Jabra Elite 4 Active In-Ear Bluetooth Earbuds - True Wireless Ear Buds with Secure Active Fit, 4 built-in Microphones, Active Noise Cancellation and Adjustable HearThrough Technology - Black

Absolutely Love It!

I have a Sony WF1000XM3, then why I would want a second pair of ANC earbuds, you ask? Because I want something smaller, easier to wear even when I'm in bed, and won't fall off when I'm running outside. The Jabra does just that.The Jabra set is very small and discreet. The earbuds won't stick out from my ear when I wear them, so there's very little rubbing on my running cap when I wear with a cap. Also, thanks to the low profile, they don't tend to catch wind noise as much as the big and bulky Sony when I run outside. That's a very unexpected plus that I did not think of before hand. And one more plus is that I can comfortably wear this pair inside my motorcycle helmet. No need to spend extra on a Bluetooth headset!The earbuds functions and features are quite standard, but with the press buttons instead of touch - I suppose this is geared towards physical activity usage when you sometimes wear gloves, or use under wet condition (e.g. rain, sweat). You have the ability to control play/pause (press on the right side), turn on and off ANC (press on the left side), and more importantly adjusting volume (press and hold the left to decrease, and do the same for the right to increase). The volume function is omitted in many other brands (Sony included, until they updated their software recently!) so that's a very pleasant surprise to find out Jabra included this - and they don't even mention it in their instruction! I do find the buttons require a little too much force to press and hope they would revise it in the next model with a lighter press.One more time, the set is designed to be used during physical activities so convenient features like stopping music when taken off isn't available. I think this has to do with the removal of infrared sensors on the earbuds themselves - these sensors don't work very well in wet conditions anyway, so removing them to use for physical activities makes sense to me.With regards the mic quality, I can confirm that these work very well. I haven't had any occassion when the caller complains about not being able to hear me, and I have made calls during running with running cap on, or even whilst wearing motorcycle helmet. Be careful when wear this and talk in public though, because this set is too small, sometimes people will mistake you for talking to them (happened to me a few times!).Battery life lasts forever that I forget that these need charging sometimes. The case does not support wireless charging, but an USB C charger is widely available these days and I just charge it whenever I remember. The case has a light in front which lights up when you open the lid, and the light changes colour based on its battery level (green - full, yellowish - 40-60%, I think, and red for low). Very intuitive!Last and not least, about ANC quality, I must say it depends on the environment. Here I am comparing directly to the Sony WF1000XM3, which is called 'the king'. The Sony has better ANC when it's not windy. However, once the wind picks up, the Sony will produce a lot of wind noise whilst the Jabra won't, so in that case, the Jabra wins.All in all, I find the Jabra Elite 4 Active an excellent pair of Bluetooth earbuds. It may not have the best ANC quality on the market, but it does everything else perfectly. And for my own need, I find that I reach out to the Jabra more often than the Sony just because it's smaller and easier to use.

***** EDIT. The earbuds need to be pushed deep into your ear. It sounds good, then, for the cost. The case and the pods look great.

I'm really pleased with the overall aesthetic of these earbuds. The compact charging case is great and the magnetic snap lid is really handy. The ear buds slot into place neatly with a magnetic hold. The ear buds themselves are really comfy and they come with three different sizes of ear gels, so you can find the perfect fit (I needed a smaller gel for one ear). They feel very good quality and the shape, beige colour and design is stylish.The sound quality is fab after tuning them to my preferred settings using the app. You can also tune the ANC which is useful and works well. The earbuds connect to my phone straight after taking them out of the case and although the tap settings need a bit of getting used to it's so handy being able to skip, play or pause tracks just by tapping them in ear.The packaging was also well thought out, no excessive amount of plastic or boxes within boxes!Overall I'm really impressed and will update the review after a few months of using.

I used to go through a pair of in-ear headphones every year (due to breakages or simply dissatisfaction in the sound or comfort) so I’ve used my fair share of these things and here are my thoughts.I picked these up on sale at a decent £50 or so. I would argue that that is about the right price.First the good:1) Sound is decent once you use the accompanying app to tweak it. Out of the box they’re very thin sounding but you can get them to a good enough place pretty quickly via the easy to use app. You’re not going to get top of the range sound quality but its mids and bass are fine and it’s clear enough to cope with most of your basic streaming quality output.2) They’re comfortable and they stay in place pretty well3) Quality seems good - headphones and case seem sturdy enough.4) Controls work pretty well (eg left ear controls noise cancellation, right ear looks after the play/pause and forwarding etc)5) Noise cancellation is ok. You won’t get silence but you will block out enough ambient noise to make it worth turning on when you’re out and about or in an office and need to concentrate or if you’re listening to podcasts etc.Now a couple of specific niggles1) Battery life is not quite as good as other headphones I’ve used. If you use the noise cancellation you will get about 4-5 hours. Without NC you’ll get 6-7 hours. The earbuds also drain at different speeds, which is irritating. They charge pretty fast, though, so I’ve managed to find a way to alternate between which bud I’m using in 10min increments until both are back to roughly 100%. Not always convenient, though.2) I wish the case had a proper battery indicator on it. Several of my other headphone cases have told me how much charge the case is holding via a series of lights or a dial. These have a brief light that flashes green, yellow or red when you put your headphone back in, but the lack of specificity isn’t ideal and you will find that red light appearing unexpectedly and inconveniently.3) The charging case itself doesn’t hold a lot of charge. My last pair of in-ears had a slightly bulkier case which needed to be charged, at most, once per week if I was using the headphones most days. I have to charge my Jabra case, which is lovely and compact, at least 3x per week. And when the case is low on charge, it barely charges the headphones (ie it won’t use up all of its remaining charge to charge the headphones. I assume it’s designed that way to preserve the longevity of the battery in the case). The case also doesn’t support wireless charging, if that’s important to you.So, overall a decent set of headphones and ok value for the £50-ish I paid (absolutely not worth the £100+ rrp). I hope they last, because the positives in comfort and sound just about outweigh the negatives in the battery performance.