Jabra Elite 4 review: Competent everyday earbuds

The new Jabra Elite 4s are being marketed as “essential earbuds for work and life”. At ₹6,999, they are not all that expensive either. 

So, can these be your everyday carry earbuds which cover all the basics right? Before I tell you that, make sure you subscribe to this channel to keep with the latest in tech. 

Design

The Elite 4 earbuds stick to the classic stem-less earbuds design which a lot of you will appreciate. The earbuds themselves look unmistakably Jabra as they resemble the company’s more expensive offerings. 

The buds are quite comfortable to wear as well and you can always customise their fit according to your ears. 

These are also one of the few earbuds on the market with LEDs in each earbud, which makes it easier to keep tabs on the battery level.

The charging case is small and a bit stubby. You can still fit it in the coin pocket of your jeans. 

I was, however, underwhelmed by the overall plastic quality of the case and earbuds as it felt a bit flimsy.  

The Elite 4 earbuds are also IP55 rated which always adds to the peace of mind. 

Connectivity

The Jabra Elite 4s use Bluetooth 5.2 and come with support for multipoint connectivity. However, when it comes to codecs, you only get support for SBC and aptX. Apple’s AAC codec is conspicuously absent. 

On the flipside, Android phone users will be happy to know that Google fast pair is present here. 

The Jabra Elite 4s connect to your Android or iOS smartphone via the Sound+ companion app. The app is fairly straightforward, because well, customisation options on these earbuds are rather limited. But we’ll talk more about it as we proceed. 

Controls

The Jabra Elite 4 earbuds have physical buttons as opposed to touch-based controls, and at first I was concerned that these would be quite awkward to use. 

I’ve used earbuds with buttons in the past, and pressing the earbud against my ear has never been fun.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by Jabra’s implementation. The buttons are quite tactile which makes them really effortless to use. Also, physical buttons are much less prone to accidental triggers than touch controls. 

While the controls work well, they are non-customisable. Furthermore, the lack of wear detection on these earbuds is a bit disappointing. So, the only way to pause a track is to press the right earbud once.

Audio & call quality

The 6mm dynamic drivers on these earbuds deliver a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. Out of the box, the Elite 4s aim to deliver a balanced audio output, and they almost succeed at it. 

I say ‘almost’ because while the highs and the lows are well defined, the mids do have the tendency to sound a bit muted in certain scenarios, especially with rock music. However, you can fix that with the 5 band equaliser which comes in the companion app.

The earbuds are also decently loud at peak volume without any noticeable distortion.

However, the peak volume is not high enough for calls, and I did sometimes struggle to listen to the caller outdoors. This is a bit of a letdown, considering the mics perform nicely and provide the caller with clear audio. 

ANC

These earbuds come with both, active noise cancellation and transparency mode, both of which are non-adjustable. 

I’m not sure if this is on purpose or not, but these earbuds also have the best passive noise isolation of any earbuds I’ve tested. 

And this really works well for the Elite 4s, because the ANC performance is only average, but when combined with the passive isolation, it becomes quite good.

As far as the transparency mode is concerned, it never sounded natural in my experience, but got the job done.

Battery life

Jabra claims up to 5.5 hours of battery life per earbud with ANC on, and in my testing, I was able to achieve this number, which is quite impressive.

The combined battery life of 22 hours, however, is merely average by 2023 standards; it is nothing exceptional. 

You can also extract 1 hour of playback time by charging these earbuds for just 10 minutes.

Verdict

The Jabra Elite 4s are an understated pair of earbuds which aim to blend into your daily routine.  While they may not have wear detection and the call volume could be improved, they still offer great value and are definitely worth considering.