A Contender For Best Premium Earbuds

The single most important thing about the Jabra Elite 10 wireless earbuds is their refined shape for an emphasis on comfort. Are you someone who’s suffered through an earache to keep listening to music? The real revolution listeners are looking for in premium earbuds is unbridled comfort, in addition to luxury features—not one or the other.

These Elite 10 excel at their own game by combining an abundance of features, robust sound, and long-term wearability. The results were so good, in fact, that these earbuds have the potential to single-handedly elevate Jabra to the broadest audience yet.

Jabra Elite 10

Jabra’s most advanced wireless earbuds for work and life with all-day comfort and Dolby Atmos support.

Microphone?

6

Audio codecs

AAC, SBC

Bluetooth

5.3

IP Rating

IP57

Solo bud mode?

Yes

Driver Size

10mm

Wireless Charging

Yes (case)

Dimensions (case)

1 x 1.8 x 2.6in (24.4 x 46.9 x 65.4mm)

Earbud weight

0.2oz (5.7g)

Charging case weight

1.6oz (45.9g)

Frequency response

20Hz – 20,000Hz

Max playback time

6 hours with ANC on, 8 hours with ANC off

Charging time

5 minutes for 1 hour listening; 3-hour total charge time

Maximum play time (overall)

27 hours with ANC on, 36 hours with ANC off

Pros

• Excellent comfort with no longterm fatigue
• Great music quality
• Above average ANC performance

Cons

• Earbuds may be a little bulky for small ears
• No volume control on earbuds

The Fit and Comfort of the Elite 10

The outward silhouette of the Jabra Elite 10 earbuds isn’t starkly different from other Jabra earbuds. However, as soon as I slipped them into my ears, I could tell they had been rethought from front to back.

The Elite 10 have a semi-open design which creates less pressure and allows for longer listening times. I noticed this in a pronounced way as I tested these and the Elite 8 Active back-to-back. It’s not only the shell of the earbuds that fit differently either; the focus on comfort extends to the oval, contoured silicon ear tips.

I’ve tested more than 50 different earbuds over the last few years, and normally, I would begin to feel ear fatigue or hints of discomfort in the first hour of use if I was going to. Out of the 50-plus models, only a small handful have been nearly invisible in my ears. The Elite 10 have now been added to that list. Although the silicone tips are still present to create a seal, I didn’t feel them jammed into my ears in the way the Elite 8 Active and other earbuds felt.

Another example of the refined fit was the ability to eat with them in my ears. Typically, there is more pressure felt from the chewing motion. That wasn’t present.

I asked my wife to try these earbuds on to see how they fit in her smaller ears. Technically they did fit, and she did say they were more comfortable than other ones she’s tried, but they were a bit too bulky to stay put reliably.

ANC Performance and HearThrough Transparency

Active noise-canceling technology is super important for people traveling and using earbuds in a work setting. Having high-performance ANC (active noise cancelation) that’s great at silencing surrounding noise allows music to be listened to at a lower volume. It can also come in handy for simply blocking out noise, even when nothing is playing.

The ANC on the Jabra Elite 10 earbuds did a great job, but not exceptional. Frequent readers of mine will know that the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II currently holds the crown for me in this regard.

I had a chance to put the Elite 10 through an intense real-world test on a cross-country flight. During the pre-flight boarding process, the earbuds completely blocked out the rumblings of the engine and fan noise. In the air, the earbuds quieted the overall cabin noise of coach to very low levels. The white noise didn’t disappear completely and there were still vague sounds, but the decibel level was very low.

There are six microphones placed around the two earbuds, used for various tasks, including Jabra’s transparency mode called HearThrough. On the Elite 10, HearThrough can be adjusted in the companion app to let only a little important noise in, such as talking or more sounds, for greater awareness of your surroundings. On its most restrictive setting, HearThrough was able to block out some of the ancillary cabin noise. It brought the engines to a tolerable level while still allowing communication with flight attendants.

Jabra, in general, has long made its HearThrough mode sound incredibly natural. A lot of wireless earbuds can sound robotic, but the Elite 10 had no hints of a digital filter. Occasionally, I forgot I was wearing them after my playlist ended. There was no muffled feeling of cotton balls stuck in my ears either.

As an added bonus, I didn’t notice any hit to the robust sound profile of the earbuds when HearThrough was enabled.

Elite 10 Sound and Call Quality

I found the Elite 10 to be comfortable for long-term use, making me think these could be great for people working on the go. The microphones and background noise suppression provided more than adequate call quality. As the samples indicate, I thought these earbuds did a great job of making my voice perfectly audible, whether in a quiet or noisy environment.

