Jabra Elite 10 Earbuds Review

About the Jabra Elite 10

Jabra Elite 10 specs

• Price: $249.99
• Battery life: Up to 6 hours with ANC (up to 8 without), up to 27 hours total with case (up to 36 without ANC)
• Drivers: 10 mm
• Wireless charging: Yes, Qi-compatible case
• Colors: Cocoa, Cream, Gloss Black, Matte Black, Titanium Black
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3
• Audio codecs: AAC, SBC
• Water-resistance: IP57
• Ear tips: Small, medium, large, extra large
• Weight: Earbuds, 5.7 grams ; case, 45.9 grams

What we like

They sound wonderfully welcoming

When I test earbuds, I tend to jump in headfirst and hit shuffle on my personal playlist of drastically diverse tunes. My first curated selection featured the melodic strumming at the heart of Cat Stevens’ “Father and Sun,” and the Elite 10 brought me the plucking of those guitar strings on a pillow. Track two was “Walk It Talk It” by Migos, and the Elite 10 sprung into action, digging down and delivering just enough bass to drive the snappy rap song. Then, track three flipped the switch to something vocally dominant in “White Horse” by Chris Stapleton, and Jabra’s flagship buds once again answered the call to replicate the country star’s icon chops.

They don’t quite pack the earth-shattering audio quality that the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 do, but the Jabra Elite 10 are consistently great-sounding earbuds, regardless of genre. They invite you into the listening experience, and continuously cater to your audio needs as you swap between the vast sea of music options available to you.

They belong in the ANC conversation

Jabra’s talking point behind the Elite 10’s active noise cancellation abilities is that the new flagship buds are “two times stronger” than previous iterations when it comes to blocking out unwanted noise. To test this, I pitted the Elite 10 against the Jabra Elite 4, which I assume are equipped with what Jabra dubs its “standard ANC.”

Even without being able to come up with a precise measure, I can confidently say the Elite 10 are twice as good as their less-impressive brethren when it comes to ANC. The loudest environment I find myself in on a daily basis is the gym, and I was nothing short of impressed with the way it dampened the many jarring sounds that plague that space. It’s not masterful in the way the class-leading Sony WF-1000XM5 are when it comes to ANC, but the Elite 10 are proof that Jabra went back to the drawing board and developed something special in the noise cancellation category.

As a bookend to the topic, Jabra’s ambient sound mode was equally impressive and ultimately offered some real valuable utility. It was perfect to press the earbuds to temporarily disable ANC as I was about to pass someone on a trail, or if I was running up to a stoplight and wanted to be completely aware of my surroundings.

They fit like a dang glove

Jabra says the Elite 10 are outfitted with its new ComfortFit technology, featuring an oval EarGel design that was created by scanning 62,000 unique ears. The result, I’m happy to say, is staggering.

The Elite 10 provide a wealth of comfort, to the point where it feels like Jabra deliberately massaged each and every edge of the earbud to allow it to sit effortlessly in your ear. The older Elite 4 comparatively feel rigid and harsh to the touch. I wore the Elite 10 daily for weeks, and my ears didn’t feel a hint of fatigue.

Plus, while the Elite 10 don’t technically fall into Jabra’s fitness-specific category, they have an IP57 weather resistance rating alongside their solid, secure fit. I ran with these buds. I went to the gym with them. I even went mountain biking (with ambient sound on), and the Elite 10 stayed snugly in my ears. Even if these aren’t fitness buds, they do one heck of an imitation.

The controls are ultra functional

The Jabra Elite 10 have press-style controls, and it admittedly takes a bit of memorization to figure everything out. But through a collection of single, double and triple presses, the Elite 10 come pre-loaded with all the controls you’ll ever need. Need to skip to the next track? Double press on the right earbud. Want to swap between noise cancellation modes? That’s a single press of the left earbud away. Need to mute or end a call? The earbuds adapt to the situation and implement single and double presses, respectively, to allow you to effectively maneuver your calls.

The missing piece is volume. I couldn’t find an adjustment in the otherwise-great Jabra app that would let me assign volume controls to a specific tap. Outside of that, the Elite 10 were seamless to control in most situations I threw at it.

What we don’t like

I can’t get on board with spatial audio

The Elite 10 have an optional Spatial Sound mode with Dolby Head Tracking, and the idea behind it is to create a more immersive listening experience. In some circumstances, I can see where this would be advantageous. I watched the new Godzilla x Kong trailer with Spatial Sound on, and it produced an intriguing audio experience with Kong’s powerful recklessness happening all around me.

The problem is, it’s more of a gimmick for music. The availability of Dolby Atmos music is limited to select tracks on Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Tidal. If you’re on, say, Spotify and you’d like to see what Spatial Audio is all about, you’re going to find that the audio is staggeringly hit and miss. It adds something to certain tracks (“Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, for example), and makes others sound uncharacteristically bizarre. In Luke Combs’ “Nothing Like You,” the singer’s signature growly vocals became washed out as the earbuds tried to throw the sound across my listening space.

I don’t want to count spatial sound completely out. There is potential for it to find its purpose in the true wireless space. Right now, though, music just isn’t ready to make the technology useful.

Should you buy the Jabra Elite 10?

Yes, if you’re after a high-end jack of all trades

For the price, the Jabra Elite 10 don’t wow on paper. None of the specs in standard categories like battery life, weather resistance rating, or even codec support do much to sell the Elite 10 as an excellent pair of earbuds. And if you’re chasing numbers, you can certainly find a pair of buds that does more, likely for less.

Once these Jabra buds are in your ears, though, the tone shifts. They sit effortlessly, but securely in place. They sound great, regardless of what kind of music you task the 10mm drivers with, and they deliver Jabra’s best active noise cancellation technology to date. These buds are the real deal, even if they don’t appear to be.

Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 3 will sound better and Sony’s WF-1000XM5 will block out more noise. But if you’re in the market for a pair of high-end (and high-priced) true wireless earbuds that make everything look easy, the Jabra Elite 10 are it.