Jabra Elite 3 True Wireless Headphones Review

The Jabra Elite 3 have an almost identical design to the Jabra Elite 5 True Wireless, with a teardrop shape and a modest manufacturer's logo on each earbud. They stick out of your ear a bit, though. These buds come in four different color variants to better suit your style: 'Lilac', 'Dark Grey', 'Light Beige', and 'Navy'.

The Jabra Elite 3 have a comfortable fit. They're lightweight and come with similar circular-shaped ear tips as the Jabra Elite 75t Truly Wireless. However, the buds stick out of your ears, and they cause a plunger-like feeling, which could be uncomfortable over time.

These in-ears have good controls. There's a button on each earbud that's clicky and responsive. There are audible tones when you power the headphones on and off as well as when you enter pairing mode. It's not very intuitive to know where each control is located, though. Unlike the Jabra Elite 85t Truly Wireless, there's also no voice prompts to let you know which controls you've registered.

On the left earbud:

• One press: Turn HearThrough on or off. This feature lets you hear your surroundings without pausing your audio.
• Double-press: Access voice assistant. If you have an Android device, you can also remap this control to launch Spotify so that you can play your favorite tracks.
• Press and hold: Lowers volume.

On the right earbud:

• One press: Plays or pauses audio.
• Double-press: Skips to the next track.
• Triple-press: Skips to the previous track or restarts tracks.
• Press and hold: Raises volume.

On either earbud:

• One press: Answers a call as well as mutes and unmutes the mic when you're in a call.
• Double-press: End and rejects calls.

The Jabra Elite 3 have outstanding breathability, like most in-ears. They don't cover your outer ear, so they shouldn't trap in much heat. You shouldn't sweat more than normal, even if you're wearing them during a jog in the park.

The Jabra Elite 3 are very portable, which is to be expected from wireless in-ears. They're small, lightweight, and should easily fit in most pockets or bags without an issue, even if you have them in their carrying case.

The carrying case is good. There's a magnet to hold the buds in place and a single LED light inside the case, so you can see the battery status.

The Jabra Elite 3's build quality is good. They're mostly made of plastic and feel sturdy enough to survive a couple of accidental drops or falls without too much issue. They're also rated IP55 for protection against dust and direct water exposure. However, the carrying case's lid can wiggle a bit once it's closed.

The Jabra Elite 3 have good stability. Even though they don't have stability fins, they're very stable and don't move around, even during moderate physical activity. They stick out of your ears, though.

• Jabra Elite 3 headphones
• 3x ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The Jabra Elite 3 have a slightly bass-rich sound profile. They have a touch of extra body and boom, but it shouldn't overwhelm your mixes. That said, if you prefer a different sound, their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets to help you adjust their sound to your liking.

The Jabra Elite 3's frequency response consistency is excellent. Although there's some deviation in treble delivery present, as long as you form an airtight seal, you should be able to get consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

The Jabra Elite 3's bass accuracy is excellent. There's a slight overemphasis across the range, which results in a bit more thump, rumble, body, and boom in your tracks. It shouldn't be too overwhelming, though.

The mid accuracy is excellent. The range is fairly flat and neutral, resulting in accurate vocals and lead instruments. However, a dip in the mid-mid can nudge vocals and lead instruments to the back of your mix.

The Jabra Elite 3 have great treble accuracy. The low-treble is slightly underemphasized, veiling vocals and lead instruments. The mid-treble is a bit underemphasized too, which can dull sibilants like cymbals a bit.

The Jabra Elite 3's peaks and dips performance is great. A long peak in the bass range adds a bit of thump, rumble, and boom to mixes, while a dip in the mid-mid nudges vocals and lead instruments to the back of your mix. An uneven mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals alternatingly dull and piercing.

The imaging performance is excellent. The weighted group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers of our unit are also well-matched in phase, amplitude, and frequency response, which is important for the accurate localization and placement of objects, like footsteps and voices in the stereo image. Although there's a small peak in the phase response's mid-range, it shouldn't be an issue for most users. Our results are only valid for our unit, though, and yours may perform differently.

The Jabra Elite 3 have a bad passive soundstage, which is to be expected from in-ear headphones. By design, they bypass the outer ear, which needs to be activated by sound resonances to create a more speaker-like soundstage. As a result, sound is perceived as coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you. They also don't sound as open or spacious as headphones with an open-back design.

The Jabra Elite 3's weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. All frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Jabra Elite 3 have a decent noise isolation performance. Unlike the Jabra Elite 4 True Wireless, they don't have active noise cancelling (ANC), and they struggle to passively block out the low rumble of bus and plane engines. They do a better job of cutting down mid-range noise like ambient chatter and higher-pitched sounds like the hum of an AC unit, though.

These in-ears have a fantastic leakage performance. They don't leak much sound, so you can listen to audio at high volumes without disturbing others around you.

The integrated mic has a decent recording quality. Your voice should be understandable but lacking in body.

The integrated mic's noise handling performance is disappointing. It really struggles to separate your voice from ambient noise around you, so if you're taking a call from a busy street, your voice may be drowned out.

The Jabra Elite 3's battery performance is good. They're advertised to last seven hours continuously, and we measured 7.3 hours, which is quite similar. They also have roughly three additional charges in their carrying case. You can use one bud while the other one charges and they have an auto-off timer that turns the buds off after 15 minutes without a connection and after 30 minutes of inactivity. Jabra advertises a 10-minute fast charge that's supposed to give you one hour of playback time too. However, battery life can vary depending on usage, so your real-life experience may differ.

Update 03/15/2022: The results originally said that the app offers presets for sound customization. Ηowever, with the latest firmware version, 1.3.0, it now includes a graphic EQ and presets. The review has been updated to reflect this change.

The Jabra Elite 3 have a good app. It's compatible with iOS and Android devices and includes a graphic EQ and presets for sound customization. You can also turn HearThrough on or off, check the buds' battery life, and update the headphones. You can turn on or off the mic's sidetone to improve your call experience. However, while you can remap the voice assistant control to open Spotify to play tracks, this feature is only available on Android devices.

The Jabra Elite 3 have decent Bluetooth connectivity. Unlike the Jabra Elite 75t Truly Wireless, they don't support multi-device pairing, so you can't connect them to more than one device at a time. They also lack NFC pairing and have high latency using SBC and aptX codecs on PCs, which could be frustrating if you like to stream video. They don't support AAC codec either. On the upside, their iOS and Android latency are low, so you shouldn't notice delays between your audio and visuals. However, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

These are truly wireless headphones, and you can't use them wired. They come with a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge their carrying case.

These headphones can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full mic and audio compatibility. However, you won't be able to connect them to your PC in any other way.

These in-ears come with a portable charging case. It doesn't support wireless charging, and there's only a USB-C port to charge the case with the cable provided.