Jabra Elite 8 Active

After trying a few sets of cheaper earbuds with the earloop for fitness use, I was very dissatisfied with the flat/muted sound quality, as well as their enormous cases, and decided to evaluate a couple of the top ranked items.
#1 Fitness Earbuds ranked by CNET: Beats Fit Pro
#1 Fitness Earbuds ranked by SoundGuys: Jabra Elite 8 Active
I evaluated many aspects that were of importance to me, and ultimately chose the Jabra Elite 8 Active. Your choice may depend on what factors are most important to you.
Below is the analysis, showing the winner for each category:
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Charging Pod
Beats: Larger than necessary, charging pod seems flimsy, requires 2 hands to open lid. Charging light is only white. When charging is complete, if you open the lid there is no indication level of the case charge level as empty or anything else.
Jabra: Nice compact charging pod, fits easily in pocket. Feels really high quality and solid. Lid can be flipped open with one hand. LED indicator is Green/Yellow/Red for charge level of both case and buds, and purple when it is doing a firmware update.
Winner: Jabra – big win
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In ear comfort
Beats: Easy to place in ear, very comfortable and no concern about them falling out. After some time wearing them, the wing tip did cause some pressure on my ear with minor irritation. When wearing a thick winter hat, putting it on caused the buttons to be pressed, for example pausing the music – this is annoying.
Jabra: Very comfortable, although it takes a bit to get used to the in ear canal pressure. Amazing that they don’t fall out. At first I was concerned they would, but even after active manuevers and facial gestures like big grin, it did not loosen them. After some time got used to the fact that they really aren’t going to fall out. More slim in ear and does not press a button when putting on a winter hat.
Winner: Jabra – small win. Although the Beats are slightly more comfortable, the slim fit and ability to work better with a hat makes Jabra win out.
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Sound
Beats: Great sound, punchy bass, clear sound. After a while, the bass is a bit too much for me, but it is a personal preference. I wanted something a bit less bass overwhelming.
Jabra: Great sound, a bit more balanced – not overpowering bass. Also, the Sound+ app has a built-in EQ with customizable presets, so you can boost bass a bit more, and overall get a very solid sound!
Winner: Jabra – big win – with more balanced sound and EQ capability built-in to app with customizable settings.
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Control customizability
Beats: App allows some limited customization, but it requires left and right ear to have the same control. For example, double tap is next track, triple tap is previous track. You have to pick whether you want voice assistant or ANC adjustment, you cannot have both controls available.
Jabra: Amazing customization, you can have different controls in left and right side, for example, right double tap is next track and left double tap for previous track, but it is fully adjustable. On Android, if you use the built-in voice assistant, you can have BOTH voice assistant and volume controls AND the ANC adjustment. Unfortunately, if you set to Google Assistant, which functions different and better than using the Android default assistant (even if that is set to Google), then you cannot also have volume controls, but you still get ANC button control.
Winner: Jabra – big win with much greater customization ability and more flexibility.
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Control button feel
Beats: Physical button, fully silent, you cannot hear it at all when pressing. At first this seemed a good thing, but after a while you wish for some more recognizable confirmation that the button was pressed.
Jabra: A physical button with a small mechanical click that is heard, but not loud enough that it is annoying. Earbuds that have a virtual button that you have to thump the earbud have a much louder sound that is annoying. These buds have a pleasant faint audible click.
Both are much better than buds with a touch surface and not a mechanical button, because my experience is touching those types of ear buds hard enough to detect a press causes a louder thump sound in your ear, and the press is less reliable than a mechanical click.
Winner: Jabra – big win for small audible click sound, and also a button that is not accidentally pressed as easily.
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EQ
Beats: Presumably if you have a Beats Fit Pro you are using Apple Music, and then you can use the EQ in Apple Music. This EQ is horrible – the sound is much quieter, none of the presets sound as good as EQ off, and there is no customizable EQ that you can save. Thumbs down. Tested on Android.
Jabra: As mentioned above, the EQ built into the Sound+ app is very nice and allows custom presets. It sounds great.
Winner: Jabra – big win for good built-in EQ
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Firmware updates via Android phone
Beats: When I got the buds, they needed a firmware update. It took about 5 minutes with a progress bar to download to the buds case. It then notified me that the update would continue in the background and I could use the buds. It took almost 24 hours until they finally updated, and meanwhile the app showed this pending message and didn’t allow access to any of the app functionality. Very annoying and unclear if something was wrong or if it would ever finish updating.
