Jabra Elite 75t Review

Exceptional sound quality in general and booming bass in particular set the Jabra Elite 75t apart from the competition. However, depending on the anatomy of your ears, finding a comfortable fit can be tricky.

Analysis and Testing Results

Sound Quality

This is where the Jabra Elite 75t really shines, offering impressively rotund bass and great clarity throughout all frequencies. From podcasts to heavy rock ballads, these buds make everything sound good.

The most impressive aspect of the Jabra Elite 75t's sound is the bass. Earbuds, in general, tend to pale in comparison to headphones when it comes to bass power, but not the Jabra Elite 75t. These buds have enough boom to make your head shake. Perhaps more impressively, that bass is both booming and well defined, never giving way to the roaring muddiness that many other buds create. This quality continues into the mid and treble ranges, with guitars and vocals sounding crisp and enjoying good separation. All this combines into a very engrossing sound. We highly doubt anyone will have complaints about how these buds sound.

Call Quality

These buds work quite well for making phone calls. When wearing the buds calls sound quite clear, if only slightly hollow. On the other end people receiving calls from these earbuds are treated to very clear voices, though external noises (like loud cars passing by) do tend to make their way to the callee.

Comfort

After having more than a dozen testers wear the Jabra Elite 75t for multiple hours to assess their comfort, we found them to be very much like Marmite: you either love it or you hate it.

These buds offer three different sizes of earpieces, which is fairly standard. The majority of our testers found that these three options failed to yield a comfortable fit. In fact, most of those testers classified the Jabra Elite 75t as particularly uncomfortable, citing things like a loose wobbly fit no matter what earpiece they used and painful hotspots. A minority of our testers did find these earbuds comfortable, and across the board that subset of testers loved them. They loved them so much, in fact, that these buds essentially become a permanent appendage for them.

We can't guarantee the ratio of our testers that loved and hated these buds will be representative of the population as a whole. What we can say, however, is that there's a good chance you'll hate how these earbuds fit, and also a good chance you'll love how they fit. Moral of the story: these buds are definitely worth trying out, just be sure you have the option of returning them if they just don't fit your ears well.

Athletic Performance

Like comfort, the athletic performance of these buds largely depends on how they happen to fit with the anatomy of your ears. If they happen to fit well and comfortably, they are secure enough for pretty much any athletic endeavor. If they don't, they're going to feel uncomfortable and possibly even unstable while you're working out.

Our testers that were able to find a comfortable fit with these buds had absolutely no issues running, jumping, and hitting big bumps on a mountain bike with no feelings of discomfort or instability. Those that could not find a comfortable fit found these buds to uncomfortably tug at their ears on every stride during outdoor runs. Again, make sure you have the option to return these if they don't work for you!

The Jabra Elite 75t sports an IP55 dust and water resistance rating. This means you can sweat to your heart's content and the bud will survive, just be sure not to drop them in a puddle.

Battery Life

The Jabra Elite 75t offers fantastic battery life. The buds themselves provided 7.5 hours of continuous play before dying in our testing. The charging case also holds 2-3 more charges within its battery, so altogether you've got enough juice for almost any transcontinental flight.

Portability

The Jabra Elite 75t's charging case is sturdy and small enough to comfortably fit into the front pocket of a pair of jeans. It also has a removable lanyard if you'd like to connect it to a keychain.

Ease of Use

The Jabra Elite 75t has a single button on each earbud. In our testing we found these buttons to be easy to push without causing an uncomfortable pressure in your ears. The buttons also provide a tactile 'click' that makes it clear that the buds have registered your command. The button on the right earbud acts as a play/pause button. Also, if you hold this button down it raises the volume. A double press on this button summons virtual assistants.

The button of the left earbud turns hear through mode --the mode that pipes outside noise in so you can hear it-- on and off. Holding it down also lowers the volume. A double press skips tracks forward and a triple press skips tracks backwards.

Overall these commands aren't completely intuitive, especially the fact that you have to use the right earbud to raise the volume and the left earbud to lower the volume. However, we quickly got used to them.

Value

The Jabra Elite 75t sits at a premium price point, and the buds back that up with premium sound. However, their overall value really depends on whether or not they happen to fit your ears well. If they do, then their overall performance will match their high price. If they don't fit well, however, they are a poor use of your money. We'll say it one more time, this is one to buy from a retailer with a good return policy just in case!

Conclusion