Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Jabra Elite 85H Review

Jabra's new noise-cancelers last longer, sound better, and cost less than Bose

Jabra Elite 85h Review
Rich Shibley/Digital Trends
Jabra Elite 85H
MSRP $249.99
“The Jabra Elite 85H are fantastic go-anywhere, do-anything headphones”
Pros
  • Class-leading battery life
  • Feature-packed app
  • Clear, focused sound
  • Comfortable
Cons
  • No power button
  • No aptX or LDAC

With excellent products like their most recent QC35 II and WH1000xM3 models, Bose and Sony have had a stranglehold on the premium noise-canceling headphone world for a few years now. But that’s not to say other companies aren’t nipping at their heels with compelling products of their own.

Recommended Videos

The latest contender to enter our testing ring is from one of our favorite modern headphone brands: Jabra. Representing the first entry in over-ear headphones for the brand, the Elite 85H sport class-leading battery life, excellent noise-canceling, and crystal-clear wireless sound, all for $50 less than the competition from Sony and Bose. The result is another big win for Jabra’s growing headphone lineup.

Out of the box

Even in a market segment where the vast majority of options are understated, the Elite 85H stand out for their streamlined design. Thanks to a matte fabric coating on the black headband and exterior of each earcup, the headphones don’t even reflect the light. In fact, the only distinguishing bit of branding is a dark grey Jabra logo on the bottom of the headband. Needless to say, if you’re a fan of incognito listening, these are just the ticket.

Comfort was clearly paramount to the design team, resulting in thick memory foam earcups and a soft headband that all but guarantee lengthy listening times without any noticeable aches or pains.

The included controls, which are embedded below the fabric on the outside of the right earcup, help complete the clean design. A subtle indentation indicates the play/pause button in the middle of the earcup, and two raised bumps on the top and bottom of the indent indicate volume controls.

The Jabra Elite 85H crushes its more-expensive competitors on battery life.

There are also two small buttons on the bottom of the right and left side, the left one allows you to turn on the company’s “HearThrough” technology, which pipes in ambient sound and also allows you to turn noise canceling on and off. The right button lets you access your voice assistant or mute the microphone.

Accessories include a solid black hard case, a 3.5 mm cable for wired listening, as well as a USB-C cable to for charging, so you won’t have to worry about damaging them when stuffing them in your carry-on or backpack during a commute.

Features and design

The Elite 85H have many of the same features boasted by the more expensive Sony and Bose models, but one place where they clearly crush their competitors is battery life. The new Jabra model offers a class-leading 36 hours (!) of juice with noise canceling engaged, a whopping 6 hours more than the 30 hours offered by the Sony WH1000xM3, and over ten hours longer than the Bose QC35 II. Their quick-charging function will also net you 5 hours of listening time on a 15-minute charge.

Jabra Elite 85h Review
Rich Shibley/Digital Trends

The other feature we love is that the Elite 85H are both dust and water resistant (though Jabra doesn’t list a specific IP rating), with the company even going so far as to warranty the headphones for two years against both substances. This means those (like us) who live in rainier climates like the Pacific Northwest get peace of mind out of the box.

In terms of musical customization, the Jabra Sound+ app offers many of the same features we love about Sony’s WH1000xM3. You can change the equalization settings, adjust noise-canceling, and even tell the headphones to adjust noise-canceling based on responses to your environment. Sitting in a busy plane terminal? It’ll pipe through a bit of sound from the outside world so you can hear announcements. Sitting on a loud plane? It’ll set your noise cancellation to maximum.

It’s worth noting that while we think this tech has lots of potential down the line — and Jabra will likely continue to improve it with firmware updates — we typically just left the noise-canceling on unless we otherwise needed to have it off as we didn’t always agree with its decisions. In our open-floorplan office, for instance, the system reduced noise canceling and pumped in sound — the exact opposite of what we wanted. No problem, though, we just selected the manual setting in the app and it was off to the races.

Jabra appears to have put a lot of energy into making sure these headphones accurately reproduce all elements of the frequency spectrum.

Another feature Jabra borrows from Sony and others is a sensor system inside the earcups that automatically pauses/plays when you take off or put on the headphones – a nice touch.

Pairing is equally intuitive. The Elite 85H’s Bluetooth 5.0 chipset makes them among the fastest to connect of any wireless models we’ve ever tested. Turn them on, and they are ready to play music almost instantly.

That brings us to the weirdest thing about the Elite 85H: There isn’t a power button. In order to power the headphones off, you must lay them flat with the earcups turned all the way down towards the surface you lay them on. To turn them on, you just pick them up and place them on your head as normal. It’s an odd feature and can be very annoying when you don’t lay down the headphones right and they remain on. Next time, we’ll take a button.

Jabra Elite 85h Review
Rich Shibley/Digital Trends

Another feature inexplicably missing from this $300 pair of headphones? Support for aptX or LDAC — the two highest quality Bluetooth codecs. That’s an oversight for wireless headphones at this price, but luckily, we were still impressed with their sound quality.