Jabra: When I got the buds, they needed a firmware update. This process was seamless and took about a couple minutes total. It downloaded first to the buds case from the app. The case then flashed purple to show it was updating, and with the buds in the case it then completed the update in less than a couple minutes. I was shocked after the terrible experience with the Beats Fit Pro.
Winner: Jabra – major win for clear status and fast update
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Support
Beats; When the buds were ‘stuck’ updating, I chatted with Apple support, and after wasting more than an hour of my life, they told me that my brand new buds were out of warranty, I would have to go to a service center and pay for a diagnostic to figure out the problem. No clue or experience with this issue, even though I pointed the tech to an Apple moderated discussion thread with 192 “me too” responses for this exact issue of pending update on the firmware. Their response was this was a customer forum and they don’t handle issues there. Ridiculous to not be aware in your support system of that many complaints on your own discussion threads. I was livid angry by the time I ended the support call. I told the support staff I would make sure to share my experience and advise other users not to buy these earbuds, and that I would be promptly returning mine.
Jabra: After disabling the Google Assistant in order to activate volume controls, I tried to activate the assistant again and it wouldn’t turn back on, so I contacted support. There was a form to fill out and they got back to me by e-mail the next morning, with a set of solution steps. Actually their solution did not cover the solution needed to fix this (I found it online – you need to uninstall the Google app updates, then reinstall, and then the Google assistant can be linked to the buds again. However, I responded to them with a different issue about the assistant functionality, and they quickly replied with a phone number to call to better assist me. I did not end up calling. So although they did not solve my actual issue, it was a far less annoying experience.
Winner: Jabra – big win as Apple failed miserably by denying the complaints of 192 users on their discussion forum and telling me my brand new buds were not covered by warranty.
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Ruggedness / water proofing
Beats: IPX4 – this is a miserable rating. Not dust proof, and lightly splash resistant. Will not resist significant sweat, and case is not wet proof either, do not put wet buds in it. Not sure how a set of fitness earbuds can survive at IPX4.
Jabra: Buds are IP68 – dust proof and water proof to 1 m for 30 minutes. Case is IP54 – dust and splash protection. I’ve tried them in the shower and the work absolutely fine.
Winner: Jabra – big win, actually waterproof
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ANC
Beats: Excellent ANC, and easy to turn on or switch to transparent mode with a single button press
Jabra: Good ANC, and single button press to switch to hear through mode. This mode is very good, but barely detectable tinny sound vs. Beats that sound amazing in transparent mode
Winner: Beats – minor win for slightly better sound quality in transparent/hear through mode. Both are excellent.
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Calls
Beats: You need to manually select the ANC mode for calls. Sounds great, and it does seem to provide the side tone which means you can hear your own voice (not muffled) to me this is a deal breaker for headphones that do not sound clear like this because I cannot talk well when my own voice sounds muffled. However, the call quality hearing others is excellent.
Jabra: These automatically switch to ANC on during calls, but the Sound+ app lets you customize the volume level of the side tone that is heard. So even though ANC is on, you hear your own voice clearly which is excellent.
Winner: Beats – minor win for stellar sound quality during calls. Jabra sound is still quite acceptable.
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Widgets
Beats: Requires to know your location all the time even when not using the app. Has a widget to show battery level and select ANC
Jabra: “widget” is within the App, and you can customize what widgets you want to see there such as EQ, ANC, battery level, etc. Requires to know your location all the time even when not using the app (in order to find the buds if they are lost). Sometimes the app has trouble connecting to the buds which means you can’t adjust the EQ. To solve this, I found putting the buds back in the case and then putting them back on solves it.
Winner: Toss up – more widget functionality in Jabra, but some issues connecting, solved by putting buds back in case then taking them out again. Found that doing a force stop on the app when this happens solves it, and the problem hasn’t happened recently.
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Overall, I chose the Jabra Elite 8 Active over the Beats Fit Pro because primarily the following factors: more compact and better feeling case, more balanced sound and much better EQ with custom presets, support system that did not make me irate, better waterproofing rating. Both sets of buds comfortably stayed in my ears and worked well for phone calls. Price was not a major factor, but additionally the Jabra buds were significantly cheaper.

