Jabra Elite 85t Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Jabra Elite 85t have a similar design to the Jabra Elite Active 75t Truly Wireless. These in-ears have a sleek, low-profile design, but they're a bit bulkier. As a result, they protrude a bit from your ears. They come in several colors: 'Titanium Black', 'Grey', 'Gold Beige', 'Copper Black', and 'Black'.

These in-ears have a comfortable fit. The ear tips are more oval-shaped than the circular tips on the Jabra Elite Active 75t Truly Wireless and Jabra Elite 3 True Wireless, and they don't put too much pressure on your ears. However, they're a bit bulky, and they stick out a bit from your ears, which some listeners may not like.

The Jabra Elite 85t have great controls. Each bud has a physical button that's very clicky and responsive. They also give audible feedback when you register commands and there's even have an audible guide to walk you through their pairing mode. On the downside, the controls aren't very intuitive. Only the right earbud has controls when using them in mono mode too.

On either bud:

• One press: Answers a call. If you're currently on a call, this command mutes and unmutes your microphone.
• Double-press: Ends or rejects a call.
• Triple-press: Skips the track backward or restarts the track.

On the left earbud:

• One press: Allows you to cycle between HearThrough mode, which allows you to hear ambient sound around you while you're wearing them, ANC on, and off when you're not in a call.
• Double-press: Skips the track forward.
• Triple-press: Skips the track backward or restarts the track.
• Press and hold: Lowers the volume.

On the right earbud:

• One press: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double-press: Activates voice assistant when you're not in a call.
• Press and hold: Raises the volume.

On both buds:

• One press: When you press both buds at the same time, you can turn the headphones on and off.

The Jabra Elite 85t have outstanding breathability. Since they don't cover your outer ear, they shouldn't trap in a lot of heat and allow some airflow. You also shouldn't sweat more than normal, even if you're wearing them during moderate physical activity.

The Jabra Elite 85t are outstandingly portable. Like most truly wireless in-ears, they're small and lightweight. They easily fit in your pocket, and there's also a portable charging case to help protect them when you're on the go.

The case is good. It's made of hard plastic, which feels solid and durable. There's a magnet to hold the buds in place while they're charging. Also, the LED light helps show their battery status.

The Jabra 85t have an impressive build quality. They're mostly plastic but feel very solid and durable. The ear tips don't seem like they could rip easily. They're also rated IPX4 for water resistance, though we don't test for this.

The Jabra Elite 85t have a stable in-ear fit. They should stay in your ears while you run or lift weights. However, they aren't as stable as in-ears with stability fins like the Jaybird Vista Truly Wireless or Jaybird Vista 2 Truly Wireless.

• Jabra Elite 85t headphones
• 3x ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The Jabra Elite 85t have a slightly bass-heavy sound profile. They deliver a touch of extra thump and rumble to your mixes, which some users may prefer. However, the recessed treble can make audio a bit dull or dark. Luckily, their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets so that you can adjust their sound to your liking.

The Jabra Elite 85t have remarkable frequency response consistency. Like most in-ears, with a good, airtight seal, they provide consistent bass and treble delivery each time you wear them.

The Jabra Elite 85t have superb bass accuracy. The entire range is quite flat, so audio is full-bodied, punchy, and thumpy. The slight overemphasis in the low and mid-bass can add a little extra thump, rumble, and body to your mixes.

These headphones have exceptional mid accuracy. Vocals and lead instruments are clear, present, and detailed. However, a small dip in the mid-mid could slightly nudge vocals and lead instruments to the back of your mix.

The Jabra 85t have decent treble accuracy. The entire range is recessed, which veils vocals and lead instruments. Sibilants like S and T sounds are dull and lispy, too.

The Jabra 85t have impressive peaks and dips performance. The very slight dip in the mid-mids nudges vocals and lead instruments somewhat towards the back of the mix, while the peak in the high-mids can make those same instruments a bit honky and harsh. The uneven mid-treble makes sibilants alternately piercing and dull.

These headphones have fantastic imaging. Their weighted group delay falls almost entirely below the audibility threshold, resulting in a mostly tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers of our unit are well-matched in frequency, phase, and amplitude response, so objects like footsteps and voices are accurately placed and localized within the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, meaning that yours may perform differently.

The Jabra 85t 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 to create a speaker-like soundstage. As a result, sound seems like it's coming from inside your head. On the upside, their semi-open design helps them create a more spacious soundstage than closed-back in-ears like the Jabra Elite Active 75t Truly Wireless.

There aren't any virtual soundstage features. If you're looking for true wireless headphones with a Dolby 7.1 virtual surround sound feature, take a look at the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid Truly Wireless.

The Jabra 85t have a decent weighted harmonic distortion performance. At normal listening volumes, there are some small peaks in the treble range, and at high volumes, there's also a small peak in the mid-mids. The rest of the frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in mostly clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings we used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid with these settings.

The Jabra 85t have decent noise isolation. They have active noise cancelling (ANC), but they still struggle to block out bass-heavy background noises like bus and plane engines. This may be intentional, as their semi-open design is supposed to help you stay aware of your surroundings while running outdoors or during your commute. They perform better with higher-frequency noises, so they can block out the sound of people chatting nearby and the hum of AC units. For headphones with better noise isolation, check out the JBL CLUB PRO+ TWS True Wireless.

The Jabra Elite 85t have a fantastic leakage performance. They don't leak a lot of sound, so you can listen to audio at high volumes without bothering anyone around you.

The microphone system has an alright recording quality. Your voice is understandable but a bit thin and slightly muffled. However, there are reports (here's another) from owners of overly muffled and inconsistent sound quality, which a firmware update may solve.

If you experience bad recording quality, the manufacturer recommends going to the Sound+ companion app, selecting the cog wheel icon for settings, then 'Personalize your headset', and 'Voice guidance language'. Next, choose the language that's already highlighted and select 'Update now.' Even if you have the latest firmware, try this. If this doesn't work, try a factory reset before contacting the manufacturer's support.

The microphone has disappointing noise handling. It struggles to separate your voice from background noise, even in moderately noisy environments. Whoever's on the other end of the line may have trouble understanding you if you're talking in a loud space like a busy street.

The Jabra 85t have a fair battery performance. They're advertised to last roughly 5.5 hours with ANC on, but we measured over an hour more. While they may not last through your workday without pausing to recharge them, their carrying case holds roughly 3.5 additional charges if you need it. Unfortunately, unlike the Jabra Elite 7 Pro True Wireless, you can't use the buds one at a time while the other charges. However, they have an auto-off timer that helps conserve battery life after 15 minutes without a connection. If you're connected to a device, these in-ears go into standby mode after 30 minutes of inactivity. You can also adjust the timer in the companion app. Also, please note that battery life can vary depending on usage, so your real-life experience may vary.

These headphones are compatible with the impressive Jabra Sound+ app. There's a graphic EQ and presets so you can customize their sound. You can also use the app to set a reminder tone when the microphone is muted, turn auto play-pause on and off, set the timer for the sleep mode, and turn the ANC feature on and off.

The Jabra 85t have very good Bluetooth connectivity. Although they don't have NFC pairing, you can connect them with up to two devices at a time, which is nice if you like to switch audio devices between your PC and smartphone. Their latency with PCs is likely too high to be suitable for gaming, but they perform better with iOS and Android devices. Some apps compensate for latency, so your real-world experience may vary.

You can't use these headphones wired. They have a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge their case.

The Jabra Elite 85t are wireless headphones that can only connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. However, you won't be able to connect them to your PC in any other way.

These headphones come with a portable charging case that supports wireless charging. There's only a USB-C port to charge the case with the provided cable.