Jabra Elite 85t - Titanium Black Wireless Headset/Music Headphones Titanium Black

I’ve been waiting a couple months to give these a try before sharing a review, but I can honestly say that I am impressed. After trying some other brands that hurt my ears so bad I returned them, these Jabra Elite 85t are comfortable enough to stay in place all day, provided you can keep the battery charged. With moderate activity I can feel them start to slip out of my ear, so they are probably not the pair you want to take running.The noise cancellation (ANC) and HearThrough modes are novel features, but honestly I don’t spend the time switching through them and rather keep them off to conserve the battery. What I want is a hearing aid that can amplify the ambient sound around me, but also let me hear the audio from all my devices or act like ear plugs. There is not that much amplification from the HearThrough mode unless there is nothing else playing through the speakers and you are right in front of the source you are trying to hear. ANC works to dull the sound around you if the speakers are muted, but with music playing there’s not much difference since the volume drowns out any other noise.The battery life is somewhere in the 5-7 range, but be warned that the last hour you will be interrupted every 15 minutes that the buds need to be recharged. It hasn’t been a problem to find time to return them to the case at some point during the day, but expect to plan your day around charging at least once in the middle. Having a wireless charging pad has made charging effortless.Now for the pet peeves that are just a fact of life with these buds. The right bud is the primary bud and in fact, the left bud can not be used without using both buds. You might think you can get five hours out of one ear and then switch to the other ear for another five hours, but that is not the case. This may not affect you, but seems like an odd feature.The next peeve deals with pairing and connectivity. You might have read some reviews that discuss issues with connectivity, but you should know that Bluetooth pairing has been a straightforward easy experience to get up and running out of the box. My issue is that the specification states that the buds can be paired with up to 8 devices, but only 2 at any given time. I haven’t tried that many since after 3 devices I could tell it was going to be confusing to figure out which device they are connected with. If the buds are connected to 2 devices and you want to use them with a third, you must first manually disconnect or turn off Bluetooth on one of those first two devices before the buds will connect to the third. You may think this is a connectivity error but really they will only do what you tell them and they will prefer to connect to the last connected devices. Once you are connected to two devices, because you can only connect to two devices, you might think the buds have sort of a built in mixer where you can hear audio from both sources at the same time. Again, don’t be disappointed, but only one device can actively be sending an audio signal to the buds. You can not have music playing on one device and watch a movie on the other. You must stop all audio transmissions from one device before it will allow the second audio to play on the buds. Both devices are connected, but only audio from one device can be played at a time. This seemed to not affect in coming calls ringing from a phone though. I believe the makes the phone take priority of the audio stream. This might actually be a limitation of the Bluetooth protocol, but again different than I expected.Well, there you have it! These are the top issues I’ve found with these buds, but I’m still happy with them enough to use everyday. Also, no problems with sound quality and the full range is good enough for casual listeners.

I have a new favorite pair of earbuds. I'll walk through some detailed feedback below, but overall the 85t's sound great when I'm listening to music or watching movies and are outstanding on calls.The Cons:- I really like the ANC feature, I use it a lot when working (mostly from home now) and traveling. ANC on the 85t works as good or better than other earbuds I've tried, but the ANC isn't as strong as some of the high end over-ear headphones. I think by covering the whole ear (with headphones) you can block out more sound. But again, for in ear earbuds I haven't experienced better ANC. The 85t ANC is good enough for most environments, but I'll still use my ANC headphones at times like when I want to sleep on long flights.- It's not a major issue for me, but it would be nice to have the flexibility to use either the L or R bud individually. With the 85t its only possible to use the R bud individually. Again, this isn't a major issue for me for a couple of reasons: 1, I usually use my right ear when talking on the phone anyway, and 2. in the past I've wanted to use a single bud on phone calls because of the occlusion effect (hearing yourself) with other buds. But that hasn't been an issue for me with the 85t (see below in Pros).- I use my buds a lot for phone calls. In most environments they're outstanding, but in some noisier environments the 85t's do pick up some ambient noise and the person on the other end can hear it. For most calls (from home and other places) the call quality is great on both sides, but noisy locations can be a challenge.The Pros:- Call quality. As I mentioned above there are a few exceptions (really noisy environments) but I've been really impressed with the 85t. I hear the other person very clearly and I've received consistent feedback the same from their end. I really like the change they've made that makes calls sound much more natural - no more occlusion. I keep both buds in which lets me hear the other person in stereo making it easier for me to clearly hear them and my own voice sounds like I'm talking without anything in my ears.- Sound quality. My music sounds great. With the Jabra Sound+ app I'm able to adjust the EQ and get what seems to me to be the perfect balance of bass, mid and high range. With that optimized adjustment, it seems like I can also more clearly hear the dialogue when I'm watching movies - especially during flights.- Personalized sound. I took the hearing test during the set up process on the Jabra Sound+ app. I like that the 85t is smart enough to optimize the sound settings for my hearing profile. I also like the ability to personalize the controls. I played around with changing them. I'm not sure if my current button configuration is much different from the default, but the controls are now intuitive for me.- Size. I can't believe how small and light the 85t's are. They are very comfortable. I've used them for hours at a time and I forget I'm wearing them.- Hear through. I use the 85t to block out noise when I'm working or just want to relax. The hear through feature makes it easy, with the touch of a button, to become aware and clearly hear my environment; it could be my wife or kids wanting to talk to me or even the TV from across the room. Hear through almost seems to magnify the sound I want to hear while blocking out other noise. Not sure how it does that or if it's just me, but it seems like I can use the feature to zoom in and listen to a conversation.Overall, I really like these. I'm got a pair for my wife for Christmas. She's the exerciser of the family (not me) and she likes them too