Jabra Elite 8 Active  Headphones Review

The Jabra Elite 8 Active have a roundish bud shape with angled silicone tips, similar to other Jabra earbuds like the Jabra Elite 7 Active True Wireless. The buds have a somewhat rubbery covering and come in five solid colors: 'Black', 'Mint', 'Navy', 'Dark Gray', and 'Caramel'.

They have a comfortable fit for most people. They don't go far into your ear, which helps prevent the uncomfortable plunger-like feeling that some in-ears create. However, they aren't the sleekest buds and have a somewhat bulky, round body that might press against some people's ears. Unlike the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 True Wireless, these have circular ear tips, while the Gen 2 use oblong ear tips, which can feel more comfortable, depending on the shape and size of your ear canal.

The Jabra Elite 8 have simple, easy-to-use controls. There are physical buttons on both buds that provide clicky, tactile feedback, so you're less likely to accidentally register a command than with earbuds with touch-sensitive surfaces. You can remap most of the controls in the companion app. However, the button pushes can sound loud, and you might prefer the light tap controls that other earbuds have.

On the left earbud:

• Single press: Cycles between ANC on, ANC off, Hear-Through mode (which lets you hear ambient sound). Also answers a call and mutes/unmutes the mic during a call.
• Double press: Activates voice assistant and ends or rejects a call.
• Triple press: No function by default, but can be mapped in the companion app.
• Hold: Decreases volume.

On the right earbud:

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers a call and mutes and unmutes the mic during a call.
• Double press: Skips to the next track and ends or rejects a call.
• Triple press: Restarts the track.
• Hold: Increases volume.

They're very portable, like most truly wireless earbuds. They're around the same size as the Jabra Elite 7 Active True Wireless and easily fit into bags and most pockets.

They come with a small, sturdy case. The lid closes with a magnet that prevents it from opening accidentally, and the inside of the case has magnets to keep the earbuds in place. The lid and hinges feel well-built. The case is rated IP54, so it's resistant to dust exposure and being splashed with water, but not totally dust-proof or waterproof.

The Jabra Elite 8 are well-built. The earbuds are rated IP68 for dust and water resistance, which means they're fully dust-tight and waterproof. Otherwise, the earbuds are about as well-built as the Jabra Elite 7 Active True Wireless. The buds are made of plastic and have a soft silicone coating called 'ShakeGrip' meant to help keep them from slipping around in your ears. The silicone ear tips feel strong, but like most silicone tips, they may tear if you're rough with them.

They have a very stable fit. They're covered in a non-slippery silicone coating that Jabra calls 'ShakeGrip,' and despite not having stability fins, they can stay in place during workouts even if you move your head around a lot. The buds are slightly bigger than the Jabra Elite 7 Active True Wireless, which also helps keep them snug in your ears. Although they're stable, if you prefer an extra safeguard to ensure your buds will stay in, consider the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, which have over-ear hooks.

• Jabra Elite 8 Active headphones
• 3x ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

The Jabra Elite 8 have a neutral sound profile. Instruments and vocals are clear and detailed, and there's some overemphasis across the bass range, which adds rumble, punch, and boom that you might appreciate for genres like EDM and hip-hop. The bass is a little more pronounced with ANC off, as you can see in a comparison here though. If you prefer a different sound, the companion app has a graphic EQ and presets.

We had trouble getting the buds, which have shorter tips, to stay in place in our test rig's ears. The tips would slip out of place after a few minutes, so our results show that the sound varies based on the earbuds' fit and positioning. However, we didn't have the same issue subjectively, as they easily stayed in place in real ears. In reality, you'll get a consistent sound with each use as long as you can get a good, stable fit.

They have very good compliance with our bass target curve. The entire range is slightly overemphasized, with a broad peak centered on the mid-bass adding plenty of the punch of kick drums. If you like to exercise to music with a strong bassline like Don't Stop the Music by Rihanna, these buds will ensure you feel plenty of rumble to keep you motivated.

They have fantastic mid-range compliance. The response is virtually flat, so instruments and vocals sound clear, present, and intense without unnatural honk or harshness.

These buds have great compliance with our treble target. The low treble is slightly underemphasized, so instruments lack some detail, but overall, the low treble is still well-controlled. On the other hand, the mid-treble is a bit inconsistent, so sibilants like S and T sounds are rendered bright or dull depending on their pitch.

The Jabra Elite 8 control their sound profile very well. There are some peaks and dips, but most are tiny, apart from those in the treble range. A big peak and dip in the mid-treble renders sibilants like cymbals alternately dull and piercing.

