Jabra Elite 10 Review – Best Business Buds

Among the most essential items of kit needed alongside a smartphone these days for work and for getting about the urban sprawl are a pair of wireless earbuds though there’s a mind boggling variety to choose from including highly specialised models for gaming, music and work.

When it comes to work-oriented designs, Jabra’s Elite series are some of the more popular choices in the market including their latest Jabra Elite 10 which they’ve kindly provided for testing. Here’s our Jabra Elite 10 review where we see if their top-shelf pair of work-optimised earbuds are worth acquiring to add to your kit.

Jabra Elite 10 Review – Build and Design

Launched in the later part of 2023 alongside the fitness-oriented Jabra Elite Active 8, the Jabra Elite 10 are a premium pair of wireless earbuds that are intended as their flagship offering with the best hardware they can muster for superior active noise cancellation and sound quality.

Out of the box, our Jabra Elite 10 review sample comes with the charging case, the earbuds, a USB-C charging cable, the usual quick start literature and a set of different ear tips that include an extra small, small and large size on top of the pre-installed medium sized ear tips in the earbuds. Of note with Jabra’s design are that the ear tips are oval shaped to better fit the ear canal, which also offers more comfort and a better passive noise insulation.

In terms of build and design, the Jabra Elite 10 follows the general design cues of the Jabra Elite series and acts as a more refined, superior version of the prior Jabra Elite 7 with a squarish yet rounded and relatively flat charging case along with bulbous earbuds that feature a clickable button to control playback, the aforementioned changeable ear tips and small cutouts for the microphones.

The charging case of our Jabra Elite 10 review unit comes in a shade of what most would refer to as a light beige with a matte, fingerprint resistant finish.

The bottom of the case features a USB-C port for charging along with a Qi- wireless charging coil on the back of the case in scenarios where you lack a charging cable. While the top lid of the case is somewhat narrow, it’s still easy to open one handed which are a necessity for wireless earbuds as you need to use the other hand to put them in your ears.

Popping open the case reveals the earbuds nestled in magnetised sockets for secure transport. The earbuds come in a slightly darker shade of matte beige with the clickable control buttons done up in a shade of metallic bronze. 

In keeping with its status as a flagship device, our Jabra Elite 10 review unit ticks all the right boxes expected of a premium pair of wireless earbuds. You get 10mm drivers in each earbud that have the latest Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and Bluetooth Multipoint connection support to let you pair with up to two devices simultaneously.

It also has Jabra Advanced Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) tech to mute out irksome external sounds , Dolby Atmos support as well as Spatial Sound with Dolby Head Tracking tech for directional audio. You also get support for the usual AAC and SBC codecs out of the box. It also plays nicely with both Android and iPhones with the companion Jabra Sound+ app downloadable for either platform.

Of note here are that the earbuds and case each have slightly different water resistance ratings with the charging case itself hosting an IP54 rating which lets it shrug off splashes of water while the earbuds have an IP57 rating which allows it to survive for short dips in up to a metre of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. 

Overall build quality is sound, pun notwithstanding, with a sturdy hinge and an ergonomic design that includes oval-shaped ear tips though the top lid of the charging case feels unnaturally light and thin though our review sample has thus far held up well to regular use over the last month or so being tossed into backpacks, tables and pockets without being the worse for wear.

Jabra Elite 10 Review – Setup and Performance

Getting our Jabra Elite 10 review sample up and running was a doddle. After getting it paired up with our Galaxy Z Fold5, it was simply a matter of downloading and installing their Jabra Sound+ app to gain access to a customisable personal sound profile, equaliser presets as well as a Soundscape mode to generate white noise like falling rain or ocean waves to help you focus. 

The default medium sized oval-shaped eartips fit perfectly to my ear shape straight out of the box and they also provide additional differently sized ones in the event they don’t quite fit your ears. Getting a good fit is critical to ensure good sound performance as it helps to mute out external noise and ensures good sound leakage control unless you want passerby to experience your tastes in music or lack thereof.

