The Jabra Elite 8 Energetic Gen 2 arrives as an up to date model of the Jabra Elite 8 Energetic, which had been launched in September 2023. They had been sporty really wi-fi earbuds and we had been huge followers, stating they had been “all the pieces you’d need from a pair of health earbuds”.
For Gen 2, Jabra continues to be promising buds and a charging case that may face up to the rigours of a tricky exercise and keep put within the course of. Now it’s elevated the Elite 8 Energetic’s spatial sound powers, and guarantees enhancements with how they’ll block out the world with ANC and HearThrough modes.
Exterior of these upgrades, it’s largely the identical expertise as utilizing the Elite 8 Energetic Gen 1. They provide an incredible, dependable match with out ear hooks and brilliant, customizable sound with good however not class-leading battery life.
These are set to be Jabra’s final set of Elite true wi-fi earbuds, because it’s determined to shutter its shopper headphone enterprise. It’s a real disgrace as a result of the Elite 8 Energetic Gen 2, whereas not a crucial improve for Gen 1 homeowners, is among the finest true wi-fi sports activities earbuds you should purchase that additionally work nice exterior of exercises and are nicely definitely worth the cash in our opinion.
The Jabra Elite 8 Energetic Gen 2 launched in June 2024 and went on sale for $229.99 / £229.99 / AU$329. That does imply they arrive in pricier than the Elite 8 Energetic Gen 1, that are at present obtainable for $199.99 / £199.99 / AU$329.
These are positively true wi-fi sports activities earbuds that sit on the prime finish by way of pricing. They’re barely dearer than the Beats Match Professional, however do stay cheaper than the Beats Powerbeats Professional and the Sennheiser Momentum Sport, which in contrast to the Elite 8 Energetic, makes use of ear hooks to maintain them safe throughout your sweatier periods with them.
| Element | Jabra Elite 8 Energetic Gen 2 |
| Battery life | 8 hours (ANC on), 14 hours (ANC off), From 32-56 hours (with charging case) |
| Frequencies | 20Hz – 20000Hz |
| Audio Codecs | AAC, SBC |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 |
| Water resistance | IP68 (earbuds), IP54 (charging case) |
| Weight | 5g (per earbud), 47.5g (charging case) |
Primarily, the design and the way in which the Elite 8 Energetic Gen 2 sits and operates in your ears hasn’t modified from Gen 1. You’ll be able to choose it up in black, coral, navy blue and olive (pictured) colours, with its liquid silicone rubber coating which has a pleasingly delicate contact to it.
Like Gen 1, it’s utilizing Jabra’s ShakeGrip match to maintain them within your ears with out the necessity for wingtips or ear hooks. Once more very similar to its predecessor, the match is nice: they actually do actually keep put with out aids. There’s not many earbuds that obtain this sort of safe match when your train time will get extra intense with out adopting some kind of earhook design, however these actually do the job of remaining safe. They’re comfy too, I’ve used them for over an hour-long exercises and so they’ve not induced any kind of irritation.
Whereas there’s nothing right here so as to add further safety to its match, Jabra does nonetheless embrace giant, medium and small silicone eartips to enhance sound isolation and assist you be sure you get pleasure from one of the best ANC efficiency, with the perfect match within your ears.
Jabra builds bodily controls as soon as once more into the outside of the buds, which will be customised in Jabra’s Sound+ companion smartphone app. These controls mean you can deal with calls, modify quantity, skip again and ahead by means of tracks and are among the finest controls I’ve used on fitness-focused earbuds, particularly once you’re on the transfer. The controls are extra dependable to press than to swipe or faucet on contact controls, which appears to be the route loads of different earbuds go for. Jabra’s strategy works nice right here, and I discovered the quantity management assist significantly nicely built-in into the buds.