Microphone Test: Inside a Quiet Room

Microphone Test: Noisy Cafe Environment

While the specs such as comfort and battery life facilitate listening to lots of music, it would be hard to recommend the Jabra Elite 10 if they didn’t make songs sound vibrant and alive. Luckily, these wireless earbuds do just that. Armed with 10mm drivers and a frequency range of 20Hz to 20,000Hz, they allowed me to peak into the low-end depths of each song. I never felt constrained by the earbuds, which also allowed instruments to sonically fade off into the distance.

“Summertime Magic” by Childish Gambino is a song that stretches far and deep, with steel drums at the high end and an abyss of bass on the low end. A rhythmic synth and dripping rain stick both run outward to showcase a wide sound field. All of these elements were present on the Elite 10 earbuds and sounded excellent. The elements combined for a rich and sonically-fulfilling experience. I didn’t just hear the music, but I felt it.

Dolby Atmos with Dolby Head Tracking is supported on the Elite 10. This can be enabled in the Jabra Sound+ mobile app. It worked exceptionally well as similar technology does with AirPods Pro 2 and an iPhone.

As much as I like spatial audio music in general and think it should be the default, this isn’t a feature that should single-handedly sell these earbuds. Using Apple Music to play Atmos songs and nearly any Bluetooth earbuds will get you a spatial audio experience. The head tracking feature on the Jabra Elite 10, through the Sound+ app, worked great, but I rarely wanted that in a music experience.

Separately, it should be noted that controlling music with the physical controls felt natural with the tactile buttons on the exterior of the earbuds. I could feel a click beneath my finger. That made multiple presses easier to do compared to using touch controls.

There was no way to control the volume from the earbuds, which was unfortunate. In my experience, it’s a nice feature to have, but one that shouldn’t be done if it can’t be done with pinpoint-level accuracy. (So far, I believe only Apple has nailed this on the AirPods Pro 2.)

Jabra Sound+ App

The Elite 10 earbuds use Jabra’s Sound+ mobile app, available on iPhone and Android. Overall the app has been elegant over the years, especially compared to most other companion apps. Unfortunately, its easy-to-use interface went largely untouched. Once I configured the media control buttons on the left and right earbuds, I only used the app to occasionally adjust the amount of transparency HearThrough allowed in.

I kept the music EQ on neutral and Dolby’s Spatial Sound on for media (head tracking off), but those items can be tweaked using the app. The app can also play soundscapes like ocean waves and can be used to alter settings like ear detection and call preferences.

Battery Life of Elite 10

Using the Jabra Elite 10 while traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast allowed me to speed-run my experience with the battery life. Officially, these get six hours of listening time with ANC on and eight hours with ANC off. I switched back and forth between the two different isolation modes, but those estimates were absolutely obtainable. The charging case allows the total battery life to be 27 to 36 hours, depending on whether ANC is on or off.

The battery case is now sleeker than previous models from Jabra with a rounded bottom. My Cocoa color review model did show quite a few finger smudges. That was more from the matte-like finish rather than the choice of color.

Additionally, while digging through the specs of these earbuds, I discovered they’re rated for 345 days of standby time. Interesting!

Price, Availability, and Color

The Elite 10 are available starting August 31, 2023, for $249, and are available at Jabra, Best Buy, and other retail stores. The earbuds come in five color options: Titanium Black, Cream, Cocoa, Matte Black, and Gloss Black. Don’t feel bad if you can’t tell the difference between the three different black colors. I couldn’t either.

Cocoa was the most interesting color of the bunch. It looked more maroon than brown in person but did have a great, sophisticated appearance.

Elite 10 vs. Elite 8 Active

The cocoa-colored Elite 10 have an oval ear tip compared to the more traditional circle tips on the blue Elite 8 Active.

There are several differences between the new Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active, which both debuted at the same time. But in broad terms, the Elite 8 Active are aimed at people in more adventurous situations because they have more rugged materials and more durable ratings.

Either pair of earbuds could work in various situations, but if my primary objective of listening to music involves situations where I’m sweating constantly, I would opt for the Elite 8 Active. If I were planning on using earbuds in more controlled environments, I would opt for the Elite 10.

Should You Buy the Jabra Elite 10?

The Jabra Elite 10 reside in the premium tier of wireless consumer earbuds. They compete directly against AirPods Pro 2, Sony WF-1000XM5, and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. While the ANC isn’t better than any of the competitors, it also doesn’t trail behind. Plus, HearThrough has proved to be among the best-in-class for transparency. The Elite 10 earbuds join the ranks of the best earbuds available in 2023.

The Elite 10 are great for travelers and those constantly on meeting calls. The stem-free design makes them minimal, while the physical button provides helpful tactile feedback.

They play the field by supporting Google-specific features, working well with Apple’s devices, and including Spotify Tap. They thread the line of being platform agnostic almost better than any other earbuds. There are very few reasons not to buy these, but even fewer reasons not to at least consider them.

Jabra Elite 10

Jabra’s most advanced wireless earbuds for work and life with all-day comfort and Dolby Atmos support.