We review the Jabra Elite 7 Pro headphones, better in almost everything

Jabra competes head-to-head with other giants like Apple or Sony in the wireless headphone market, and its premium true wireless, The Jabra Elite 7 Pro, improve on previous generations in everything, or almost everything.

Jabra has released three headphone models simultaneously this year. The cheapest Jabra Elite 3, whose analysis you can read and see on video at this link, the Jabra Elite Active, aimed at practicing sports, and its premium model, the Elite 7 Pro that we analyze in this article. With a range of headphones from €79 to €199, they cover the needs of most buyers. With active noise reduction, high-quality sound, wireless charging and above-average battery life, the Jabra Elite 7 Pro wants to compete with much more expensive headphones, and they do it without problems.

Key features

• Microphones: Two microphones plus a bone transmission sensor in each earphone
• Sound: 6mm drivers
• Water and dust resistance: IP57 certified
• audio codec: AAC and SBC
• Autonomy: Up to 8 hours of battery life on one charge, and an additional 22 hours from the charging case. Quick charge: 5 minutes give one hour of autonomy.
• Load: charging box with USB-C connection and wireless charging (Qi standard)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2, multipoint connection (two devices at the same time)
• Weight :: 5.4 grams per earphone
• Application: Jabra Sound+ (link)
• Sound modes: normal, active noise cancellation, ambient sound
• Controls: physical button on each earbud
• Box contents: earphones, three sets of silicone earplugs, charging box, USB-C cable

Jabra has streamlined the headset design from start to finish. The charging case maintains a similar design but with a flatter shape. It is one of the smallest charging cases I have tried, perfect to place in any pocket of your pants, jacket or bag. Black plastic with a matte finish and a feeling of good quality in the materials, just like in its previous models. The first thing that caught my attention is the location of the USB-C connector, on the front. It's nothing negative (or positive), it's just weird, and on more than one occasion it caused me to try to open the case the wrong way.

Inside the box the headphones are fixed magnetically. It is very easy to place them, since practically the magnet takes them to their place, and to remove them, which is not always easy with the designs of some headphones. The lid with magnetic closure will prevent it from opening in your backpack., and also even if it were opened it would be difficult for the headphones to fall thanks to the magnets that fix them. The headphones turn on and off automatically when you remove them from the case and put them back.

The headphones also have a new design, much more refined than the Elite 75T and 85T. The entire external part of the headset is a large physical button to control different functions, one in each headset, and that we can configure to our liking. The earphones are smaller and placed on the ears are much less noticeable than previous models. However, this does not imply a decrease in their handling, nor in how they are fixed on the ears.

They maintain the in-ear design, necessary for noise cancellation. And they remain comfortable to wear despite several hours of wear inside your hearing aid. I'd say they're even more comfortable than the 85T, which I've used for months and got me to put down my AirPods Pro. No feeling of plugged ears, no tiredness after several hours, there are no weird noises while walking. This requires you to choose the right set of silicone plugs (three sizes are included).

They don't fall off at all. There are no weird design elements here to fix the earphones, they stay fixed by their shape and by slipping into the ear canal. In my opinion they are perfect for sports, because in addition to being well fixed they have IP57 certification. I have not tested the Elite 7 Active to see if there are any substantial differences.

Jabra Sound+ app

One of the main assets of Jabra headsets is their excellent app. With different functionalities depending on the model, these Jabra Elite 7 Pro have all the functions of the brand's Premium headphones. If the Elite 3 had some "capped" functions in the application, the Elite 7 Pro have the "all included". It is recommended that you use the application for the configuration of the headphones and their first connection, because it will not be a simple Bluetooth connection.

During the first connection of the headphones to your iPhone you will have to help the application to detract how your hearing is. It is a process that I have already tried with several headphones (the Elite 85T among others) and that allows you to adapt the sound of the headphones to your hearing, because not all of us hear the same, and these differences increase over the years. We can also configure many other functions, such as noise reduction, transparency mode, physical buttons, etc. You can control the volume from the headphones themselves, which I love.

The app's customization options are one of a kind. The equalization of the sound is totally configurable to your liking, being able to decide to give more importance to the bass or opt for a more balanced sound. You can create different sound profiles, customize the intensity of noise cancellation or Hearthough mode (transparency/ambience). You can even vary options to improve the sound during calls.