When it comes to its defence towards moisture, it’s the identical as Gen 1 with Jabra sticking to an IP68 water-proof score. This offers it one of many strongest ranges of safety towards moisture you’ll discover on a set of earbuds: we dropped the primary gen right into a glass of water, no bother. The case additionally carries an IP54 score, which is not as robust a defence towards water, however does imply as a package deal the Elite 8 Energetic Gen 2 gives good safety towards sweat, rain and a splash of water or two.
The charging case has barely jumped in weight, prone to account for its added smarter powers, with a bodily button in entrance to pair along with your gadgets and a single LED gentle above to point pairing and charging standing. On the base is a USB-C port to cost the buds or you need to use the accompanying USB-C/3.5mm cable to allow the brand new spatial sound mode when linked with different gadgets like a monitor or TV..
The headline information right here lies with the case, which Jabra is looking the world’s first LE Audio good case. That case permits you to get pleasure from spatial sound from gadgets resembling TVs and screens constructed into fitness center tools, through the use of a bodily USB-C to three.5mm cable jack to plug the case into that machine, and stream audio from the case. Then once you stick the buds in your ears and have spatial sound enabled within the app, you’ll be able to get pleasure from that surround-sound listening expertise. It’s a revolution to now not want cabled headphones for fitness center tools.
On the listening entrance, Jabra says it’s improved the effectiveness of the ANC and HearThrough modes on Gen 2 to be twice as efficient at cancelling out sound. There’s Bluetooth 5.3 to supply dependable connectivity, assist for multipoint sharing and a welcome Bluetooth vary of as much as 10 meters.
Within the companion smartphone app, you’ve acquired scope to tinker with that sound and allow a Spotify Faucet mode for fast entry to the music streaming service. There’s quick pairing for Android gadgets and you’ll summon your smartphone’s assistant, whether or not that’s Siri or Google Assistant, straight from the buds.
When it comes to audio codecs supported, it’s the identical AAC and SBC ones provided on Gen 1, which is perhaps a supply of unhealthy information for critical audiophiles, although I’d count on that’s not going to be a difficulty for these grabbing these predominantly for exercises.
The remit of the Gen 2 Elite 8 Energetic is similar as Gen 1, to supply a sound that’s an incredible match for exercises. There’s the choice of lively noise cancellation, however like its predecessor it’s not Jabra’s finest obtainable superior ANC assist. There’s additionally a HearThrough mode, which will be tweaked within the app to manage the steadiness of your sound and exterior sounds, to provide you roughly consciousness of your environment. You can too select to have neither of those modes in play as nicely.
Once you head into the companion Sound+ app, you’ll be met with an equaliser, six EQ presets and the scope to construct customized ones. There’s additionally a Dolby Spatial Sound mode, which is designed for once you’re exercising in entrance of a display screen. So, possibly watching the TV on a display screen constructed right into a treadmill versus listening to music. This Spatial Sound mode can also be now prolonged to the case. It seems like fairly a distinct segment function so as to add in right here and truly extra of a helpful function once you’re not within the fitness center with them. They’re a nifty answer for once you’re flying and don’t need to use these free wired headphones.
These are buds tha sonically sound stable once you’re understanding and once you’re simply working at your desk. To me, the sound profile doesn’t sound all that totally different from the primary era Elite 8 Energetic. It’s a sound high quality I’d describe as brilliant, highly effective with loads of bass heat. They don’t provide the finest they’ve to supply in sound straight out of the field, however when you’ve tinkered with issues within the app, you will get one thing that helps that treble sparkle and obtain general a extra balanced sound whether or not you go for bass-heavy songs or choose issues much more relaxed.
It’s an analogous story for name high quality, the place there’s six microphones in place to ship calls to your ears. The decision high quality general right here is superb for a very wi-fi earbud. Calls supply good quantity and the readability general makes them perfect to interrupt your exercise for an essential name.
Jabra claims that the ANC assist on the Gen 2 can cancel out twice as a lot noise as Gen 1, however does persist with the identical adaptive hybrid ANC assist, in order that ANC adjusts based mostly in your setting. It’s significantly designed to assist battle extra blustery, windy situations such because the kind of intrusion you get working or biking.
