So these are the Jabra Elite 3’s… they’re Jabra’s newest entry level truly wireless
earbuds.
And overall…
I really can’t complain about these guys.
They have a decently small case which is great for everyday carry, they have a long combined
battery life which is great for convenience, and they have an ambient mode which is great
for commuters.
Overall the elite 3’s are solid.
Now regarding pricing… the elite 3’s retail for 80 bucks and at that price you
really can’t be mad at these earbuds.
And unlike a lot of other earbuds that retail for $100 or less… the elite 3’s actually
feel fairly premium for their price.
Cause a lot of sub $100 earbuds like lets say from skullcandy, Raycon, or even the Amazon
Echo Buds 2 which actually retail for $120 do feel rather cheap in your hands by comparison.
Nonetheless if you want to pick the Elite 3’s up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about this case.
The elite 3’s case is very similar to the Jabra Elite 75T’s case except it is a touch
shorter.
And the Elite 3’s case is all around smaller than the Jabra Elite 85T’s case.
Which are my favorite earbuds when it comes to active noise cancelation.
And overall, the elite 3’s case is just a touch larger than the AirPods Pro’s case…
and its also smaller than the Galaxy Buds 2’s case and Beats Studio Bud’s case.
So in general… the elite 3’s have a great case that you aren’t going to notice too
much when its in your pocket.
And when it comes to build quality, the case itself has a slate finish to it which I am
always a fan of.
The lid opens and closes very easily… which was always a gripe I had with the Jabra Elite
65T’s… and this case has decently strong magnets in it.
Making it easy to take your earbuds out and put them back in.
Now when it comes to battery life, these earbuds have a combined battery life of 28 hours with
their transparency mode turned off.
The earbuds themselves can go for 7 hours and the case can supply 3 additional charges.
And overall a combined battery life of 28 hours is really good on these earbud especially
when you take into consideration the size of their case.
And for comparison sake, the Beats Studio Buds have a combined battery life of 24 hours
with their active noise cancelation turned off and they have a noticeably larger case
than the elite 3’s, and the Galaxy Buds 2 have a combined battery life of 29 hours
with their active noise cancelation turned off all while still having a slightly larger
case than the elite 3’s as well.
However, the galaxy buds 2 do have wireless charging where as the elite 3’s don’t.
You can only charge these earbuds with the USB C port on the back.
Now personally I don’t care about wireless charging on my earbuds, but I do want to point
this out either for the people that have a phone that supports power sharing, or if you’ve
already invested in a few wireless charging mats.
But now lets talk about the ear buds themselves, regarding fit the Elite 3 fit like your standard
pair of in ear ear buds.
As in they go in into your ear canals a decent amount like lets say the Jabra Elite 75T’s
or the Galaxy Buds 2.
Overall the elite 3’s fit fine.
Their silicon ear tips don’t get itchy like lets say the foam ear tips that you’ll find
on the Sony WF-1000XM4’s… so you can wear them for awhile without much discomfort.
They stay in place very well, and they passively block out a decent amount of noise.
However I would mainly recommend these earbuds for casual use.
Since these earbuds don’t have optional ear fins or ear hooks they can wiggle out
if you’re working out with these earbuds.
And also keep in mind, the Elite 3’s don’t fit like the Jabra Elite 85T’s which have
a more shallow natural fit to them.
Now when regarding connectivity… this is actually a little bitter sweet.
On one hand, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone.
So if you just want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one it doesn’t matter.
And this is the connection setup that we expect to see on our earbud nowadays.
Cause up until now, all of Jabra’s earbuds were still using a hero and sidekick set up.
Meaning that one earbud the hero earbud, in this case the right earbud actually establishes
a connection with your phone.
And then relays that connection to the other earbud.
So if you just wanted to use one earbud at a time you have to use the correct earbud.
Or in this case the right earbud.
The hero earbud.
