Jabra Elite 4 Active Review: Another True Wireless Earbuds with ANC

Credit: TechRadar

Verdict

The Jabra Elite 4 Active are a very well pair of true wireless earbuds that might be ideal for fitness enthusiasts seeking an affordable pair to go to the gym or for running.

The Jabra Elite 4 Active was unveiled soon before CES 2022, completing the company’s current array of workout-friendly true wireless earbuds.

They aren’t the most thrilling earbuds to be unveiled at the tech show, but they are among the best-equipped wireless buds for the money, with active noise cancellation, a long battery life, and a design that makes them great for working out.

In practice, these are a nice-sounding pair of earbuds that you can use while working out. They’re comfortable, with on-ear controls, and an IPX4 water-resistance rating, so they’ll keep you dry in the rain and sweat.

The Jabra Elite 4 Active aren’t the best-sounding in-ear headphones on the market, since they lack the broad soundstage that audiophile-focused buds provide. Furthermore, noise suppression is acceptable but not exceptional.

Nonetheless, if you want a set of running headphones that sound good but aren’t too expensive, the Jabra Elite 4 Active true wireless earbuds are a good option.

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Jabra Elite 4 Active Review

1. Specifications of Jabra Elite 4 Active
2. Price and Availablity of Jabra Elite 4 Active
3. Design
4. Digital Assitant and Controls of Jabra Earbuds
5. Sound Quality
6. Active Noise Cancellation
7. App and Special Features
8. Battery Life and Charging case
9. Connectivity and Call Connectivity
10. Conclusion

Specifications of Jabra Elite 4 Active

Price and Availablity of Jabra Elite 4 Active

Credit: Amazon

The Jabra Elite 4 Active trues wireless earbuds are available in three color options: black, navy, and mint, and costs $119 (£119) through major online retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy, or directly from Jabra. A charging case, USB-C to USB-A connection, and three pairs of EarGels tips are included with the buds.

Several popular sports noise-cancelling models, such as the Beats Pro Fit ($199) and other Jabra models like the Elite Active 75t ($179) and Elite 7 Active ($179), are cheaper than the Elite 4 Active. They’re also less expensive than the AirPods Pro ($249) and Sony WF-1000XM4 ($279), two of the best wireless earbuds on the market.

Design

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The Jabra Elite 4 Active true wireless earbuds, which come in black, navy, and a lovely mint green hue, are as useful and well made as to any other Jabra earbud we’ve used.

The Elite 4 Active doesn’t come with wingtips to keep them secure in your ears when working out, but they’re still incredibly tight. Plus, they come with a variety of ear tips in various sizes so you can find the right fit.

They don’t have the rubber-type ShakeGrip covering that the Jabra Elite 7 Active has to keep in your ears. However, as long as you use the proper tips for your ears, the Elite 4 Active should stay in place when working out.

The Elite 4 Active’s IP57 dust- and water-resistance rating is another workout-friendly design feature, allowing you to wear them while exercising without worrying about sweat or a little rain causing them to fail.

Credit: Tom’s Guide

You can control your music playing, adjust the volume, accept, reject, and finish conversations, and summon your device’s voice assistant by pressing a physical button on each housing. 

Physical buttons on in-ear headphones are divisive; you may prefer not to learn a set of swipe motions, or you may despise the feeling of pushing the buds farther into your ear canals every time you want to halt your music.

In any event, it’s great to see Jabra added on-ear volume controls — it saves you from having to get your phone out of your pocket, and it’s a feature that earbud makers sometimes neglect.

A little LED on each housing of the Jabra reveals the battery state of the buds, as well as when they’re in pairing mode, shutting down, or upgrading the firmware. 

On the front of the charging case, there’s also an LED that shows how much battery life is left. The case is constructed of plastic and features a flip-top cover as well as a USB-C charging connection on the rear. It does seem a little fragile due to the plastic design, but that’s to be expected at this price.

Digital Assitant and Controls of Jabra Earbuds

Credit: Jabra

These buds use the same control scheme as the Elite 7 Active, except on-ear detection for auto-pause/play and access to controls to set input methods. I was initially perplexed by the absence of certain detecting characteristics, but then I recalled to account for cost. The buttons recognize single, multi-tap, and hold movements, however instructions take a second to register and execute due to latency.

Regardless of criticisms, Jabra’s ability to build a complete set of media controls on the Elite 4 Active should not be overlooked. Play/pause (1x tap), skip track (2x tap), previous track (3x tap), and adjust volume are all done with the right bud (long press). The left bud can switch between ANC settings (1x tap), engage the smart assistant/Spotify (2x tap), and reduce the volume (1x tap) (long press). That’s about as practical as buds without motion sensing can get.

The Alexa connection allows you to provide commands to Alexa while on the road. For common chores, Google Assistant and Siri are also useful, albeit Google’s AI bot misunderstood key terms when verbalizing requests. It’s not a major flaw because the program correctly detected the questions, but it does demonstrate that the Elite 4 Active isn’t as intuitive as the more expensive Elite 7 Active.

Sound Quality

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Some people believe that the greatest exercise headphones have a lot of basses. The Elite 4 Active delivers enough to get your heart racing, but it’s also fine-tuned to generate crisp mids and highs, ensuring that you get a well-balanced sound experience across the frequency range of the earbud.

