Jabra Elite 65t

Packaging & Presentation

On Jabra’s official Instagram account, you’ll find beautiful people aplenty showcasing the Elite 65t. Here, the Elite 65t meets the hip urban demographic, with the marketing campaign underlining the confident aesthetic, bolstered by impressive statistics when it comes to sound know-how. Believe it or not, Jabra claims to have a technical knowledge base that encompasses more than 145 years. With the unpacking out of the way, the contents become clear. Included are the main model itself, along with the charging case, charging cable, plus a selection of earpieces in small, medium and large sizes.

One noticeable feature of these in-ears are the short extensions that protrude from the housing. At the end of these are the microphones, similar in design to Apple’s AirPods. These microphones are oriented a little towards the mouth, which shouldn’t be detrimental to speech intelligibility in theory, but we’ll talk more about this later on.

Pairing is quick and easy with Bluetooth 5.0, with handy message alerts to remind you to install the Jabra Sound+ App. This app allows you to enjoy enhanced functionality, including an equaliser. The haptic elements of this device, particularly when you consider them alongside the titanium black design and plastic housing, aren’t particularly top-tier, although this doesn’t necessarily leave an impression of cheapness and flimsiness. That being said, the material doesn’t feel as good as others might have. However, the Elite 65t feel good in the ear, with a firm fit that leaves you confident they’ll stay well placed for long listening sessions.

Sound

The Jabra Elite 65t offers plenty in the way of sound satisfaction. The app equaliser provides plenty of presents, with the option of manual customisation also possible. Pleasant in the basses and wide and open in the highs and mids are the standard here, with a detailed stage ensuring plenty of resolution can be savoured. I preferred to add a little bass with the EQ and was pleased to hear a fine boom and constant clarity in the highs and mids added to things. Piano pieces by Federico Albanese, a musician who likes to use sequencers and drums, shimmer with crisp detail and are beautifully reproduced by the Elite 65t. Even at louder volumes, there’s plenty of detail to enjoy. Appropriate pressure can be enjoyed with almost constant clarity, with no clashes and distortions evident. After listening more closely to neoclassical productions with plenty of string groups and piano pacing, the true strength of these in-ears shines spectacularly.

Controls

The left earphone has a switch at the back that allows you to jump back and forth between tracks, while also making adjustments to volume. The right earphone has a full-surface button that controls sound transmission and additional functions such as external noise mixing, digital assistant controls, plus all telephony functionality. The exact details of controls can be looked up in the documentation supplied, as well as within the app. The simplicity of control elements is welcome, especially for those looking for something that can be controlled fully when stored in the pocket. Additional features like the HearThrough function is perfect for allowing enough awareness of your surroundings when say, cycling or jogging, with the function utilising the microphones and mixing the external noise into main sound transmissions. If you wish to listen carefully to anything external, simply pull the left earpiece out of your ear to halt music playback.

If, by any chance, you lose your 65t headphones, you can make the loss more bearable by utilising the app, which will remember and display the location of last connection. Another handy app feature, Soundscapes, lets you choose from a selection of sounds, ranging from white noise to rain, underwater noises to chirping birds. These sounds can be selected to provide you with a little escape from the everyday world whenever the mood suits. The sounds themselves are a little artificial in presentation, but they’re a nifty little extra all the same.

Should you want to call somebody to talk about your experience with the Jabra Elite 65t, you can also make adjustments in the app, depending on whether the voice of the other person is bass-heavy, light or more regular in sound. There is no such selection for the sound of your own voice, however, due to the fact the microphones face the mouth, the sound is much better and less distant than what you might experience with many a competitor model with unaligned microphones.

Case & Battery Life

The charging case is pleasantly flat and pocket-friendly, with two LEDs to indicate the charge status of both the in-ears themselves, as well as the case. After five hours of charging, the manufacturer states the in-ears have two full charges, granting a total running time of 15 hours. The case itself is somewhat difficult to open, with the best method for opening being to compress the left and right sides. Inserting the in-ears turns out to be hassle-free. Only when removing them and when pairing the device do these in-ears sometimes present a problem, with one of the earpieces remaining silent. However, should you encounter this issue, you can switch them on manually to enjoy full stereo sound.