I miss my Jabras

I happily used my Jabra Elite 8 Active daily (and intensively) for ~20 months (they were my second pair of Jabras), until the left earbud died and I was in the market for a replacement. Jabra had left the consumer audio market in 2024, so a third pair wasn’t on the table. I ended up on the AirPods Pro 3.

How I got here

I use earbuds a lot. At work for music, in meetings, sometimes on the commute, and when running. If I were to make a rough estimate, that’s 25-40 hours a week. They were really put to the test, especially while running. I’d be out for hours on end, sun or rain. Then one fateful day I suddenly lost sound from my left earpiece. After finishing my run I did what any sensible human would do: check them, clean them, charge them, disconnect and reconnect, hard reset, and eventually a factory reset. Nothing worked, and I sent them in for repair at the store I bought them from. I quickly got a reply that they weren’t able to fix it, and that I would get my money back as it was within the warranty period. At that point I was happy, but the happiness was short-lived. I went looking for a replacement and realised I wasn’t getting one. Not from Jabra, anyway.

What I needed in a replacement

My list of requirements was pretty steep. Good battery life (on the buds, not just the case). A good water resistance rating. Preferably not sticking out of your ears. Solid mics and active noise cancelling, since I used to be in meetings most of the day (AirPods at my office are somewhat notorious for picking up everything around them. More on that later). And of course, good audio. Although I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile at all, so I’m pretty easy to satisfy in that regard.

So why AirPods?

Looking at the options, I quickly realised I was facing a trilemma. Three things I wanted: a real water resistance rating, earbuds that don’t stick out of your ears, and something that plays nicely across platforms. Pick two.

The over-the-ear sport buds that connect behind your head nail the waterproof rating (often IP68), but they stick out by design. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro stick out but the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 don’t. They both have decent water resistance, but they’re locked to their own ecosystems to some capacity. I own an iPhone (possibly my last, but I’ll save that for a later post) and work on a MacBook Pro, so the locked ecosystems are a problem. The JBL Live Beam 3 and various Sony pairs don’t stick out and play nicely across platforms, but the water resistance ratings are poor (IPX4 in most cases).

So, my initial reaction? Maybe I can find a second-hand pair. Not the most exciting idea, second-hand earbuds, but I was desperate. Don’t judge me.

It was futile anyway. No one was selling them at the time, and I understand why. It’s a great product. Why get rid of it?

So eventually I went for the next best thing. The AirPods (Yes, the most ecosystem-locked option in the lineup. I see the irony.).

Where they fall short

I’ve hit a weird issue a handful of times now (in the relatively short period of owning them) where the audio starts glitching out. It tends to happen after 2-3 hours of continuous use with heavy ANC on (running in the countryside with a lot of wind). It’s hard to describe, but from one side I’d hear some glitchy variation of the sound that’s supposed to come out. I can’t fix it on the run. I just have to drop them in the case until they’re fully charged, and then it magically disappears again. And no, it’s not the battery running dry. I checked multiple times. Hopefully something I can fix.

The physical controls are horrible. Whose idea was it to put pinch controls on a device that small? Call me old-fashioned or biased (or both), but the physical buttons the Jabras had made much more sense.

And the way they look. They’re clunky and stick out. It’s expensive tech, and wearing them makes me feel like I’m shining a beacon on myself: “Oh look at me wearing AirPods, I’m so important!” That’s not something I want to portray.

Where they actually win

The AirPods are not a bad product. There are some things they do well. Very well, I’d say.

Primarily? The active noise cancelling. For all the things Jabra did well, they could take a page from Apple’s noise cancelling manual. It’s especially noticeable in train stations, airports, or busy offices. Pop them in and the world’s volume knob drops a notch. Sure, loud noises still come through. But if you’re listening to music at a normal level, everything around you fades out.

When I bought them I was worried about the meeting mics. Turns out there’s a voice isolation mode you can turn on (whoever decided that had to be off by default, fuck you) that makes a real difference. Not as good as Jabra’s, but much better than leaving it off. That’s something I’ve been sharing around the office.

The other features people talk up aren’t really for me. There’s heart rate sensors in there somewhere, which I guess could be a draw if you’re into that kind of tracking. And there’s live translations with Apple Intelligence, which I’ve never tried or looked into. I also fail to see the use case. What’s the point of hearing a translation of someone speaking a language I don’t, if I can’t talk back?

Closing

The AirPods are fine. They’re expensive, have features most people won’t use, and some quirky controls, but the noise cancelling makes up for it. If Jabra announced tomorrow that they’re back in business, I’d swap back in a heartbeat. There simply isn’t an earbud that matches the spec and price of the Elite 8 Active. And I don’t think we’ll see one for a while. It makes me wonder: when you make products of this caliber, why leave the market?