One thing the headphones also allow is for you to install Amazon's Alexa assistant on your headphones, so if you're used to using your Amazon Echo instead of Siri, you'll still be able to do that on the headphones. If you prefer to use the Siri assistant, it is also possible, of course, and in the case of Android you will use Google's. You can also use the app to find your headphones, which will save the last known location where you disconnected them from your iPhone. A fantastic app that I only find fault with: it still uses the old iOS widgets, it hasn't been adapted to the new ones that Apple released in iOS 14.

Sound quality

Jabra has managed to improve the sound of this new generation of headphones, and it was not an easy task. If the elite 85T convinced me for their sound (among other things), these new Elite 7 Pro have convinced me even more. Its sound is more balanced, something that some may consider a loss. The bass isn't as noticeable as the 85T's, but I like how the full range of sounds is heard better., how instruments can be differentiated and how voices are heard. And if you want more relevant bass, then you just have to use the equalizer and create a sound profile to your liking.

However, if we talk about noise cancellation, things change, because here we lose something compared to previous generations. I don't know if it will be a direct consequence of the better sound, but the cancellation is somewhat worse than in the 85T. It's not that it's a bad cancellation, but the one with the 85T was very good. Even cranking it all the way up (you can customize the intensity in the app), it never reaches the level I'm used to from its predecessors. Nobody is perfect. If we talk about HearThrough mode we must also put some "but", because the sound seems somewhat more artificial to me when we have this ambient sound mode active, I did not have that feeling with the 85T.

What has improved a lot is the sound of calls. Two microphones in each earpiece and a bone transmission sensor allow the sound that reaches your interlocutor to be much better than in previous models, especially when conditions are not favorable (traffic, wind, etc.). If we make a global assessment of sound in these Elite 7 Pro, we clearly win compared to the 85T, although there are aspects in which I miss the latter.

multi point mode

The Jabra Elite 7 Pro was launched without a feature that its predecessors did have: Multipoint mode. This functionality allows the headphones connect to two devices simultaneously, so you can switch between them automatically. You listen to music on your iPhone, do you want to connect to your Mac? So you pause the music on the iPhone and start the playback on the Mac, and automatically the sound will be changed in your headphones. Jabra promised to release a software update that would enable this feature on the Elite Pro 7 and Elite 7 Active, and it has.

This multipoint mode somewhat replaces the automatic synchronization via iCloud of the AirPods and the automatic device switching. It is true that only two devices are supported, but it is more than enough for most users. Its operation is very simple, as I said before all you have to do is stop playback on your current device to switch to a new one, and I am glad that at the time of writing this review it is already available, because it is a very important point for my final evaluation.

Autonomy

Jabra assures us that the headphones last up to 8 hours on a single charge. I have not been able to verify it, I think I have never worn headphones for 8 hours in a row, but I have worn them for 3 long hours and from the estimate of the remaining battery, I think that las 8 hours are quite close to reality. With the charging case we will have another 22 additional hours of charge, adding a total of 30 hours. An LED on the front of the charging case and on the earbuds helps you know when you need to recharge.

My use of headphones can be considered normal. I don't usually use them at work, basically I use them when I'm on the go or at home, so I don't get to accumulate many hours in a row with the headphones on. But yes, I can have an average of about 3 hours a day of use. I have been using these Jabra Elite 7 Pro for 3 weeks now, and I recharge them at night on the cordless base once a week. With this I always have them 100% ready to use. You can not ask for more.

The fact that they include wireless charging is a comfort for those of us who barely use cables to recharge our devices. I have bases spread all over the house and at work, so being able to forget about cables is a great advantage, and the charging case works really well with my charging bases despite being so small. I don't notice it getting hot while charging, and the front LED helps me know when it's charging and when it's full.

Editor's opinion

The new Jabra Elite 7 Pro represent a step forward for the brand in the headphone market, with obvious improvements in its design and sound, while maintaining the important plus of an excellent application with configuration options that are unusual for these devices. Although the noise reduction has suffered a slight worsening compared to the Elite 85T, the improvements in the rest of the features far outweigh this drawback, and make them one of the best options within the premium “True Wireless” headphones. for performance and price. You can buy them on Amazon for € 199 (link) a lower price than its main competitors.