Jabra Elite 75t review: Impressive wireless headset at Rs 14,999, but with a downside

Growing as the fastest smart device category, wireless earbuds are a rage these days. With true wireless earbuds available in different shapes, sizes and prices, Jabra has introduced premium earbuds - Elite 75t.

Jabra's expertise and specialisation in wireless and corded headphones for enterprise as well as consumers are reflected in the Elite 75t as well. Being a true wireless headset, the earbuds are placed neatly in a charging case in black matte finish.

These are magnetically attached, and the buds won't fall off easily. However, the buds have a slightly unusual design - slightly longish with less curves - awarding an ergonomic design for a secure fit. But at the same time taking them out of the case was troublesome and I feared dropping the buds. In terms of fit, they are comfortable to wear for longer durations. The Elite 75t is IP55 rated and comes with a two-year warranty for water and dust resistance.

Taking the earbuds out of the case for the first time turns them into pairing mode. It was rather busy. Long-pressing both the left and right earbuds for three seconds also brings them into the pairing mode. I was able to connect them from the phone's Bluetooth setting. There is also a compatible Jabra Sound+ app directions and accessing more settings.

Both the right and the left buds have clickable buttons designed for many actions. For instance, pressing the right button once answers/end a call, a double press rejects the incoming call. When playing music, the right bud button can be pressed once to play or pause the music. And double-pressing the right button activates voice assistant such as Siri and Alexa. On the other hand, pressing the left bud button once can be used to mute the microphone during a call, double pressing the same while listening to music skips to next track. For increasing the volume, I had to press and hold the right button while decreasing the same required the left bud. HearThrough for controlling the ambient noise can be activated/deactivated by pressing the left button when not on a call. It took me some time to get used to these actions.

The performance of the Elite 75t was a mixed bag. During calls, I often received feedback that the voice was low and muffled. However, it was rather impressive when playing music. Vocals were well pronounced with thumping bass. The Jabra Sound app has options such as call equaliser, music equaliser, HearThrough and Sidetone settings, among others. I could choose from pre-sets such as bass boost, speech, smooth, treble boost, energise and more.

Fully-charged earbuds lasted me over six and a half hours and the case had enough juice to charge it for another couple of cycles. When running low on charge, placing the buds in the case for 15 minutes juiced them up for close to an hour. With daily average use of over four hours, a fully-charged case and buds lasted me close to five days.

However, the biggest downside for me was the ability to use only the right earbud separately. I often use just one earbud of the Apple AirPods for answering calls and listening to podcasts. For this, I keep switching between the left and the right bud. However, with Elite 75t, the left earbud would not perform until I wear the right earbud. This feature is usually available on affordable earbuds. The company plans to fix this with an update in the second half of 2020. The Jabra Elite 75t is retailing for Rs 14,999.

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