The Jabra Elite 10 Earbuds nail everything they need to with bonus points for comfort and intuitive controls. But there's room for improvement with PC and Mac connectivity if Jabra wants them to be versatile in all parts of your life.
- Ultra-comfy design
- Real buttons!
- Sturdy build
- Not fully functional with PC or Mac
- Power Saver functions are a little buggy
Many earbuds on the market offer a snug fit, but the Jabra Elite 10s stand out by way of having solved one of life's most mundane problems: that awful plugged-up feeling.
Retailing for $379, the Jabra Elite 10 Earbuds are well worth the price with features such as Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Dolby Atmos sound. Real tactile buttons are the cherry on top that make these great everyday earbuds.
Comfort perfected
When it comes to comfort, the Jabra Elite 10s are probably the best earbuds available on that front. The Elite 10 earbuds introduce new Comfort Fit technology which promises "all-day comfort". Essentially, Comfort Fit refers to the new design of the silicone ear tips which are oval rather than round and a "semi-open" design of the buds. The result is a secure fit that doesn't have that "plugged up" feeling you get with other true wireless earbuds.
Up until now, I hadn't given too much thought to it - some level of discomfort or feeling is supposed to be normal when you've got something in your ear right? But not with these earbuds. It doesn't feel like you've stuffed in earbuds like you're at a concert. In total, you're given four pairs of ear tips to find the size that best suits you for maximum comfort. Jabra says the wizardry behind these patent-pending EarGels was performed through the processing of 62,000 ear scans. It's small innovations like this that help the Elite 10 earbuds shine.
All the good stuff earbuds need
The listening experience with the Jabra Elite 10 earbuds is thankfully as smooth as you would expect from earbuds in this price range. The bass is nice and booming and instrumentals and vocals alike ring nice and clear. If spatial audio is your thing you're in luck with the Jabra Elite 10s supporting Dolby Atmos.
Stereo, which most people are familiar with pans sounds left and right almost as if from one side of a stage to the other. Surround sound can come at you from the sides and back as well but still along one 2D plane. However, spatial audio goes fully three-dimensional and adds richness to the experience as it feels like the sound is coming from all around you. The experience works with TV shows and movies as well as music. You can opt for head-tracking as well which provides another element as the sound moves with you as you turn your head.
ANC holds up well enough to block out the backdrop of everyday life or at least reduce it to a steady hum. The HearThrough or transitional mode lacks that "two-cups with string to make a telephone" quality that cheaper earbuds have but overall ANC isn't as nearly all-encompassing as the Bose QuietComfort II earbuds which nearly creates the feeling of a perfectly silent bubble around you.
The main surface of each Jabra Elite 10 earbud acts as a button from which you can control your listening experience, for example switching between ANC and hear through with the left earbud and accessing playback with the right. It's all able to be remapped to your liking in the Jabra Sound+ app with up to triple-tap options. Long presses control the volume. It's nice and intuitive with a solid tactile feel that's a nice change in a world full of taps and swipes. The buttons aren't too sensitive either so I never activated anything by accident.
Design-wise Jabra continues to eschew the stick earbud design in favour of the pod shape. the earbuds fit naturally within the grooves of the ear. The pill-shaped case isn't too bulky and it snaps shut with a satisfying magnetic snap that feels nice and secure. Even in the Cream colourway (which I had doubts about), the case proves remarkably durable. There were a couple of times when some pigment from my leather wallet or something else in my bag or pocket transferred onto the case, but there was no need to freak out. It always came off with a gentle wipe - good as new. The matte finish is nicely fingerprint-resistant too.
Battery life with these buds is good. You get around six hours of listening time with ANC on and up to 27 hours with the case. I didn't find I had too many issues getting through my work-from-home day or even a day with the occasional commute tacked on. A quick charge in the case for 10 minutes gets you back one hour of listening with fast charging and you have the option of wireless charging too. The battery life is nowhere near the insane levels of the Soundcore Space A40 earbuds, however, which are less than half the price and offer up to 10 hours of listening each day. They're our top pick if battery is your key concern.
Things that were a pain in the ear
While there is a lot to love about the Jabra Elite 10 Earbuds there are a few troublesome pain points too. The first is a well-documented muting issue. I would be in a virtual meeting, start to speak and I would be muted as a little voice would notify me. I'd try to unmute on the call with no luck I had to unpair the earbuds. I was being silenced, quite literally. I've never experienced this issue with other true wireless earbuds.
By way of search, I found several blogs and forum posts of other users having the same issues with virtual calls and various Jabra earbuds. The issue relates to input volume being auto-adjusted and then muted by the earbuds on their own accord. Where Jabra left an official reply it pointed out that it did not support use with computers but rather smartphones and tables and "[could not] guarantee full device functionality". A bit disappointing when multipoint and "switching between work and life" are called out in marketing materials and generally work well otherwise.
I also had some trouble with the auto power on/off battery saving feature. Out of the case, the Elite 10 earbuds turn off after 15 minutes without a connection and after 30 minutes of no activity. However, as someone who tends to take my earbuds out leave them on my desk and come back to them later, I was constantly tripped up by this. I'd pop them back in and one earbud would spring back to life but not the other. Sometimes even after removing them from the case, they wouldn't always both turn on. I was wandering the world with a single active bud - until I would eventually notice. Not quite the plug-in-your-ear-and-play experience you hope for from wireless earbuds.
Jabra Elite 10 Earbuds - Final Thoughts
The Jabra Elite 10s are probably not the earbuds for you if you want to use them with a computer. Not being able to use them without issues detracts from their use not just at work but also in life when it comes to things like virtual calls with family.
If you only plan to use them paired with a mobile phone, the Jabra Elite 10s hold up well as high-end earbuds. They tick all the boxes for sound quality, noise cancelling and design. Plus, they’re super comfortable. All that together makes them worth the relatively high price point.
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