Jabra Evolve2 85 Wireless Headphones Review

The Jabra Evolve2 85 are very similar in appearance to the Jabra Elite 85h Wireless, except for their flippable boom microphone. They're mostly made of premium-looking plastic and feature a monochrome color scheme that's available in either black or beige. Overall, they're understated and probably won't stand out in an office environment.

Update 10/19/2020: The 'Weight' field has been updated to reflect the correct weight of the headphones.

These are very comfortable headphones. They feature generous amounts of soft padding on the ear cups and headband, so their weight is evenly distributed across your entire head. You should be able to wear them for extended periods without experiencing any fatigue.

These headphones have an impressively comprehensive and easy-to-use control scheme. The volume buttons also serve as playback controls, as you can hold the volume up button to skip forward and hold the volume down button to go backward. Holding both at the same time turns the busy light on to show that you're on a call. You can answer and reject calls via the multi-function button, which is also used to cycle through the ANC and talk-through functions. You can flip the mic up to mute it or press the voice button near the right hinge, which also turns on your phone's voice assistant when you're not on a call. Most button inputs come with audible voice prompts, so it's easy to know when you've made a command.

A Microsoft Teams-certified variant is available, which has a multi-function button that provides more functionality with that app, but we didn't test it.

Update 05/28/2021: We have tested these headphones for breathability.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have alright breathability. Their ear cups trap in some heat, which can cause your ears to feel warm over time. While it shouldn't be too bothersome if you're using them at your desk, you may notice a difference in temperature if you're wearing them while running or working out.

The Jabra Evolve2 85's portability is acceptable. While they're somewhat bulky, they do fold into a more compact shape to reduce their footprint. Their microphone also swivels into a groove on the right ear cup, which reduces the chances of having it snag on something if you toss them into your bag.

These headphones come with a great zippered hard case made of faux leather. It's very similar to that of the Jabra Elite 85h Wireless and should protect them from drops, bumps, and minor water exposure.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 are well-built. They feel quite sturdy, with a premium-looking silicone and high-grade plastic construction. The padding on the ear cups and headband is lined with faux leather. While they don't feel quite as premium as the Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless, they still feel fairly sturdy and should survive a couple of minor drops and bumps without an issue.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 are decently stable. Any sudden shakes of the head may cause them to slip off your ears, but they should stay on with gentler movements. Since these are wireless headphones, there's little chance of having an audio cable snag on something and then having them pulled off your ears.

• Jabra Evolve2 85 headphones
• Hard case
• 1/8" TRS cable
• Airplane adapter
• USB-A Bluetooth dongle
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• Manual

These over-ears have a reasonably well-balanced sound profile overall. The bass is quite even, which should give mixes adequate thump and body. The mid response is quite neutral, which is important when talking over the phone, as speech should sound present, detailed, and clear. Unfortunately, the treble response is just a little uneven, which may make some voices sound a bit harsh. If you're the type who likes to fine-tune your listening experience, the Jabra Sound+ app features a five-band graphic EQ.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have mediocre frequency response consistency. Bass and treble response is quite sensitive to their fit and positioning, so if you have long hair or glasses, you may have trouble achieving a consistent listening experience.

The Jabra Evolve2 85's bass accuracy is good. There's a slight dip in the low-bass range that may result in a little bit of missing thump, and a bump in the high-bass range that makes some mixes a little boomy. However, since their bass response is heavily dependent on their fit and positioning, your own experience may vary.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have excellent mid accuracy. It's very neutral across the entire range, resulting in full-bodied, present, and clear speech as well as vocals and lead instruments.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have decent treble accuracy. The entire low-treble range and part of the mid-treble range is overemphasized, which can make some voices sound a little harsh and piercing. However, since the treble response is heavily dependent on their positioning and fit, your own experience may vary.

These headphones have satisfactory peaks and dips performance. A dip in the low-bass range makes some mixes lack a bit of thump and kick while the following extended bump creates a little boominess. The spike in the low-treble range makes some notes sound somewhat harsh, and the drop in the mid-treble range makes some voices sound dull.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 deliver mediocre stereo imaging performance. Their weighted group delay falls beneath the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers are also very well-matched in regards to amplitude response and have minor frequency response mismatch. However, there's a significant deviation in phase response. This has an impact on their ability to generate an accurate representation of the placement of objects in the stereo image. These results are only valid for our test unit, and yours may perform differently.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have a poor passive soundstage. Like most closed-back headphones, they create a closed-off, unnatural soundstage that causes sound to be perceived as coming from the inside of your head rather than speakers placed in front of you.

