Jabra Elite 4 True Wireless Headphones Review

 The Jabra Elite 4 have a very similar look and feel to the Jabra Elite 5 True Wireless and Jabra Elite 7 Pro True Wireless. The bud has an angular, teardrop-shaped face with the manufacturer's logo. They come in four different color variants: 'Dark grey', 'Lilac', 'Navy', and 'Light Beige'.

These buds are decently comfortable. They're lightweight and don't put much pressure on your ears. However, if you're trying to register a control, pressing the buttons can push the buds deeper into your ear. Taking them out of your ear also creates a plunger-like sensation, which some users may find a bit unpleasant.

The Jabra Elite 4 have great physical controls, even though the buttons themselves feel flimsy. Some controls work on either bud, but it can be hard out of the box to know which controls are located where. Using the controls can also put pressure on your ears. On the upside, the buttons are very responsive, even if you need to press down to register a command. There are also feedback tones when switching between different ANC modes as well as a chime to let you know when you're in Bluetooth pairing mode. There's even a chime to let you know when you've reached min or max volume, although the buds' lowest volume isn't zero.

On the left earbud:

• Single press: Cycles between ANC on, and transparency mode, which allows you to stay aware of your surroundings without taking the buds out of your ears. You can also adjust and add ANC off via the companion app.
• Double press: Activates voice assistant.
• Press and hold: Lowers the volume when audio is playing.

On the right earbud:

• One press: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double press: Skips the track forward.
• Triple press: Restarts the track or skips to previous track.
• Press and hold: Raises the volume when audio is playing.

On either earbud:

• One press: Answers a call, mute/unmutes mic during a call, or cycles between ANC and transparency mode.
• Double press: Rejects or ends a call.

These buds are very portable. Thanks to their small and lightweight design, you can easily put them into most pockets or bags without too much of an issue.

These buds come with a good carrying case. It's small and easy to put into most pockets and bags without an issue. There's a magnet to hold the buds in place and a single LED light in the front of the case to indicate charging. That said, our unit's lid is wiggly and feels a bit cheaper than the rest of the case.

These earbuds have a good build quality. Like other Jabra models such as the Jabra Elite 5 True Wireless, they're made of solid plastic. However, the carrying case's lid and the buds' physical buttons feel a bit cheap and flimsy. While the buds are certified IP55 for dust and direct water resistance, this is less than the Jabra Elite 4 Active True Wireless, which are rated IP57 for protection against dust and immersion in water.

These buds have good stability. Although they don't have stability fins, they form a good seal in your ear that won't move while you bop to your music. If you want to wear them during an intense workout, they may need to be readjusted, since they can feel like they're about to fall out of your ear. If you're eating or talking, the buds can also shift positions a bit and you may need to readjust them too.

• Jabra Elite 4 earbuds
• 3x ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Safety Guide

The Jabra Elite 4 have a neutral sound profile, although it isn't without flaws. Our unit has distortion in the mid to high-bass range, which causes vocals and instruments in this range to sound less clear in the right driver than the left driver. There's also a high noise floor, even when the ANC is off, which affects the overall clarity of the mix. When compared to the Jabra Elite 5 True Wireless, the noise floor is very noticeable and prominent. If you've experienced this issue, please let us know in the forums below, and we'll update our review.

Their sound profile has adequate bass, which ensures thump, rumble, and warmth to your audio. Vocals and instruments sound clear too, making them a versatile choice for most kinds of audio. Luckily, their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets to help you customize their sound to your liking.

The frequency response consistency of these headphones is outstanding. Once you get a good fit, you'll get consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

These buds have outstanding bass accuracy. The response is fairly flat and well-balanced across the range, ensuring thump, punch, and boom throughout your mixes.

Keep in mind that we experienced distortion throughout the mid to high-bass range, which affects our unit's right driver and makes audio sound less clear.

The mid accuracy of these buds is fantastic. This range is also well-balanced and flat. Vocals and instruments sound present, clear, and bright. In songs like Wonderwall by Oasis, the lead singer's voice sounds present and detailed throughout the track.

These buds have great treble accuracy. The low-treble is balanced, which ensures that vocals and instruments are detailed. The mid-treble is also fairly neutral, but a little underemphasized. Sibilants like S and T sounds are a little dull.

The peaks and dips performance of these buds is great. The bass range is fairly flat, but there's a little bit of a mismatch between the L/R driver, so the dip in the low to mid-mid affects the right driver more than the left, and thins out vocals and instruments. A peak in the high-mid affects both drivers and harshens vocals and instruments. A dip in the left driver's low-treble hurts the detail of these sounds while an uneven peak and dip in the mid-treble makes vocals and instruments alternatingly piercing and dull.