They have fantastic imaging. Most Jabra products that we've tested have good imaging, which is an indication of the brand's quality control and ergonomics. The group delay falls below the audibility threshold across the entire range, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The left and right drivers are well-matched in frequency, amplitude, and phase response, ensuring sound objects are accurately placed in the stereo image. There's a slight mismatch in the phase response that makes sounds in the mid-mid range, like voices, shift inward on the right side. These sounds are more accurately placed on the left side. However, it's minor and isn't noticeable with real-life content unless you're looking for it.

Like most in-ear headphones, they have a bad passive soundstage performance. Because their design means sound doesn't interact with your outer ear, audio seems to come from inside your head instead of the room around you. The soundstage also seems small and closed-off compared to open-back headphones.

These earbuds support Dolby Spatial Audio, a feature that makes audio sound more 3D and immersive. You can turn on the feature in the companion app, as you can see here. This isn't the same as Dolby Atmos, and the headphones can't play surround sound content, unlike the Jabra Elite 10 True Wireless. On the other hand, you don't need any particular streaming service or specially recorded content to use the feature.

They have a great weighted harmonic distortion performance. Frequencies fall within good limits across the range, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the Jabra Elite 8 Active. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

They have an alright noise isolation performance. Their ANC feature is 'Adaptive Hybrid ANC,' which automatically adjusts itself to the noise around you. This results in an uneven noise isolation performance, where they seem to adjust and cancel more noise than adjust again and cancel less. This is more noticeable during our tests than with real-life use, but still, in subjective tests, the earbuds did seem to amplify some higher-pitched sounds versus their performance with ANC off, as is reflected in the results. The results are the same with longer sweeps, although they did isolate against more bass-range noise in one longer test. You can see a comparison of longer sweeps (512K, 1M, and 2M) here.

The ANC doesn't do a good job of blocking out bass-range noise like rumbling engines. The buds do a better job of blocking out mid-range and high-pitched noise like voices and humming A/C units, but this partially comes down to their passive noise isolation performance since the buds manage to block out more of that type of noise with ANC off.

Similar to full-range isolation, these buds offer an okay performance when it comes to common scenarios. They're able to block out some sounds like keyboard clattering at the office and the rumble of plane engines, though they aren't the most effective in this endeavor as the Jabra Elite 10 True Wireless or the even more effective, Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 True Wireless.

These buds have a wind noise reduction feature to help cut down anti-noise. This sound is produced in response to wind passing over the ANC's mics. The buds are also quite small, so the angle of wind makes a difference in the volume of noise. Keep in mind that using the wind reduction feature can also affect noise isolation.

They leak very little audio. Even if you're blasting your music, people sitting nearby in an office or living room won't hear it.

The mic has an adequate recording quality. It makes your voice sound open and full-bodied, so it's easy to understand but also somewhat unnatural and distorted.

The mic has a great noise handling performance. Even in noisy places like a busy street or subway station, the mic manages to separate your voice from background sound. Your voice can sound a bit fuzzy, but ambient sound is mostly cut out, and people on the other end of the line will understand you clearly.

The Jabra Elite 8 have good battery performance. The manufacturer says they last up to eight hours with ANC on, and we measured just over that at 8.75 hours. However, battery life varies depending on use. The case also holds around three extra charges, and they have a fast charge feature that provides one hour of playback for five minutes of charging, according to the manufacturer. They have an auto-off timer to save power, and you can also use one earbud while the other charges in the case.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active have a great app. You can activate the ANC feature or 'Hear-Through' mode, which lets you hear your surroundings. There's a 5-band EQ and presets for sound customization, and you can also access the Dolby Spatial Sound feature. There are customization options for the controls, plus options for in-ear detection and activating 'Spotify Tap,' which lets you access that app directly with the onboard controls.

These are Bluetooth-only earbuds; you can't use them wired. If you want to connect devices via a 1/4" analog cable, it's worth checking out the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless instead, which feature a 'smart case' with a wired input.

They have very good Bluetooth connectivity. They support multi-device pairing, so you can stay connected with a phone and computer simultaneously. They also support AAC and SBC codecs. On the downside, their latency is very high via SBC, so you'll notice lip sync issues if you're streaming video. Some apps and devices compensate for latency, though.

They're fully compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs but can't connect any other way.

They come with a case that stores about three extra charges for the earbuds. It has a USB-C port for the charging cable but no other inputs.