These over-ears don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have great weighted harmonic distortion performance. The entire frequency range falls within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to evaluate the Jabra Evolve2 85. Our tests were completed using their proprietary USB-A wireless dongle. The results obtained are only valid when they're used in this configuration.

These headphones have good noise isolation performance. While their ANC system slightly struggles when it comes to reducing the volume of low-frequency ambient noise, like bus engines, they're quite effective when it comes to filtering out the chatter of nearby coworkers or the high-pitched hum of an AC unit.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have decent leakage performance. The bulk of escaping audio occurs mostly in the mid-range, so it should sound fairly full-bodied. If you listen to your music at really high volumes, people nearby may hear what you're listening to.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have a boom microphone and an integrated microphone that you can switch between using in their companion app. However, the integrated mic's performance wasn't evaluated as expect users to use the boom mic.

The Jabra Evolve2 85's boom microphone has very good recording quality. Your voice should sound natural and mostly distortion-free to people on the other end of the line.

The Jabra Evolve2 85's boom microphone delivers impressive noise handling capability. Even if you're making a call from a fairly loud environment, those on the other end of the line shouldn't have too much trouble understanding you.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have excellent battery performance. They offer 31.7-hours of continuous battery life with ANC activated, which is outstanding. You can use them as they charge, so long as you're connected over Bluetooth or via their proprietary dongle. They have a standby timer that automatically turns them off during periods of inactivity, which can be adjusted in their companion app.

The Jabra Evolve2 85's Jabra Sound+ companion app is great. It gives you access to audio presets, a five-band graphic EQ, microphone sidetone adjustment, and a menu to change the duration of their standby timer. You can also toggle their ANC system on and off, check their battery life, and update their firmware.

Update 10/25/2021: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. Our previous Test Bench 1.4 measurements reported 'PC latency' at 234 ms, 'iOS latency' at 137 ms, and 'Android Latency' at 165 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in different values. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.

Update 09/22/2021: We have retested 'Multi-Device Pairing'. These headphones can connect to two devices at once by sliding the power button towards the 'Bluetooth' label on the headphones to enter pairing mode. The headphones give you an audible confirmation that you have two devices connected. However, you can only hear audio input from one device at a time. Unfortunately, you can't play audio from a console and a Bluetooth device at once. There hasn't been a change in our results.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 have great Bluetooth connectivity. They're Bluetooth 5.0-compatible and can pair with two devices simultaneously, which is handy if you tend to listen to content on both your phone and computer. Unfortunately, their latency on PC as well as Android and iOS devices is a little high to make them suitable for playing video games or streaming movies. That said, some apps compensate differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 come with a USB-A dongle that can be plugged into your computer to allow for quick and seamless device pairing. However, their latency is quite high, which can result in a delay between your audio and visuals.

Another variant is available with a USB-C dongle that plugs into USB-C ports, but its performance wasn't evaluated.

Update: 06/11/2021: We have changed USB Audio to 'USB Type A' to reflect the source port instead of the headphones' port. When using their USB cable, the USB-A connector can be connected to any device with a USB-A port. We have also changed Connection to '1/8" TRS' in order to prioritize their analog connection instead of USB. The scoring of this box hasn't changed.

Update 05/28/2021: A firmware update has added USB audio compatibility when using their USB-C to USB-A cable. We have updated our text and the scoring of this box has changed.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 come with a 1/8" TRS audio cable that allows for passive audio playback, but no microphone compatibility. They also come with a USB-C to USB-A cable that you can use to receive audio, but you also won't be able to use their mic.

Update 05/28/2021: Jabra has added USB audio compatibility when using their USB-C to USB-A cable. We have tested these headphones' compatibility on Xbox One and Xbox Series X consoles using this connection and updated our text.

You can only receive audio when you plug the Jabra Evolve2 85's 1/8" TRS audio cable into an Xbox One or Xbox Series X controller. You won't be able to connect these headphones to your Xbox console using their wired USB cable or USB dongle.

The Jabra Evolve2 85 come with a proprietary Bluetooth 5.0 USB-A dongle that's paired with the headphones out-of-the-box. Another variant is available with a USB-C dongle, but we didn't get this variant. They can also be purchased with a charging base, but that dock represents an added cost.