Jabra Elite 85h: The best budget noise cancelling headphones?

Jabra has gained a lot of renown in recent years thanks to its great in-ear headphones and now they are entering the premium over-ear market with the Jabra Elite 85h. This model offers excellent noise cancellation, outstanding battery life and many smart features.

The Jabra Elite 85h comes to compete with the best Bluetooth ANC headsets, such as the Sony WH or the Bose QC. The competition is stiff, but they manage to place themselves at the top thanks to their stellar performance. In this review we tell you about all their features, pros and cons.

Design

The Jabra Elite 85h headset looks like a premium product at first glance. They are available in titanium black, golden beige and blue. They have a minimalist and elegant design. The color changes only slightly on the extendable arms and subtle logos on the sides of the band.

They are made of hard plastic, although the arms have a metallic appearance. They are resistant, flexible and fit any user well. They do not cause any discomfort and are ideal for prolonged use.

The top of the headband and the outside of the cups feature an attractive fabric that adds personality to the Jabra Elite 85h. The padded cups and band are made of memory foam and have a faux leather finish that is very soft to the touch.

The Jabra Elite 85h noise-cancelling headphones come with a faux leather hard case as stylish as the earcups. Inside the case you also find a 2.4mm audio cable, an aircraft audio adapter and the USB-C charging cable. In addition, Jabra offers a two-year warranty against rain, sweat and dust.

Controls and connectivity

On the right cup are subtle, easy-to-use controls that allow you to manage playback, answer calls, turn the volume up or down, and change songs. At the bottom of the cup is the USB-C charging port and 3.5mm auxiliary audio port, plus a button to mute your voice during calls.

The left cup of the Jabra Elite 85h features only one button to switch between noise cancellation modes.

They do not have a power button, and this is because the Elite 85h automatically turn on when you move the cups to the listening position and turn off when you move them to the flat position. The music also pauses automatically when you remove the headphones from your head.

They work with Bluetooth 5.0 technology and you can synchronize them simultaneously to two devices. They also have an auxiliary audio port in case you don't want to waste battery power. They integrate support for Siri Google or Alexa personal assistants, so you can enjoy all their functions.

Intelligent ANC

The ANC of the Jabra Elite 85h is really excellent. These headphones integrate eight microphones and four of them are responsible for filtering the noise around you. They offer several modes, called “moments” by the company.

You can choose from four different levels and also create your own ANC profile called “My Moment”. The latter allows you to manually adjust the music equalization, different presets and activate the HearThrough function to let outside noise through.

Furthermore, the Jabra Elite 85h offers sophisticated adaptive noise cancellation technology that adjusts the level of noise cancellation depending on the environment you are in. This function is called SmartSound. When active, it uses a real-time AI that analyzes the sounds and lets the application know which ANC mode to switch to automatically.

If you are on public transport, for example, SmatSound will automatically switch the ANC to the maximum level, but if you are in a quiet room it will turn off the noise cancellation. Among the ANC modes, we love the one called “In public” which allows you to pass some noise so you can hear announcements sirens or other sounds you might need to hear.

Battery life

One of the best features of the Jabra Elite 85h is its autonomy. A full charge allows you to use them for about 36 hours with noise cancellation on, and 41 hours if you turn it off. The capacity is one of the best on the market and only 15 minutes of charging is enough to use them for more than five hours.

Performance

When it comes to noise cancellation, the Jabra Elite 85s are among the best headsets we've tested. Once you put on the headphones, they isolate you from any environment and do not cause pressure. The ANC generates a bit of white noise, just like any pair of noise-cancelling headphones, but when you're listening to music, they're perfect.

On the other hand, the most important feature for choosing a premium Bluetooth headset is sound quality. Fortunately, the Jabra Elite 85h delivers a sound that approaches that of the best models on the market . The sound profile is very well balanced, warm and all instruments shine with clarity.

Bass is strong although not as deep as other models. However, they are kept in check and do not overshadow the other shades. The mid-tones stand out for their detail and the treble is perceived as crisp. Of course, you can also equalize the audio with the Jabra Sound+ application.

Through the app you have access to different equalization options, such as bass boost or treble boost. It also offers a setting called speech that improves the clarity of vowels in podcasts or audiobooks. For jazz enjoyment, the smooth or energize modes are great.

The clarity of the calls is remarkable, one of the best you can find. Of the eight microphones in the Jabra Elite 85h headset, six are responsible for optimizing voice clarity. We also love that the HearThrough mode is automatically activated when you answer a call, allowing you to hear yourself in the middle of a conversation.

Why do we like the Jabra Elite 85h?

They are attractive and comfortable. They feature excellent noise cancellation, offer great sound and have many customization options. They have one of the best autonomies on the market and are versatile thanks to the auxiliary audio port and multiple wireless connection. It's hard not to recommend them.

Why don't we like them?

Bass is not as deep or refined as that offered by the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort 45. They can also distort a bit if you use maximum volumes when playing genres such as hip-hop or electronica. However, we love the profile and you certainly don't need to use the maximum volume at any time.

The most significant drawback of the Jabra Elite 85h headset is that it doesn't support high definition codecs such as AAC, aptX or LDAC. This means that fidelity doesn't stand out when playing lossless files via Bluetooth. This can be fixed with a firmware update, but so far they have not done so.

Conclusion on the Jabra Eite 85h

They offer a market leading battery, have very attractive styling and many options to customize the sound and ANC. We regret that they don't support Bluetooth codecs like aptX and the bass isn't the strongest, but they are great noise cancelling headphones. Interested? Find the best prices in this link.

If you are looking for an in-ear headset we recommend you check out the excellent Jabra Elite 7 Pro.

Jabra Elite 85h reviews

This model has an average rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Amazon. More than 60% of the reviews have the highest score and in general the public is satisfied with the purchase. Below, we have copied some of Amazon's mixed reviews so you can see and be guided by their users:

• Be wáter my friend: “A before and after in the life of the office. 200% recommended. They are cheaper than the competition and offer similar quality to Sony or Bose.”
• Diego: “Good headphones. They are splash resistant and comfortable. The active noise cancellation is one of the best and you can equalize the sound a bit. The battery also performs great.”
• Mario: “I have a subjective opinion and other people may not have this problem. The technology is top notch, but I felt them uncomfortable and had to return them. the padding seemed poor to me and I don't have excessively large ears.”