The Game’s “Westside Storymonster “‘s 808 kicks and violent piano keys smacked hard on my eardrum and prompted head-nods as I drove to the gym. I cranked up the low end with A$AP Rocky’s “Goldie,” and was blown away by how clear the sub-bass sounded, keeping the track’s lively feelings without distorting the rapper’s vocals. Rock songs with deep bass riffs, such as Radiohead’s “The National Anthem,” held up well, particularly when the forceful brass section came in at the conclusion.

Again, the Elite 4 Active is capable of more than just providing rich, powerful lows to your ears. Play a couple of jazz standards and you’ll hear some excellent definitions. “It Could Happen to You,” by the Miles Davis Quintet, was great for rehabilitation, calming my body with funky double bass and gentle trumpet sound, while the tinny hi-hats injected some energy.

My review input is based on the flat default EQ setting, however you may change it in the companion app to your satisfaction. You may tune the bass, mid-range, and treble individually, or choose from one of five well-designed presets: Bass Boost, Energize, Smooth, Speech, and Treble Boost. Each one is designed to go with specific music styles and materials. The speech will make vocals stand out more in songs and podcasts, while Bass Boost will boost the low-end.

Active Noise Cancellation

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My expectations were low, given how awful ANC was on the Elite 7 Active. Surprisingly, the Elite 4 Active outperformed its more costly sibling in terms of noise cancellation, which is unexpected given that it has fewer sensors.

You may use conventional ANC mode as is or utilize Personalized ANC in the app to adjust noise neutralization. After performing the noise suppression test, I saw some slight improvements. Mid-frequencies were reduced more effectively with personalized ANC.

By wearing the buds throughout the house, I was able to block out distractions like doorbells, loud TVs, and the droning sounds coming from my laundry room. High-frequency noises, such as my infant son’s sobs during nap time, which I could hear from across the house, were inevitable.

The Elite 4 Active did their finest work outside. The buds filtered off noisy joggers and most gardening tools, although hearing some wind and automobiles driving by. A vehicle horn startled me once, but that was to be anticipated given that the Elite 4 Active’s microphones aren’t as sensitive as those found in Jabra’s more expensive versions.

For runners who wish to be aware of their surroundings while out and about, Jabra’s HearThrough technology comes in useful. The microphones pick up enough background noise to keep listeners aware of approaching vehicles. From a block away, I felt secure hearing bicycle bells and garbage trucks, as well as police sirens and whistles. In the app, you may also customize the degree of ambient sounds you want to hear. However, the mics fail to pick up voices, making it difficult to speak with individuals in the same room when using these buds.

App and Special Features

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The Jabra Sound+ app, like all other Jabra wireless earphones, provides additional capabilities. It’s still one of the greatest companion applications, owing to a user-friendly UI and extensive feature set that improves the listening experience.

EQ presets, HearThrough, Personalized ANC, and one-touch Spotify are just a few of the app’s features. A battery life meter, Find My Jabra mode, and software upgrades are among the other significant features.

Other Jabra models provide high-end capabilities like MyControls for assigning input instructions, MySound for customizable audio, and Call Equalizer for adding additional treble or bass to calls. Nonetheless, you get the app’s most-wanted features, which is a big deal for the price.

Battery Life and Charging case

With ANC turned on, Jabra claims a battery life of 7 hours. This is longer than the Elite 75t (5.5 hours) and Fit Pro (6 hours), but shorter than the Elite 7 Active (7 hours) (9 hours). Before recharging, I used the buds for calls, casual listening, and workouts for a total of 2 hours over 3 days.

With ANC turned off, Jabra has yet to confirm the runtime.

The charging case has a 28-hour capacity. This is longer than the AirPods Pro case (24 hours), comparable to the Elite Active 75t case (28 hours), and less than the Elite 7 Active case (32 hours) (35-42 hours). Four more charges are sufficient for a week and many training sessions. If you’re a gym rat who forgets to charge your headphones before leaving the home, throwing them in the case will give you an hour of listening time in only ten minutes.

Connectivity and Call Connectivity

Credit: Regan Coule/Future

The Elite 4 Active also exceeds its larger sibling in terms of call quality. The four built-in microphones have a mesh covering that reduces wind noise, allowing folks on the other end of the line to hear you. When speaking in gusty weather and over ambient noises, my voice was loud and distinct, according to my wife, during our call. The Elite 4 Active is deserving of a spot in our list of the best wireless headphones with a microphone for voice and video chats.

Bluetooth 5.2 works perfectly. When you open the charging case, the buds automatically go into pairing mode and connect to your last known device. On Android devices, Google Fast Pair speeds up the procedure. The range is 40 feet long, allowing you to travel from room to room without dropping out.

Conclusion

The Elite 4 Active offers more bang for your buck than the Elite 7 Active. It’s a superb mid-range device with acceptable ANC, outstanding call quality, rich sound, powerful connection, and waterproofing. Access to the Sound+ app, which allows you to customize your audio, sweetens the deal even more.

Because of the lower price, popular features like multipoint technology and wireless charging, as well as some of Jabra’s more recent settings, are missing. To attain ideal comfort, more attention may have been put into the multipurpose button design.

All of Jabra’s sporty wireless earbuds are worth your money, but the Elite Active 75t, which gives the full package at a premium, is especially so. However, for active lifestyle and fitness types on a budget, the Jabra Elite 4 Active is the most convincing option.