To me, Jabra is a company best-known for great-sounding earbuds. I’ve been running with its Sport Coach and Sport Pulse earbuds for almost two years, and in that time the company has released some of the best AirPod alternatives – the Elite 65t and the Elite Active 65t – which are both great true wireless options. Now, at CES 2019, the company has announced something a little bit different: a pair of wireless, over-ear noise-canceling headphones.
The new Jabra Elite 85h have a couple things going for them. They have a really long battery life, which the company says can last up to 32 hours with active noise-cancellation turned on. The Elite 85h also work with all the major smartphone assistants, including Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant — you just press a button on the side of the headphones to initiate the smart assistant. However, if you have Alexa natively on your phone, you can just say “Alexa” and the headphones will start listening to you (no button needed), which is neat and rare among headphones these days. And, like the Jabra Elite 65t, these new over-ear headphones are built with a four-mic array, meaning they’re optimized for music-loving business professionals who anticipate taking calls.
Finally, there’s noise-cancellation. The Elite 85h are compatible with a companion app that will allow users to customize the strength of the noise-canceling, as well as tweak the EQ. But Jabra also decked out the Elite 85h with what it’s calling SmartSound, an adaptive audio technology that ensures you’re getting the best listening or calling experience. According to the company, the technology “automatically analyzes your sound environment and applies your personalized sound settings to give you the best calls and music experience, every time.” There will be three different SmartSound modes — ‘Commute,’ ‘In Public’ or ‘In Private’ — for which the headphones will be able to optimize sound/calls audio.
You’ll be able to purchase the Jabra Elite 85h in April 2019 for $299 in four different colors: black, titanium black, beige and navy.
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