The imaging performance of these headphones is great. Jabra generally has good ergonomics and quality control. Our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in group delay, which ensures tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers are also well-matched in phase, amplitude, and frequency response, which helps ensure the accurate placement of objects like voices in the stereo image. While there's a peak in the phase response's mid-mid, it isn't audible with real-life content. Imaging varies between units though.

The passive soundstage of these buds is bad, but that's to be expected from in-ear headphones. They bypass your pinna altogether, which needs to be activated by sound resonances in order to create a wide and immersive sound. As a result, audio sounds like it's coming from inside your head, rather than from speakers placed in the room around you.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance of the Jabra Elite 4 is mediocre. There's distortion in the bass range, notably in the low-bass and again in-between the mid to high-bass. The peak in the mid to high-bass is audible at lower volumes and is easy to hear in songs like Do I Wanna Know by the Arctic Monkeys. There's also some distortion present in the mid-range that affects mostly the right bud, and distortion is present in between the low to mid-treble. Unfortunately, the resulting audio doesn't sound very clean or pure, which affects the enjoyability of sound.

These are the settings used to test these headphones and our results are only valid when used with these settings.

The noise isolation performance of the Jabra Elite 4 is decent. These buds are equipped with a noise cancelling system, but it doesn't offer a substantive improvement over passive isolation. The ANC is able to cut down more low-bass range noise like the rumble of bus and plane engines, though it still does a poor job in this regard. The ANC performs significantly better in the mid and treble ranges, which is good if you want to reduce noise from chatty coworkers or AC units. However, the ANC amplifies sound in the low-treble range compared to when the ANC is off.

There's a peak in our measurements at roughly 140Hz. After subjective listening, we noticed that the peak wasn't as audible as the measurements suggests. We are currently investigating this peak and will update our review with our results.

Just like many in-ears, the leakage performance of these buds is fantastic. Overall leakage is quite low, so if you like to listen to audio at high volumes, people around you won't be able to hear it, unless you're in a very quiet environment.

The integrated mic has a decent recording quality. Your voice sounds clear but lacks body and sounds thin. However, whoever you're calling won't have trouble understanding you.

The noise handling performance of the integrated mic is sub-par. The mic struggles to separate speech from moderate ambient noise, so if you're taking a call from a busy street, background sounds overwhelm your voice, add a little bit of distortion, and drown it out.

The battery performance of these buds is decent. The buds are advertised to last 5.5 hours continuously with the ANC on and our measurements align with this. While it may not be enough to get you through a long day on the go, their carrying case supplies an additional three charges if you need it. They also have a fast charge feature that supplies one hour of playtime from 10 minutes of charging. The buds will also turn off after 15 minutes without a connection or 30 minutes without activity. That said, battery life depends on usage.

The Jabra Sound+ is a good app and you can see a video of how it works here. The app offers a 5-band graphic EQ as well as EQ presets. You can set up Spotify Tap so that you can quickly access Spotify via the physical buttons, and remap the order of ANC settings available via the physical controls. you can also enable quick access to call settings so that you can see the call settings on your home screen while on a call, turn the sidetone on and off, and personalize the ANC. The quick start guide is available through the app too.

These buds have excellent Bluetooth connectivity. They can connect with two devices at a time, which is handy if you want to stay connected to your smartphone and PC simultaneously. That said, the buds can also store up to six devices that they can automatically connect to. This means that you can pair them with your PC, smartphone, and laptop, and the headphones will remember all three devices for pairing, not that they will be connected to all three devices at the same time.

Disappointingly, these buds don't support AAC codec, which is Apple's default codec that offers better sound quality on iOS devices compared to the standard SBC codec. On the upside, they support aptX codec, which is a solid alternative for better sound quality via Bluetooth. However, these headphones have high latency via SBC and aptX on PCs, which causes your audio and visuals to fall out of sync. Their latency is lower on iOS and Android devices though, ensuring that your audio and visuals stay in sync. however, some apps and devices compensate for latency.

The Jabra Elite 4 come with a USB-C to USB-A cable for recharging the case, so you won't be able to use it to passthrough audio.

These buds can only connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs, but they'll have full audio and mic compatibility.

These buds come with a carrying case that supplies three extra charges. There's a USB-C port for recharging the case. However, unlike the Jabra Elite 5 True Wireless, the case doesn't support Qi charging.