Jabra Elite 45h Headphones

“Great sound, long battery life and on-the-go comfort. Jabra’s Elite 45h headphones make for a superb personal audio companion. Lasting for up to fifty hours from one charge, they’re designed to stay comfortable for the long listen, and offer quality audio for your music and your phone calls, with handy one-touch access to your smart phone’s voice assistant too.”

Link to Jabra Elite 45h Headphones (Jabra)
This is a sponsored review

Sections in this review:

Initial thoughts during unboxing
Setting up
During use
Conclusion
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Initial thoughts during unboxing

Everything is presented well, the packaging is basic yet appealing and there’s minimal throwaway packaging which shows thought about the environment; The instructions are conveniently presented on the inside of the box and there’s a small ‘warning and declarations’ booklet which contains some basic but very useful information (the English version only takes up the first four pages); The headphones bag is a very strong/durable material – it is not flimsy – however a hard case would be better to prolong the life of the headphones and to protect them from any knocks. A longer USB C charger cable also would have been useful but the supplied one is sufficient for general use.

I like the placement of the button markings on the headphones (they’re hidden behind the ear pieces in case you need to refer to which button does what). The headband feels comfortable/rubbery when pressed but if you press hard enough you can feel the hard plastic internal bits. The arms are firm yet easily adjustable (not a ratchet style which can loosen over time) and the arms are built into the headband. Those with bigger heads may find the range of movement limited but I found they fit my head well and the easiest way to adjust them is firstly by extending the arms right out, placing it on your head then putting the palms of your hands on the earpieces while using your tips of your fingers to push the headband down. The earpieces are made of a soft material, possibly PU leather.

Setting up

Make sure to charge the headset via USB as soon as you open the box (and read the information in the booklet), then download/install the Sound+ app onto your phone. Pairing the headphones with your mobile phone (Android in my case) is easy using the instructions on the box/within the app. Once the headphones are paired, I discovered you can configure useful functions within the Sound+ app (sleep time to conserve battery, headset feedback/guidance, the option to enable sounds when pressing buttons, and preferences in terms of the call quality and whether you want to hear your voice – and how much – during calls. The Sound+ app is also the place to configure the equaliser settings. I registered the headphones then received a couple of emails including one confirming registration, confirming I have a 2 year warranty, offering me 10% discount on their products as well as reminders such as keeping the app up to date.

During use

There’s a handy audible notification when turning the headphones on, advising the battery level and status of connectivity. The buttons on the back of the right ear piece are easy to use while wearing the headphones. The sound quality of music is excellent and despite the small size of the earpiece drivers, there’s a good range of low/medium/high frequencies when listening to music – I was actually impressed with the bass, though I did have to tweak the equaliser settings within the app as well as the sound settings on my phone to perfect the sounds.

Calls via these headphones work well – the sound quality is clear and crisp, I could hear my own voice clearly during calls (which I found a bit annoying and later turned down in the app settings). There’s a handy LED indicator on the headphones as well as a battery indicator on the mobile phone letting you know how much charge is left in the headphones. Comfort-wise more cushioning on the earpieces would have been appreciated, however after prolonged use my ears did not get sore (compared to others I’ve used in the past) and although you can feel internal bits when pressing the rubbery bit on the headband, when you press the headphones down while wearing them there’s no discomfort.

I like the fact you can configure the sleep timer of these headphones to save battery – equally impressive was how easy it was to quickly reconnect the headphones in order to continue using them. These headphones apparently have voice-assistance functionality though I haven’t had a chance to look into this. I wouldn’t recommend these headphones for sport but then again they’re not made for that – I would recommend investing in headphones suited/dedicated to this purpose like the Elite Active 65t.

Conclusion

Each type of headphones (in/on/over-ear) have their pros/cons but these on-ear headphones are a good for what they are. They’re a good size, they’re comfortable, multifunctional, well-made, as well as sound and look great. Both the battery charging time and period you can go without charging is impressive. Furthermore, if like me you have always used corded headphones, if you have a Bluetooth-enabled device – phone or computer, give these a go as you will immediately appreciate the benefit of not being physically tethered to your device.

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