If you were to ask your friends and family to recommend earbuds, most people would recommend the usual known brands. This includes Apple, Sony, Sennheiser, JBL, Marshall, Samsung and many more. In Malaysia, many of them would also recommend cheaper and obscure alternative brands. Then, at the corner, there's...Jabra.
By all means, Jabra is also quite a well-known audio brand. But it usually doesn't come up in people's recommendations. The Jabra Elite 10 may change that, though, if you give it a chance. Well, here's my review of the Jabra Elite 10 with everything I like and don't like.
Kicking off with the designs, Jabra is continuing the same look and feel. But compared to the predecessors, the ear tips don't look as pointy-looking as before. The colour we got is called Cream and looks fairly pleasant, you can also get Titanium Black if that's your preference.
Jabra Elite 10 in Cream
A good closer look at the earbuds
Not 3 but 4 different silicon ear tips
It's also unusual that the Jabra Elite 10 comes with not three but four silicon ear tips. There is actually an XL size for those who have big ear canals, so I guess there's something for everyone. Speaking of that, Jabra is also proud to announce the Elite 10's ComfortFit feature. It sounds like another marketing gimmick, so you may want to take it with a grain of salt. But the earbuds do feel nice to wear.
When I wore the Elite 10 for the first time, I almost felt like I wasn't wearing any wireless earbuds at all. They were as comfortable as advertised compared to other earbuds I have worn over the years. However, I think that has something to do with the different silicon ear tip sizes. When I tried using large-sized ear tips (my regular), it didn't feel the same, and the right side tended to fall off even though I wasn't moving much.
Like most wearables, you will need to download an app to pair with your device. In my case, I downloaded Jabra's Sound+ app on my iPhone, and that's where you will do your sound settings and whatnot. After you're done with the pairing and firmware updates, you can start utilising the features inside.
Getting the Sound+ app, available on the Google Play and Apple App Store
The UI in the app is very straightforward
You can do a few settings here and here
Sound+ is very straightforward. You can set up Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) or HearThrough immediately, set your music equaliser, customise the controls and many more. One of the highlights is the Dolby Spatial Sound, which you can use with Head Tracking off or on. Personally, I'm fine with Head Tracking off. But it should be as fun as if you're watching a concert. Also, keep in mind that select streaming platforms (like Tidal, Netflix and others) greatly benefit from Dolby Atmos.
According to Jabra, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Head Tracking are further improved with ANC. In fact, the company claimed that this combination makes it twice more than your average ANC. Unfortunately, that's not really the case for me, as I still tend to hear other ambient sounds. Case in point, I can still very much hear people's muffled voices or doors opening and closing in the same space, even though I had Dolby Spatial + ANC turned on.
The ANC on the Elite 10 is not perfect. But I suspect this is because of the semi-open design and the sudden sound quality drop (more on that in the next paragraph). I talked about the ComfortFit earlier, which also helps to relieve ear pressure to reduce wearing fatigue in long hours. I think that's fine, but on the other hand, the sound quality and performance are sometimes inconsistent.
Overall, songs played on Apple Music and YouTube Music are satisfactory
Wearing the Jabra Elite 10 is comfy enough depending on the silicon ear tip size you use
Once in a while, the songs played by the Elite 10 sound like they were in a garage. I really had no idea what triggered those echo-ish sounds, so I had to put them back in the case and take them out again to 'reset' the sound. Moreover, I have to increase the volume of the TV streaming service. I also find Neutral Mode in the music equaliser tends to sound bland.
Nonetheless, you can still set your own preference and if you don't know how to, Smooth or Energize sounds just right. Across the various genres with the likes of any songs in Taylor's Version, the remastered tracks in The Gazette's 20th Anniversary album, mobile games, and even streaming your shows, the sound quality won't fail you, as long as it doesn't go back to the "basement" as aforementioned.
Before I forget, the battery life on the Elite 10 is super long. It took me a whole week just to purposely drain the earbuds and charging case's battery juice together so that's impressive. Another thing that's worth mentioning is the clear network calls. None of my friends and family complained about the call quality when using the earbuds.
When it comes to watching videos on your phone, you usually need to increase the volume more
On the other hand, sound performance in mobile games was better
All in all, the Jabra Elite 10 is quite an impressive pair of wireless earbuds. The comfyness, battery life and Dolby Atmos support are definitely aspects I highly rate. On the other hand, it's weird that sometimes the sound quality becomes echoey, even if it can be restarted. The ANC isn't as good as I hoped, but it's understandable due to the semi-open design.
Despite that, it's quite hard to recommend the Jabra Elite 10 because of its RM1299 price tag. This lands the wireless earbuds in the premium price range where the Sony WF-1000XM5 and AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) exist at RM1399 and RM1099, respectively. And both models are more reputable than the Jabra. Furthermore, I still very much prefer my favourite earbuds of 2023 - the Nothing ear (2) with its fantastic Personalised ANC feature at RM599 only.
Anyway, that's my review of the Jabra Elite 10. What do you think, and do you agree with the review? Let us know in the comments below and do come back again for more tech gadget reviews at TechNave.com.
Pros - Comfortable to wear, battery life, and Dolby Atmos (+ Dolby Spatial Sound) are good
Cons - Sometimes the earbuds need a restart to get the sound quality back in line, and the ANC performance got sacrificed in favour of the semi-open design
Conclusion - For RM1299, it's tough to recommend this unless you're a Jabra fan
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