Jabra is a Danish brand specialising in audio equipment, specifically headphones and earphones. They're one of the few companies that has been consistent with every product. Every new iteration will not blow you away with some new-fangled design or insanely good performance but they'll be just as good, if not better than the previous ones.
That's how I feel about the brand-new Elite 8 Active. The truly wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds are tougher, and better at drowning out noises and boosting the battery life.
At 17,999, the Jabra Elite 8 Active are more expensive as compared to its predecessor. They come in four colours, caramel, navy, black and dark grey. Does the price bump justify the product's place at the top of the pile in a hyper-competitive market that includes Samsung's Galaxy Buds2 Pro, Apple's AirPods Pro (2nd generation), Sony's recently launched WF-1000XM5 and others? Let's find out.
The Elite 8 Active's don't stray too much from the design of their predecessor with their noise-isolating structure. They're a minimal upgrade to the Elite 7 Active. They get six instead of four microphones, much improved adaptive noise cancelling tech, an IP68 rating, and wind reduction technology. The ShakeGrip fit (with a choice of small, medium and large silicone ear gels) is top class and not for a minute did I think they'd fall out.
Jabra is billing these as the "world's toughest earbuds", so even if they do fall out of your ears, or you accidentally drop them, they shouldn't cause you any worry. The one thing I've always loved about the Elite 8 Active is that they have physical control buttons. These can be used for controlling music playback, answering calls, and going back and forth between active-noise cancellation (ANC) and HearThrough transparency modes.
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