The Jabra Elite 65e cost £134.99 via Jabra.co.uk
Jabra has been a favourite brand of mine since the excellent Jabra Elite 65t earbuds which I still you every day for my commute to work. I was recently sent the Jabra Elite 65e which are a neckband version so I was excited to test what on first impressions looked like an improvement as I generally prefer the neckband design over the earbud design.
The Jabra Elite 65e cost £134.99 via the Jabra website and come with features such as ANC, long battery life and strong wireless connection and ability to use your smart assistant. When not in use Jabra have provided a zippered case meaning you can protect the buds when not in use and for anyone who has read my reviews a case is a positive in my book.
The Jabra Elite 65e are made mostly of plastic and rubber and this helps with the IP54 rating. These are a neckband design which I personally did not like as I thought the band could have been slightly weighted as the band just moved around a lot for me. However, When my girlfriend used them she was more than happy with the neckband and had no issues with it.
You do get a solid feel to the neckband I just found it uncomfortable for me personally as the band seemed to have a mind of its own which affected my listening experience.
The earbuds themselves are of a similar look to the elite 65t as they come with wings to fit in your ear more comfortable. The buds on appearance are larger than the non-neckband 65t’s. The size of the buds could provide some users with a challenge as you only get 3 pairs of tips and wings to choose from.
I used the medium size buds and found they offered the perfect fit which is important due to the ANC technology. The earbuds are connected by a flat cable which is a lot better compared some neckband designs that the earbud cables just get tangled so it’s nice not to have that issue. The earbuds also magnetically connect which is a nice touch when you have taken them out but have kept them around your neck.
Charging is achieved via a micro USB port on the neckband the and headphone playback controls are located on the right side of the neckband. The left side of the neckband features buttons to toggle ANC and a long-press will activate the “HearThrough” feature, which lets you hear your surroundings without removing your earbuds.
There’s also a dedicated voice assistant button for quick triggering. iPhone users will get Siri while Android users can choose between Google Assistant or Alexa – through Amazon’s assistant won’t be available until later this year.
Performance-wise Jabra falls a bit short when you consider the ANC as high-frequency sounds are not blocked out, in fact, people speaking on the train which was a little disappointing. However low frequency sounds where blocked out and with the passive noise cancellation it did improve slightly. As for the sound quality, unfortunately, they are not perfect. The sound was a bit soft overall and when you dig a little deeper the bass is ok but being a fan of deep bass it was a little lacking for my liking. Plus if you turn the ANC off the sound quality gets worse. Which makes me think I will stay with my elite 65t’s that provide better sound quality.
What I did like about these earbuds is the fact you have you do have voice assistant enabled so using Seri, Alexa or Ask Google was nice to have as its something I use all the time. Moving onto the battery life you get 8 hours of playback with ANC or 13 hours with ANC off but as mentioned the audio quality decreases with ANC off so most of the time I kept it on.
So overall, the Jabra Elite 65e’s offer a decent sound but with the fact, the base was not the best and the ANC could be stronger these where a bit of a disappointment. I also found the neckband really uncomfortable and I would prefer Jabra to take inspiration the Sennheiser Momentum neckband which has a bit of weight to them and this would have gone some way to make this even better. Cost-wise the Jabra Elite 65e are £134.99 and I feel if you want a better neckband design go for the Sennheiser’s at £79.99 and if you want to stick with the brand Jabra the elite 65t offers better sound quality and the fit creates better isolation and ANC for the user.
The Jabra Elite 65e cost £134.99 via Jabra.co.uk
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