It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Jabra’s wireless earbuds. In the past, I’ve reviewed both the Jabra Elite 7 Pro and Elite 85t earbuds, giving both fairly positive reviews in which I praised their respective audio quality and noise cancelling abilities.
In a market full of big names like Apple and Sony promising high-quality audio experiences with considerable price points, I think Jabra does a good job of offering earbuds that stand toe-to-toe with the big dogs, but at a more affordable price. So what happens when Jabra does a more affordable version of its already affordable earbuds?
That’s the hook of the Elite 4 – a budget-friendly version of Jabra’s wireless earbuds. So how do these earbuds stack up? Are you getting more than what you’ve paid for, or do these cheaper alternatives pull up short?
Jabra Elite 4 Wireless Earbuds
What is it?
Jabra's budget-friendly wireless, noise cancelling earbuds.
Price
$139
Like
Good audio quality and noise-cancellation for the price, affordable.
No Like
Wind reduction issues, limited customisability.
No frills features
The Elite 4 are small, lightweight, and fit fairly snuggly in my ears, for the most part. After wearing them for prolonged periods I didn’t feel any form of earache, which is a nice relief. I did find that the earbuds would begin to slip a bit if I did anything to move my jaw, like talking or eating, or moved at a pace greater than a light jog.
As far as its battery life goes, the Elite 4 ran for around 5.5 hours with ANC running, as advertised. There’s an extra 16.5 hours of battery life available through the charging case as well.
In terms of user experience, the Elite 4 are pretty barebones, offering very limited customizability. With the companion Sound+ app, you can customise the equaliser and toggle through sound modes, but that’s about as far as it goes. There’s no access to the MySound feature, which is used to create a personalised audio experience, and there’s no option to customise the touch controls, so you’re locked into the standard settings (left ear controls ANC, right ear control playback).
The Elite 4 also aren’t dustproof or waterproof (rated IP55, so there’s some resistance), so I don’t know if I could recommend them when working out. If you sweat a lot, there could be some unintended damage at play. And while they do sit securely, the risk of busting them if they fall out of your ears is a bit too high for my liking. According to Jabra, they are rainproof, however, so feel free to recreate those iconic scenes from The Notebook and Spider-Man as you deem fit.
The earbuds also offer a multipoint Bluetooth 5.2 connection, which worked incredibly quickly. I’d slip from my phone to my work PC with ease, like a greased-up sausage down a stainless steel slide.
What’s the audio quality like?
The Jabra Elite 4 earbuds sound good, but not great. What I mean by that is, if you’re a self-described audiophile, these aren’t the earbuds for you. However, considering these are budget-friendly options, this isn’t a massive deal-breaker for me. That’s the trade-off of its price tag.
Everything I listened to while testing these earbuds sounded plenty clear and crisp. Playing around with different bands and genres, I was pretty happy with how everything sounded. But I did feel as though there was a lack of definition between frequencies in the “neutral” setting, so I found myself using the EQ a bit more than usual. For example, the hi-hats on some songs would sound a bit too pronounced for what the mix should be. For the most part, it wasn’t an issue but occasionally I’d lock onto an instrument and spend the rest of the song focused on it.
The same can be said for the audio quality when taking phone calls. The few calls I took to test out the microphones apparently sounded plenty crisp on the receiver’s end, and I had no issue with clarity on mine.
Weirdly, the Elite 4 don’t support the AAC codec, only Qualcomm aptX and SBC. This seems like a strange choice to me, considering how prevalent Apple products are. For transparency, I tested these using my iPhone and Macbook.
Pushing the volume to full also causes the quality to start distorting, but if you’re regularly listening to music at top volume, I feel like warbly audio is the least of your problems. Please see an otolaryngologist.
How good is its noise cancellation?
Once again, considering the price you’re paying, the Elite 4 has solid active noise cancellation. It’s certainly not the best I’ve experienced (it’s not even the best I’ve had from Jabra) but does a good enough job. You won’t get absolute silence with them, but you’ll get enough noise-cancellation that you won’t feel the need to crank up the volume to battle against external sounds. The silicon tips of these go quite deep into your earholes, which helps create a nice seal that adds to their noise isolation abilities.
While the Elite 4 has limited personalisation, it does allow you to adjust and personalise the noise-cancellation profile, so you might be able to get a little extra silence from them. Although, it’s not wholly clear what this slider represents and you do have to dig around to find this feature – I find it odd that you can’t add it to the home screen.
The earbuds use four microphones to pick up ambient sounds for the ANC, but I did find that it occasionally struggled with wind reduction. While the earbuds would drown out ambient noises with no issue, depending on the strength of the gust and the angle the wind was hitting me, the sound of it blowing into the microphones was hard to ignore.
On the other end of the spectrum, I found the HearThrough function to be quite crisp and clear. I had no problem swapping between it and the ANC when pulling up to order a coffee, or giving myself a little bit more spatial awareness when crossing a busy street. The Elite 4 also offers single-use functionality, if you only want to wear one earbud at a time.
Should you buy a pair of Jabra Elite 4 earbuds?
For a sub-$150 pair of noise-cancelling earbuds, the Jabra Elite 4 get the job done pretty well. Are there better earbuds out there? Yes, but those usually come with a chunkier price tag. Are there better Jabra earbuds out there? Undoubtably so. But considering the price point, the active noise-cancellation is pretty impressive and the audio quality is decent. If you’re after a pair of earbuds that sound good that you can casually wear at home, at the office or out and about, I don’t think you’d be disappointed with these.
The Elite 4 aren’t the headphones you upgrade to – they’re a budget option if you want something no-frills but reliable, or the cheaper option to wear if you’re worried about taking your more expensive pair out and about. If you can snag a pair of the Elite 4 on sale for under $100, then I’d say they’re a must-buy. But if you can get the Elite 7 Pro on sale for close to the same price tag as the Elite 4, go with the 7s.