Now earbuds that are still using a hero and sidekick set up are either cheaper, or last
gen.
However the thing that made Jabra special is that their earbuds could connect to any
two devices at the same time regardless of operating systems.
So you can easily hot swap from one device to another.
Making them great for power users.
Whereas with the Elite 3’s they can only be connected to 1 device at a time.
But when it comes to performance, these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching
movies or videos on your phone whether youre using an iPhone or an android device and when
it comes to audio codecs… these earbuds have support for SBC and APTX.
Which really only matters if youre an android user.
But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these earbuds.
Just like with most other Jabra earbuds, the elite 3’s are going to be better suited
for someone who like a more bass heavy EQ.
Now don’t get me wrong, these earbuds sound good with decent instrument separation…
but these earbuds don’t sound anywhere near as open as lets say they Galaxy Buds 2 or
especially the Sennheiser CX’s.
And I can’t help but feel that the highs could be crisper.
Now even though I should mainly recommend these earbuds to someone who likes a more
bass heavy EQ… keep in mind these earbuds don’t have as much bass and its not as clean
as the bass that you’ll find on either the Beats Studio buds or again… the Sennheiser
CX’s.
But thankfully, they earbuds do have a few preset EQ settings to choose from.
And this app plays nice with both Android and iOS… here’s looking at you Galaxy
Buds 2.
Now you have a few different EQ settings to choose from and personally I think Energize
sounds best… but you can’t actually make your own EQ like you can with Jabra’s other
earbuds.
Now when it comes to your media controls, these earbuds are still using physical buttons…
and some people still prefer physical buttons on their earbuds.
Now personally I prefer haptic touch pads like the ones found on AirPods… but thats
a whole other story.
Now with these earbuds you use the right earbud to skip through your music and the left earbud
is used to cycle between your ambient mode, activate your voice assistant, and answer
calls.
And if you press and hold on these earbuds you can adjust the volume of your music.
But unfortunately you can’t customize the layout of your control buttons like you can
with the Jabra Elite 85T’s or Jabra’s other earbuds.
So you’re stuck with what Jabra gave you.
But finally regarding the media controls on these earbuds… the elite 3’s don’t have
proximity sensors.
So they aren’t going to automatically play or pause your music if you take these earbuds
out or put them back in.
Now personally for me this is a noticeable inconvenience… but I can’t be too mad
just given that these are Jabra’s entry level earbuds.
However, these earbuds do have an ambient mode and its actually pretty good.
It sounds almost as natural as the ambient mode found on the AirPods Pro with zero hissing
in the background and this microphone array does a decent job of blocking out wind noise
when walking out doors.
But unfortunately you can’t adjust how much noise these earbuds let in like with Jabra’s
other earbuds.
But finally here’s the microphone test.
And im going to have to say that this microphone is pretty good.
In a quite room my voice is very easy to hear because this microphone has more amplification
to it than the microphone found on the Jabra Elite 85T’s.
Now when it comes to blocking out noise pollution… these earbuds do a decent job of blocking
out road noise AKA a constant low frequency sound all while keeping my voice front and
center.
However when it comes to blocking out chatter, AKA a random higher frequency sound… these
earbuds don’t do as good of a job.
And I also noticed that if you’re talking in a quite room an then you dog starts barking
in the background these earbuds is going to pick all that up.
Overall thats a very niche case… but personally I would try to take phone calls with these
earbuds in a quieter environment.
But with all of that being said, the Jabra Elite 3’s are a great pair of entry level
earbuds to consider.
From a build quality stand point these earbuds feel great.
They don’t feel at premium as lets say the Jabra Elite 85T’s… but they feel more
premium than their direct competitors.
And these earbuds have almost all of the features that they need to be super convenient.
They have a small case that isn’t too noticeable in your pocket.
They have a long combined battery life, they have a good sounding microphone for phone
calls, they sound good and they even have a really good ambient mode which is great
for constant commuters.