I’ve preffered the jabra 8 active over buds 2 pro despite having samsung eco system.
Fit is the major selling point for me, ive been using this on my treadmill and other activities at gym and i never had to adjust.
Comfortable for my office calls and holds charge well. Anc wasnt my focus, but had decent experience!

Excellent for any activity, amazing sound and comfort

Great sound quality, nice range, has bluetooth 5.3

This is why I don’t pay for famous brand names like Bose or Beats. These Jabras are awesome

Excellent earbuds! Fast, reliable connection every time! Sounds are clear and crisp, 0 distortion! Excellent Battery life to boot!

These replaced a set of galaxy buds pro 2, and are absolutely an upgrade. A fraction of an inch larger than the buds, and significantly better battery life

I have always had bad luck with this style of headphones, but I read so many reviews that noted how great they are about staying in. For me, they don’t stay in during workouts at the gym or if I’m eating or speaking, basically anything where my jaw is in motion. They can also be a little quirky about turning on, and sometimes I have to put them in and out of the case multiple times before both of them work. The sound quality is great, but I don’t think I would buy them again.

The best one yet so far small compact and loud nice rich sound

Case broke within first month of owning these headphones and they would not replace it. Apparently it is not in the warranty and I spent days trying to get my claim to go through.

EXCELLENT HEADPHONES! RUNNING AN HOUR OR 2 EVERY DAY.

Five star review no question about it. I bought a pair of Dre Beat Earbuds to compare quality, there really is no comparison, Jabra is on a level of it’s own. The fit, price point, noise cancelling capability, sound quality, battery life, customer support and interactive Jabra App are all fantastic and very user friendly. I will be a Jabra customer for life. They are called Jabra ELITE 8 Active for a reason, an elite earbud with a superior listening experience. 10/10 would recommend.

Excellent earbuds. Perfect fit, I don’t even feel them in my ears when I walk around. I primarily listen to audiobooks. Fast connection and it stays connected without interference. I’m happy with them so far

Very comfortable with good sound quality. The recharge method is easy as well. Great for working out!

Sound quality is good, purchased for water resistance/sauna and hot tub use. Listen to podcasts in the shower, only gripe is even with changing tips, the placement in your ear seems to be a game.

After messing with fitment, still a good product.

Great earbuds! Stay in nicely when working out, but you do occasionally have to wipe them down or they start to get slippery.

Sound and battery life are great. Noise cancel seems to work well. (I keep hearthrough off).

These earphones are amazing! I love the battery life and the distance it can connect to my phone is wonderful. The set up was very simple and easy. I love these earphones!

Great quality! I was struggling to find the right fit for earbuds of good quality, this does the job perfectly!

The latest firmware update made these a little more polished. Coming from galaxy buds plus. Fit is good. They stay in my ears. Sound quality is lacking. It is acceptable but not the strong point of these. These have poor mid range. Galaxy buds have much better sound quality which is puzzling considering they are quite old. ANC is quite good. The EQ on the apps seems to make these things sound even worse. Battery life is excellent and the earbuds are quite light in weight. They auto turn off if you leave them off but they won’t auto turn on when you put them in your ears. These are good earbuds for working out, walking, jogging and even cycling if you don’t mind the average sound quality.

These are great earbuds, comfortable the noise cancelling is awesome. I wore them on a plane and killed all the sound of the engines. This is my second pair of Jabari elites. Love them.