I’d say that the ANC efficiency has been good general. I’m not wholly satisfied it’s twice pretty much as good as Gen 1, however I’d put its efficiency beneath the top-performing ANC-packing really wi-fi earbuds. Inside and out of doors, they muffle the sounds round you in an efficient manner versus solely drowning them out. I discovered that working close to busy roads did an efficient job of drowning the sounds in my setting. Whereas they don’t solely block out wind, they do a superb job of muting it. It was an analogous story utilizing them in a fitness center and dampening the sound of the fitness center speaker system.
It’s an analogous story with Jabra’s HearThrough mode: I can’t say I seen a discernible distinction between Gen 1 and Gen 2, nevertheless it stays probably the greatest examples of a mode that wishes to attain a greater steadiness between inside and exterior sounds.
When it comes to connectivity, I’ve had some good and a bit unhealthy right here, which wasn’t actually the case with Gen 1. Generally, connecting to a variety of gadgets together with an iPhone, Android telephone, Android pill, MacBook Air, a linked rower and an Apple Watch Extremely and Garmin Forerunner 965 has been fantastic. With the iPhone, I’ve skilled the buds disconnecting and reconnecting throughout some listening time. It may have one thing to do with working a beta model of iOS on my iPhone, however this isn’t one thing I’ve skilled on the earlier model. Fortunately, it’s solely occurred a few occasions, nevertheless it’s not perfect.
For battery life, it is extra of the identical right here with Gen 2. Jabra guarantees the identical battery numbers with and with out ANC in use. It’s as much as 8 hours of music streaming with ANC in use or 14 hours with ANC turned off. Once you consider a totally charged case, you’re getting anyplace from 32-56 hours relying on that ANC use.
My expertise suggests sure EQ modes in use additionally supply faster drain on battery, as does listening quantity. For over an hour of use with the ANC enabled and the bass enhance EQ mode, the battery dropped by round 30%. For the same exercise with out ANC, it was half that. So I would not say these promised numbers solely correspond with my expertise of utilizing them.
Fortuitously, Jabra does nonetheless embrace its helpful quick cost mode, which supplies you an hour of listening time from a 5-minute cost. You’ve got additionally acquired the comfort of wi-fi charging in the event you occur to have QI-certified setup.
| Class | Remark | Rating |
| Worth | Prime tier health buds that include a prime tier worth | 4/5 |
| Design | Safe, comfy to put on and nice controls | 5/5 |
| Options | ANC, a brand new good case and many audio customisation. Stable | 4.5/5 |
| Efficiency | Fulfilling sound, good ANC and HearThrough modes | 4.5/5 |
I used the Jabra Elite 8 Energetic Gen 2 for 2 weeks, utilizing them for a variety of exercises together with indoor and out of doors runs, fitness center exercises like indoor rowing, biking and energy coaching. I additionally used them for travelling on trains and buses and utilizing them for work.
When it comes to pairing to gadgets, I paired with an iPhone, Android telephone, Android pill, MacBook Professional streaming from companies and apps together with Spotify and YouTube. I additionally examined with the Garmin Forerunner 965 and Apple Watch Extremely to check the connectivity assist for smartwatches and sports activities watches. I additionally paired them with a linked rower and treadmill.
I’ve over a decade of expertise testing and writing about shopper know-how and that features a huge concentrate on sports activities headphones. I’ve examined sports activities headphones and really wi-fi earbuds throughout a variety of costs from price range to premium, so have a good suggestion of the nice and unhealthy on this class and what makes an incredible pair of headphones for train.
Premium and Sturdy HK10 PRO GPS 4G Smartwatch with Well being Monitoring and Customized Ringtones 
Digital Electrical Wrist Blood Stress Monitor with LED Voice Broadcasting - Medical Sphygmomanometer Cuff System 
