Why You Can Trust CNET Jabra Elite Sport review: Jabra's sporty AirPods rival ups its battery life
We called the original Elite Sport totally wireless waterproof earphones a Fitbit for your ears. The upgraded version has 50 percent more battery life.
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Jabra's Elite Sport Upgraded isn't really a new version of the company's sports-oriented totally wireless earphones, but they do feature one important change: A brand-new battery that provides 50 percent more battery life (4.5 hours instead of 3 hours) between in-case charges.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Like the original Elite Sport, this upgraded version has a built-in heart-rate monitor and costs $250 (£230; AU$329). It now comes in a new lime green gray edition as well as black.
Along with the new battery, Jabra has made some software enhancements. The Jabra Sport Life app has been updated, and there's a new internal equalizer that allows you to personalize your sound profiles and settings. Those new software features will be available to existing owners of the original Elite Sport, but they won't get the battery life gains of the new model.
I tested a lime green and gray model to verify Jabra's battery-life claims -- and confirmed they were accurate at moderate volume levels. But since the earphones are otherwise identical, the review below is mostly derived from my original review of the Jabra Elite Sport with some small updates.
The earphones in their charging case.
What makes the Elite Sport so elite? For starters, the 'buds are fully sweat- and waterproof. There's also that aforementioned integrated heart-rate monitor that provides "in-ear fitness analysis." Also, as you'd suspect from a Jabra headphone, they work quite well as a headset for making calls, with built-in noise reduction technology. According to Jabra, the earbuds analyze external sounds and automatically switch to the earbud with least background noise. I had no problem making calls from the noisy streets of New York, which is a feat.
What also impressed me about these guys was their ability to maintain a steady, hiccup-free connection and stay in my ears while running. They also sound quite decent, though with in-ear noise-isolating headphones such as these, it's crucial that you get a tight seal to get the best sound quality, and you'll have to try out a few of the various tips and fins that Jabra provides before you settle into a fit you're satisfied with.
Once again, none of the included eartips allowed me to get a tight seal. But I dug up an extra large silicone tip from the myriad tips I have lying around the office and -- voilà -- the sound improved by 25 percent, particularly the bass. The only problem was that with those larger tips, the earbuds didn't quite fit in their charging case -- I couldn't snap the lid completely shut.
The earphones are fully waterproof.
Of course, there's a good chance one of the tips will fit you perfectly and you won't have this problem (my ears are admittedly tough to fit, but there are plenty of people out there with ears that are tough to fit with in-ear sports headphones).
Another downside is the earphones are somewhat beefy. And while they should fit most people's ears pretty well -- and fairly comfortably -- due to their size and the shape of my ear, I didn't find them super-comfortable, though I felt better about them once I found the right tip.
Like competing products, you can top off the 4.5-hour battery life of the buds by slipping them into their charging case, which has an integrated battery that gives you two additional charges. That's a total of more than 13 hours. While that's up from the earlier version, Apple's AirPods -- which cost less -- hold a five-hour charge, with a total of 24 hours with the charging case.
You can use the headphones with your favorite iOS and Android running and fitness apps, including Endomondo, RunKeeper, Map My Fitness, Runtastic and Strava, but Jabra has its own training-management app called Jabra Sport Life that's good, too, and gives you in-ear coaching and feedback.
The heart-rate sensor picks up your heart rate through your ear and there's an initial delay of about 5 to 10 seconds before it picks up what appears to be an accurate measurement -- or pretty accurate, anyway.
I'm not going to do a deep dive into all the fitness aspects of the headphone, but I will say this is one of the stronger early entries in the totally wireless headphone arena.
You get several different size eartips and fins in the box.
It's not without its small flaws. I thought the buds could fit in their case a little better (even with the buds wearing a set of the supplied tips and stabilizers the case had a little trouble closing all the way). I also encountered the occasional issue where the two buds wouldn't link together into a stereo pair. I had to fiddle around with my Bluetooth settings and put the disconnected bud back in the charging case, then bring it out again so it would wake up.
The new Elite Sport also takes some trial and error to figure out what the little buttons on the earpieces exactly control (there are volume controls and a pause/play button) and it certainly helps to read the manual because the headphones and the app have a lot of technology and features to wade through. For instance, there's a HearThrough feature that allows more ambient noise to enter your ears, a good safety feature for runners who want to hear traffic noise (or if you simply want to talk to someone without removing the headphones). However, if you're playing your music loud, you won't be able to hear traffic noise, even with the HearThrough feature switched on.
The built-in heart-rate sensor records your heart rate through your ear.
It's also worth mentioning that hardcore athletes will appreciate that they have a three-year warranty against failure due to sweat. Oh, and if you lose one bud, Jabra will let you buy a replacement for $80.
While I dinged the original Sport Elite for having only 3 hours of battery life, its bump up to 4.5 hours is obviously a nice development, but I'd still like to see them priced a little lower. (If and when that happens -- with a permanent, significant price drop -- expect our rating to go up.) But aside from that caveat, they do work surprisingly well -- especially for phone calls -- and should continue to improve slightly with time as Jabra tweaks its software (you can update the firmware).