Sound performance

Even without aptX or LDAC, the Elite 85H feature a very open and inviting soundstage, tending towards a warmer overall representation of our favorite music than either the Bose or Sony models.

Where Bose tends to boost the bass and lean on the treble, Jabra appears to have put a lot of energy into making sure these headphones accurately reproduce all elements of the frequency spectrum. They also offer an impressive amount of clarity in the midrange, even when there is a lot of information to deal with.

The Elite 85H is among the best sounding noise-canceling headphones you can buy right now.

Listening to the latest offerings from Vampire Weekend and Big Thief, the headphones did well to create separation between each guitar, synth, or other layer in the middle of the sound, joined by dynamic (but not overly rumbly) bass, and relatively crisp upper frequencies.

We say relatively crisp because, when compared side-by-side with the Sony WH1000xM3 (among the best sounding Bluetooth headphones you can buy), the Sony model offered an airier top end, giving acoustic instruments a bit more room to breathe in the musical space.

In terms of listening experience, we’d put the Elite 85H square between the Bose and Sony models, making them easily among the best sounding noise-canceling headphones you can buy right now.

Noise cancellation

Speaking of noise canceling, the Jabra Elite 85H employ four onboard microphones to remove unwanted background noise, offering performance that is almost as good as what’s offered by the class-leading Sony and Bose models.

Both the Sony and Bose headphones do a slightly better job dealing with HVAC and conversational noise, but we were actually very impressed with the way the Jabra removed the sounds of mechanical keyboards and other, more percussive sounds. Sony and Bose have the upper hand overall, but the Elite 85H are no slouch.

Warranty information

Jabra’s two-year warranty covers water and dust damage, as well as defects in materials or workmanship.

Our Take

The Jabra Elite 85H are a great pair of noise-canceling headphones that compete with the best on the market.

Is there a better alternative?

At $300, we’ve yet to hear a pair of headphones that goes head-to-head this effectively with the flagship models from Sony and Bose. With better battery life, a comfortable design, and great features (save that lack of a power button), the Elite 85H do well to stack up with their pricier peers. If you’re looking to save a bit more money, you could look at the Panasonc RP-HD605N, which sound similar thanks to aptX and LDAC support, but have shorter battery life and lack the app-based features of the Jabra model.

How long will it last?

Jabra has a history of making great products, and the Elite 85H should be no different. With built-in dust and waterproofing, we expect them to last for years of steady use.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you are looking for a pair of great noise-canceling headphones and want to save $50 over the top of the class, Jabra’s Elite 85H are a great way to get nearly the same functionality, plus better battery life, at a bargain.

Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
New Bose earbuds let you snap photos with your voice, cost way less than AirPods Pro
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds.

Bose has added a new set of noise-canceling wireless earbuds to its lineup, and they're surprisingly affordable at $179. Simply known as the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, the company says they're for folks who want everyday earbuds with great sound and noise cancellation. The new model comes in three colors (black, white, and lilac) and can be ordered starting September 18 at .

Bose's QuietComfort lineup of noise-canceling wireless earbuds have traditionally been pretty expensive, with prices that exceed what Apple, Sony, and Sennheiser charge for similar features. This makes the QuietComfort Earbuds something of a radical departure for the company and a welcome change for Bose fans.

Read more
Apple AirPods Max 2: what we know, what we want, and how much it will cost
Apple AirPods Max with USB-C in Orange.

Apple's first set of wireless headphones -- the AirPods Max -- launched to great fanfare in 2020. At $549, the aluminum-clad cans raised eyebrows due to their price and design. But despite their cost and some odd design decisions (like the lack of an off switch), reviewers were nearly unanimous with their praise, especially for the Max's standout features: active noise cancellation (ANC) and transparency mode. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely.

Originally, we had hoped to see the AirPods Max 2 debut in the fall of 2023. When that didn't happen, we shifted our focus to Apple's iPhone 16 launch on September 9, 2024. That event brought big updates for the AirPods range: new AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC, and plans to give the AirPods Pro 2 new hearing health and hearing aid capabilities. However, the AirPods Max portion of the announcement proved to be a disappointment: Other than a new USB-C charging port and some new colors, Apple's flagship headphones remain unchanged. Call them AirPods Max 1.5, if you must.

Read more
I couldn’t be more disappointed by the AirPods Max update
The AirPods Max in orange at the Apple Glowtime event on September 9, 2024.

Remember when the iPhone 15 launched in 2023? Remember all of the buzz around the fact that it was the first iPhone to ditch the lightning port in favor of USB-C? Imagine if that had been the only change from the iPhone 14. Now, imagine if the only thing that USB-C port enabled was compatibility with USB-C charging, and you'll understand why I'm so bummed about Apple's updated version of the AirPods Max.

It's been four years since Apple debuted the Max, its first wireless headphones. In that time, the company has launched not just one, but two new versions of the AirPods Pro, both of which received Apple's latest H2 wireless chip. During the same period, Beats — which is owned by Apple and leverages many of Apple's technologies — launched the Fit Pro, the Studio Buds, Studio Buds+, Solo Buds, Solo 4 headphones, and Studio Pro headphones.

Read more