When was the last time you purchased earbuds for work or pleasure and found them to be:
- Affordable and good quality
- Great sounding for audio playback
- Great sounding for picking up your voice
- Reduced a good amount of background noise
- Were small, lightweight and comfortable
- Came with a chunky 2-year warranty
Well, if you said that you’ve never been able to find a pair of earbuds that met that criteria, it looks like your search has come to an end.
Jabra recently introduced a new earbud product called the Elite 3, which is the baby Brother to the Jabra Elite 7 Pro earbuds.
In this blog, I’m going to go over the features and details of this new Jabra Elite 3 earbud headset. I’ll also throw some annoying sounds at it to see how well it does to reduce it. Specifically, I’ll subject it to:
- Office noise
- Dogs barking
- A fan blowing
- Finally, the dreaded blender test
If you’d like to hear for yourself how the Jabra Elite 3 earbuds sound, and how they handle those annoying noises, make sure to watch the Youtube video I recorded on this very subject. Here’s the video in case you’d like to check it out for yourself.
If you watch this video, and you like the information contained in it, make sure to hit the like button. Also, if this is the kind of content you find value in, make sure to subscribe to our channel because it really helps us out, and allows us to continue producing these videos.
If you’re still reading this blog, then join me as I dig into the Jabra Elite 3 to find out what it’s all about.
Are the Elite 3 lightweight?
For openers, you could be wondering if it’s any different in size compared to other Jabra earbuds, such as the 65t for example. The answer to that question is the Elite 3 is smaller, and lighter, and as a result, more comfortable.
The Jabra Elite 3 weighs a mere 0.16 ounce. I’m not exactly sure how heavy that is, but my sense of better judgement tells me that 0.16 ounce is very light. A standard number 2 pencil weighs 1 ounce. This means that the Jabra Elite 3 weighs about 1/5th of that. Pondering that, I sense that’s pretty light, and lighter than the Elite 7 Pro, or the Apple AirPods Pro as well.
How’s the battery?
The battery provides you with up to 7 hours of battery life, and up to 28 hours when using the charge case. For earbuds this small, and compact, that’s pretty impressive.
Ear Gels
The Jabra Elite 3 comes with three sizes of ear gels; small, medium and large. Most of us would expect to see these different sizes included because it’s pretty safe to say that the sizes of ears vary which makes including different sizes of ear gels a must.
Water Resistant
These earbuds aren’t rated to be waterproof, but instead, water resistant. This is different from the Elite 7 Pro’s which are waterproof. In fact, we put that to the test on the Elite 7 Pro’s by submerging them underwater for a full 10 seconds. We then dried them off, and began using them without any issues at all. If you’d like to see that video, here’s where you can find it.
Sound & removing unwanted noise
No earbud headset would be worth much if it didn’t sound decent. Sound meaning how you sound to others, and how audio (voices, music, videos, podcasts etc) sound to you. Sound needs to also include how the earbuds handle unwanted sounds like people talking, dogs barking etc.
In this sense, I really like how the Elite 3 sounds. More specifically, I like how the voice quality sounds to others when on a call. The sound is plenty loud, clear and has a great tonal quality.
I also really like how music sounds in these tiny little earbuds. You get a surprisingly good high quality range from the lows all the way up to the highs, and everything in between. Pretty impressive really coming from such a small device.
What I didn’t like quite as much about the Jabra Elite 3 earbuds was how it struggled with eliminating unwanted sounds. When I threw office noise at it, it seemed to eliminate a lot of that sound.
However, when I threw the barking dogs' sounds it’s way, the sound of the dogs was highly detectable which means it didn’t remove much of that sound. The blender sound was also detectable, but better than the dog sound, and the fan blowing on 3 speeds, saw the Elite 3 handle it pretty well.
Though it was ok in some areas, and not so good in others, I think Jabra could engineer some improvements into the noise cancellation feature of this product.
Use one or both, your choice
One of the features I really like on the Elite 3 is it allows you to use either or both earbuds. Past models had a microphone in only one earbud which meant that you had to have that earbud in, in order to have a conversation. The Elite 3 allows you to use the right earbud, left earbud, or both. This is because there’s a microphone in each earbud.
This feature gives you the ability to keep one ear open if you like to hear what’s going on around you. Or, you can return one earbud to the charge case, while using the other. However you might decide to use this flexible headset, suffice it to say that the Elite 3 gives you use options that you don’t find in all the other comparable products out there.
Connectivity
In terms of connectivity, you can use the Jabra Elite 3 earbuds with PC’s and mobile devices. Essentially, it’s compatible with any device that’s Bluetooth enabled. So, you can use it with your work or home computer if it has Bluetooth, and you can use it with your mobile phone or tablet for example. These uses might be for pure entertainment, or maybe you do a lot of video calls or Softphone calls via your computer. Either way, the Elite 3 earbuds will be there to keep you engaged.
Wireless range
The wireless range is pretty average really. It’s rated at up to 33 feet which by today’s standards is on the lower end. We’re seeing a lot of Bluetooth headsets that offer greater wireless range. Still, for how these earbuds will likely be used, the 33 feet of
wireless range should be adequate. In most cases, the earbuds will be in close proximity to the device it’s connected to which makes extended wireless range unnecessary.
Jabra Sound+
You also have access to the Jabra Sound+ App that provides you the ability to make a number of adjustments to your Elite 3. For example, you can access this software to:
- Make music preset adjustments
- Make firmware updates
- Check your battery meter
- Access the audio equalizer to make sound adjustments
These are only a few of the things you can do when using the Elite 3 in combination with the Sound+ App. Needless to say, this App is your gateway into customizing your earbuds.
Bottom Line
Bottom line is I really like these little earbuds. They’re smaller than the former 65t model. They have more battery life than many similar earbud headsets. They’re comfortable, and lightweight, and they sound good.
When listening to music for example, you’ll be treated to a rich audio experience not actually expected in a sub $100 pair of earbuds. Yes, these buds could do better to rid the unwanted background noise, but all things considered, they do a good job overall.
Also, you’re not going to need to take out a second mortgage on your home to buy a pair of these either. The suggested selling price is $79.99, and it comes with an impressive 2-year warranty.
All things considered, the Jabra Elite 3 earbuds are well worth your time to check out, and in my view, well worth the money.
Speaking of money, if you’d like to save some when buying the Jabra Elite 3, make sure to use coupon code BLOG when checking out on our website. You’ll be treated to a nice discount which can help to make these earbuds even more affordable.