Jabra Elite 7 Pro review: good true wireless headphones

Like their colleagues released at the same time, the Elite 7 Pro sport a “teardrop” shaped design and are advertised as 16% smaller than the old Elite 75t. If their look contrasts with the models of the previous generation, the materials used remain the same. We therefore find a body entirely composed of plastic of excellent quality, flanked by a glittery surface serving as a button for the controls. Different traces of assembly are visible, but this does not detract from the good impression of robustness that the headphones give us. The Elite 7 Pro are also IP57 certified, indicating resistance to dust, but also to temporary immersion up to 1 m deep for 30 min.

The case retains a volume close to its predecessor, but is much more flattened; its small size therefore allows it to be easily transported in a trouser pocket. However, it is unfortunate that its opening system makes it difficult to use with one hand. Coated in a plastic shell, the interior is made of silicone that is soft to the touch, but which proves to be particularly messy by hanging any dust or dirt nearby.

As usual, Jabra has taken care of the user experience of its headphones, driven in particular by the excellent Sound+ app (available on iOS and Android). Complete and very well designed, there is a plethora of settings to configure and personalize your headphones, including an equalizer, various features for calls and what to adjust the active noise reduction. It is also within this app that it is possible to configure the commands assigned to each button.

By default, it is possible to manage playback, navigate between tracks, juggle between listening modes and trigger the phone’s voice assistant or Alexa. Too bad it’s impossible to control the volume via these buttons, especially since the Elite 3, located lower in the range, are capable of it. The mechanical buttons are also very pleasant to use.

The Elite 7 Pro communicate via Bluetooth 5.2 and are compatible with SBC and AAC codecs. They benefit from the multipoint connection to pair them with two devices simultaneously. They also have a proximity sensor to pause the music when removed from the ears. Finally, they are also capable of switching to mono when used independently.

The Elite 7 Pro offer a sound signature in the Jabra tradition: a rich, very energetic and overall precise rendering, which will require some correction on the part of the user to take advantage of its full potential.

The very energetic sound character of the Elite 7 Pro is due to the highlighting of the extreme bass, but also and above all to the boost of the entire high-mid/treble band. The desired effect is, however, exaggerated and double-edged: even if the rendering retains a good homogeneity and preserves the timbres sufficiently well, while providing liveliness and a beautiful sound presence, the relatively « piercing » aspect which emerges n is not really easy for the hearing. This can be felt on many sources (vocals, guitars, brass, bowed string instruments…), but the phenomenon is more particularly exacerbated on elements very rich in harmonics (electric guitars, saturated voices, cymbals… ), and as the listening volume increases.

Even if it is not possible to perfectly annihilate the phenomenon without creating too great an imbalance, it is still in our interest to immediately attenuate this zone in the application’s integrated equalizer to soften the behavior of the headphones. , gain in naturalness, and thus maximize the listening pleasure, in particular on the sessions of use. This coloring aside, the Elite 7 Pro offer a well-balanced reproduction over the entire first part of the spectrum, with well-defined, punchy and deep bass, as well as a very generous extension and a beautiful definition in the extreme treble. The sharpest ears can sometimes detect a hint of imprecision in the bass: some bass drum hits drool very slightly and the impacts would have deserved to be a bit sharper, but nothing very dramatic.

Finally, the reproduction of the sound stage offered by Jabra headphones is also pleasant, in particular thanks to its extremely generous width and its « airy » appearance. The impression of depth is however much less obvious with these headphones, the different strata being a little too flattened towards the foreground; elements that are supposed to be very subtle stand out much more than they should.

The new design of the Elite 7 Pro allows them to benefit from passive isolation of unprecedented efficiency on headphones from the Danish manufacturer. The attenuation of the low frequencies is quite surprising and makes it possible to properly erase the noise of the engines and other hums emitted by the oars of a train. The contribution of active noise reduction is very brief. It does indeed make it possible to further attenuate engine or ventilation noise – a little more than what the measurement suggests – but it involves a significant increase in the feeling of “pressure” which can become annoying. Despite a notable improvement in the attenuation of the lowest frequencies compared to the Elite 85t, the Elite 7 Pro remain quite far from certain headphones in terms of performance.

Neither passive isolation nor active noise reduction are effective enough to properly drown out surrounding conversations, however, which can be problematic if you just want to isolate yourself in a noisy open space, for example.

The listening mode for surrounding sounds, called HearThrough here, is not the most efficient we tested. If it manages to offer a relatively natural restitution, the attenuation of the treble makes it more difficult to locate certain elements and potential sources of danger around us. It can sometimes also cause some difficulty in following a conversation.