Over the last couple of years Jabra has released a slew of earbuds that were a little hard to tell apart from one another. Not only did we get Elites 3, 4, 5 and 7 Pro, but there were “Active” versions of some of those same buds. Some variety can be a good thing, but too much tends to create confusion and can stymie sales.
Watch this: Jabra Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active Review: They’re Different — Mostly In a Good Way
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Of the two new models, the Elite 8 Active are the more straightforward earbuds. They look, feel and perform like a modestly upgraded version of the Elite 7 Pro, with six microphones instead of four, slightly improved adaptive noise canceling and wind-reduction technology along with a higher durability rating. They have a noise-isolating design — you jam the tips into your ears to get a tight seal — and Jabra is billing them as the “world’s toughest earbuds” (if you’re more interested in the Elite 8 Active, feel free to jump over to that review).
The Elite 10s are a completely different set of earbuds. If they have an antecedent, it’s the Elite 85t, which also had a semi-open design. Some people really liked those earbuds; I was less of a fan. Compared to the Elite 85t, the Elite 10s offer not only a more comfortable fit and better design but better sound and significantly better noise-canceling performance along with impressive Dolby Spatial Sound with head tracking.
The Elite 10 are designed for people who don’t like having ear tips jammed in their ears. You’re still dealing with silicone ear tips but they have a unique oval shape and are designed to nestle in your ears. They’re certainly among the most comfortable earbuds that have silicone ear tips.
The Jabra Elite 10 comes in five color options, though three are variations of black.
The voice-calling performance for both the Elite 10s and Elite 8 Actives left me slightly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it was quite good when I was making calls in less noisy environments. Callers said they could hear me clearly. But with both buds now featuring six microphones and improved wind noise reduction technology, I expected a little more in harsher conditions. In our torture test in the noisy streets of New York, callers told me they didn’t reduce background noise as well as competing models like the AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5, and my voice warbled at times.
If you watch my companion video review, you can hear a test call I recorded with the Elite 10 that gives you a sense of the call quality in a harsh environment, though note that the call is recorded via the internet so a little bit of fidelity in my voice is lost.
The Elite 10 don’t have as good a battery life rating as the Elite 8 Active but it’s still not bad. They’re rated for up to 6 hours at moderate volume levels with ANC on compared to 8 hours for the Elite 8 Active. That’s about the same as what you get with the AirPods Pro 2.
With so many good true-wireless earbuds on the market, it’s become much harder for companies to make their products stand out from the pack. With the Elite 10 Jabra manages to do just that with a set of buds that are aimed at folks looking for a more comfortable fit from their in-ear buds without sacrificing too much performance by moving to a fully open design that tends to offer less-than ideal sound quality and no active noise-canceling capabilities.
Yes, the Elite 10s do have some potential drawbacks (their noise canceling is lighter compared to competitors) and they’re pretty pricey at $249 and will probably have to come down a bit to better compete with the AirPods Pro 2 — at least for Apple users. Still, they’re really good earbuds that are not only comfortable to wear for long periods but also sound excellent. In fact, if their voice-calling performance was leveled up a bit, the Elite 10 buds might just be in Editors’ Choice territory. Hopefully, we’ll see some improvements with firmware upgrades.
