Jabra Elite 7 Pro review: They’re like fluffy clouds in your ears

We've been impressed with Jabra's wireless earbud range over the last couple of months. From the 85t to the truly excellent Jabra Elite 3, the company has been offering more for less. And now it has released its premium Jabra Elite Pro 7.

With a price tag of $299 it sits in an interesting place. It's ain't cheap, but it's not as pricey as the category-conquering Sony WF-1000XM4 or Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2.

This is great news for anyone who places comfort above all else, because this is where the Jabra Elite 7 Pro really shines.

Design

Image: Tegan Jones/Finder

The Jabra Elite 7 comes in a sleek and compact charging case. It contains an LED light on the exterior as well as a blessed USB-C charging port.

The buds themselves look similar to others in the Jabra family such as the Elite 3 and 85t. While they don't feel super light in the hand, particularly compared to the AirPods Pro, they thankfully aren't heavy in the ear.

In fact, these are the most comfortable in-ear buds in this form factor I've tried of late, which is aided by 5 tip options. I realise this is a big call, especially considering options like Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 and the Sony WF-1000XM4. While the latter two still have superior sound and ANC, the Jabra Elite 7 Pro has them beat on comfort.

I was able to wear these for hours while working, on walks and during vigorous exercise and they didn't ache in the same way that the XM4 (and the XM3s before them) did. They also felt quite secure in the ear during exercise despite being a more precarious form factor than stem buds or hook-around variants like the Powerbeats Pro.

Speaking of which, these lads have an IP57 dust and water resistance rating, meaning they're great for exercise. But as always, don't accidentally take your earbuds for a swim. Instead, join me in whimsically looking forward to the day when consumer-grade waterproof earbuds are released.

Performance

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Personalisation is king when it comes to the Jabra Elite 7. It lives within the Jabra Sound+ app so if you don't download it, you'll miss it.

I personally prefer great performance without tinkering because I'm lazy. And fortunately the Elite 7 Pro offers this experience. You don't have to touch a thing to have a good time with these. They even connect seamlessly to your phone via Bluetooth.

But if you want the most bang for your buck, it's worth taking a look. There's a lot more to do than mess with the EQ on your buds.

You can customise the active noise cancellation (ANC) for your hearing, check the fit of your buds, set up your voice assistant and set up the controls on the buds themselves.

The latter allows several music and call options for your single, double and triple presses on each bud. Speaking of which, the buttons themselves are clicky and need a slight pressure to activate.

And this is a very good thing.

Some earbud controls can be far too sensitive, meaning that an accidental graze might skip your track or call up your voice assistant. You won't have this problem here.

By far my favourite performance feature is an oldie but a goodie – automatic pausing. This is where the buds can detect when you remove one and will pause your content for you. It's not a unique feature, but you generally find it in more expensive buds.

It's something I sorely missed in the Jabra Elite 3, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it means you won't accidentally miss where you were up to in your podcast of choice. Secondly, it saves your battery life.

I found the function to work perfectly every time on the Jabra Elite 7 Pro, which I imagine will be very useful once I'm back in a busy office environment.

My one bugbear in the performance department is multipoint connections. Or the lack thereof. This allows you to have your buds connected to multiple devices at once; for example, a laptop and a phone. This is particularly handy if you are listening to music on one and then get a call on another.

To be fair, Jabra has confirmed that this function is coming in a future firmware update. But the company has offered functionality on some of its other buds from day one, including the much cheaper Jabra Elite 3. So it seems strange to not be there already.

Jabra Elite 7 Pro audio performance

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The Jabra Elite 7 Pro doesn't offer the best audio quality in the wireless earbud market. For that you need to be paying $400-$500. But it still does a really excellent job that will probably suit most people.

The sound is balanced straight out of the box. You get a thumping bass that doesn't drown out the mids and the highs/treble are bright and distinguished.

One of my go-to audio testing longs, Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, was a beautiful example of what these things can do. The intricacies of Stevie Nicks' voice floated in the highs, catching every warble and breath. Meanwhile the delicate guitar strumming sat firmly, but separately below it.

Looking for that bass? 3005 by Childish Gambino enters the chat with a punchy baseline, with the electro melody sitting above it in the mids while Donald Glover's voice permeates the treble like cut glass.

While you'll get a more complex result from Sennheiser and Sony, these things are incredibly impressive. I wasn't expecting to pick up so much detail and yet there they are.

Interestingly, the most powerful Jabra Elite 7 audio experience came from voice calls.

The buds are equipped with MultiSensor Voice functionality. In practice, this means that 4 microphones are included – 2 for blocking out sound and 2 for picking up voices.

The result is an incredibly crisp and clear audio experience that makes it difficult for the person on the receiving end to realise you are actually using buds.

To be fair, the quality drops somewhat when you're outside. For example, wind can creep in if it's particularly blowy. But it still does a fantastic job.

I found this to be largely true of my ANC experience as well. For the most part it was great – it blocked out the vast majority of unwanted noise and the click of a button would immediately let ambient noise in when I wanted it.

However, even after customising the ANC I found that particularly loud sounds could still penetrate the buds. For example, a loud car speeding past on a busy road.

That being said, it was minor and I am inclined to be forgiving considering the price point. These are quite a bit cheaper than the top-of-the-line wireless noise-cancelling earbuds that offer spectacular ANC.

To be quite honest, the Jabra Elite 7 Pro are absolutely good enough here.

Battery

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Jabra estimates that the battery life on the Elite 7 Pro is 8 hours for playback and 6 hours for calls. However, enabling features such as ANC does have an impact on that.

My real world experience found that I could get roughly 6.5-7 hours with ANC switched on. The number varied depending on the volume as well if I was making calls.

It also has an additional 22 hours of charge from the case. All in all I was happy with the results.

And as some added extras, the Jabra Elite 7 Pro contains Qi wireless charging as well as fast charge. 5 minutes of juice gets you an hour of battery, which is good news if you've forgotten to charge before a gym session or commute. 30 minutes will get you to 50% charge and the entire buds will charge in about 2.5 hours.

Should you buy the Jabra Elite 7 Pro?

Jabra is really bringing the thunder at the moment. I was blown away by the $119 Jabra Elite 3 and I'm finding myself similarly simping over the Elite 7 Pro.

While it doesn't quite replace the Sony XM4s in my heart, it's hard to ignore the price tag. $300 is still an investment, but you get very close to what the high-end buds have to offer for a lot less.

If you're not a hardcore audiophile but still appreciate some of the finer things in life, these are a great solution. You still find beautiful audio, ANC that is good enough for most and great quality of life inclusions.

But for me, the real winner is how comfortable they are. They have Sony beat here and I would argue that this is more important than the audio or ANC. I would much rather be able to listen for longer than have aching ears after a few hours, even if the sound is perfect. Because at that point I'm not really focusing on what's being blasted into my ears anymore.

So if you want the almost-best of both worlds, you should seriously consider Jabra.

Jabra Elite 7 Pro pricing and availability

Price

RRP: $299.00

Where to buy

Check price at Amazon

Check availability at eBay

Amazon

Specifications

Where to buy

How we test

The Jabra Elite 7 Pro was tested extensively over a 2-week period. It was used for music, podcasts and calls. It was tested while stationary, on walks and while doing vigorous exercise. Jabra provided Finder with the review product.

Images: Tegan Jones