36 hours with ANC The headphones did manage manage around 35 hours. That’s a super backup. Note this is with ANC on. With ANC off it could go up to around 41 hours.
Microphone quality
The product has 8 microphones in total. 6 dedicated for calls, 4 for ANC and 2 hybrid mics for both calls and ANC. Need I say more? It actually improves the calling experience of your smartphone!
What’s Not Great
ANC could have been better
With headphones design such as these there is already an element of passive noise cancellation so with ANC on a better experience is expected. Elite 85h leaves you wanting more. Yes to a certain extent it does manage cutting out sounds like typing and fan however its is unable to cut out certain sounds as basic as murmurs. There is also a certain higher expectation from a product such as this.
Software bugs
This is a common problem with most Jabra products I have used. They need to take their software and updates more seriously. The effects of these are disconnections, sound quality, not getting connected and more. It’s actually a very bugging problem they don’t seem to address or take seriously enough.
The Last Word
If you are a connoisseur of sound and quality and are looking for a great music and call experience Jabra Elite 85h is a product you could consider simply for the sound quality. With 8 microphones in total, 6 dedicated for calls, 4 for ANC and 2 hybrid mics for both calls and ANC, you actually get a “calling” experience. Pricing is premium and it is certainly not targeted nor meant for the economy segment.