Getting about the controls on the Elite 10 are primarily through a combination of single and double presses on the left and right earbuds with both left and right earbuds allowing you to take calls with a single press or end calls with a double press. In lieu of calls, a single press onthe left earbud lets you toggle through ANC and HearThrough modes while the a single one on the right lets you play and pause tracks.

Double pressing on the right also lets you move one music track forward while double tapping on the left activates a voice assistant of your choice. Triple pressing the right rewinds a given music track though doing so on the left does nothing by default though this can be remapped in the app itself from a limited number of options.

Interestingly enough, long tapping the left earbud lets you dial the volume down while tapping the right increases the volume which is a control setting that is oddly unavailable on many wireless earbuds. 

In terms of audio performance, our Jabra Elite 10 review sample did not disappoint with a neutral, controlled sound profile on default settings that is detailed with good mids and decent bass with slightly under emphasised highs though this can be compensated for with the right equaliser settings. It’s a solid choice for most genres including the more popular ones like pop, rock and the like though more specialised audiophile earbuds outpace it in terms of performance. 

The optional Dolby Atmos spatial audio feature offers a bit of facsimile of a larger sound stage, mimicking the effect of a front and centre performance when you’re listening even to non-Dolby Atmos optimised tracks so that when you tilt your head to the left or right, you’ll hear more sound coming from one earbud over the other which makes for an interesting novelty. It’s not particularly pronounced on normal tracks with the effect sounding much more visceral if you’re playing Dolby Atmos recorded content.

In keeping with their prior expertise, call quality on the Jabra Elite 10 was excellent with good voice clarity on both sides of the divide even in the middle of bustling traffic and a noisy coffee shop with minimal distortion. 

Of note was the exceptional comfort offered by the oval-shaped ear tips that fit better in the ears and which also help it remain secure even with vigorous head movements and running about.

Unlike conventional earbud designs that rely on tapping a control surface, the inclusion of a clickable button makes it much easier to control and minimises mistakes and misfires which makes it more pleasant to use in the long term.

The active noise cancellation performance on our Jabra Elite 10 review sample are among the better ones on test and was able to effectively mute out a good amount of ambient external noise to make working in a bustling al fresco cafe in Bukit Bintang a tolerable experience. On the commute, it was also able to deal with most of the background noise of chattering commuters and the random train announcements blurted out every few minutes.

In terms of endurance our Jabra Elite 10 review sample was a solid performer with a decent seven and a half hours with ANC on with a single charge that was enough to carry through the better part of a work day. There’s also an additional 27 plus hours with the charging case which is a decent reserve for a week worth of use and a healthy reserve for usage on the daily work commute.

Should you buy the Jabra Elite 10?

The Jabra Elite 10 is a solid all-round performer with features that make it a great fit for work, offering great call quality, Dolby Atmos virtual surround sound support, good comfort on account of its unique oval-shaped eartips and noise cancellation.

Short of more established specialised brands, it’s a great choice for daily usage especially on the daily commutes as well as the office especially for those who make and take a lot of calls .

Specifications
Price RM1,299
Driver size 10mm
Speaker bandwidth 20Hz – 20,000Hz
Microphones 6 MEMS mics
Mic bandwidth 100Hz – 8,000Hz
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.3 w/ A2DP v1.3 (SBC and AAC codecs), AVRCP v1.6, HFP v1.8, PBP V1.0, TMAP V1.0
Battery Up to 6 hours (ANC on) 27 hours (including case), 36 hours (buds and case with ANC off)  | 3 hours charging time, 5 mins for 1 hour
Size/Weight 19.6 x 18.8 x 28.2mm (earbuds), 24.4 x 46.9 x 65.4mm (case) | 5.7g (earbuds), 45.9 (case)

Jabra Elite 10 review sample courtesy of Jabra Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://jabraonline.com.my/product/jabra-elite-10/