Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2  Headphones Review

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless are similar to the Jabra Elite 8 Active True Wireless in appearance. These headphones retain the same rounded, ergonomically shaped design with a rubberized, slip-proof coating. They come in a few color variants, including 'Navy,' 'Black,' 'Coral,' and 'Olive.'

Due to their similar design to their predecessor, these buds also have a similarly comfortable fit. While their body is on the larger side, it's still small enough to fit in smaller ears, and once you find the right pair of ear tips, they fit securely in your ear canal. Those who dislike deep in-ear fits will like how these avoid putting pressure on your ear canal, avoiding the plunger-like effect that can occur with such fits.

These buds have great, intuitive controls that are easy to memorize and can even be customized. You can see a quick rundown of the controls here. The outer surface of each bud is a touch-sensitive button that you can use to input commands with clicky, tactile feedback. There's audio feedback provided for different things, like switching between ANC modes, entering Bluetooth pairing mode, or hitting max volume. There's also a white light on the case that lights up, accompanied by audio feedback, when you use the case as a transmitter.

As with many other true wireless earbuds, the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless are extremely portable. They can easily be slipped into a bag or pocket, though you'll need to use the case as a transmitter if you use a wired connection type.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless come with a sturdily constructed case that's the same size as the one that comes with the Jabra Elite 8 Active True Wireless or the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 True Wireless. There are magnets to hold the buds in place within the case, as well as a solid lid and hinges. The case itself carries an IP54 rating for protection against dust particles and water splashes. You can also use the case to playback audio from wired sources. All you need to do is connect the case to a USB-C or AUX audio source while the buds are out of the case. Press the case button once, and the light will switch from green to white to indicate a successful connection.

These buds have a great build quality. They're rated IP68 for extensive protection against dust and water damage, and their case is rated IP54 for protection against dust and water splashes. The buds are mostly constructed from a soft liquid silicone called 'ShakeGrip,' which is also used inside the case. The case exterior is made of a tougher plastic. The ear tips are made of soft, pliable silicone and come in sets of three. While they're fairly resilient to damage, excessive force is required to remove them from the buds, which can result in tearing over time if you switch tips frequently.

Despite lacking the stabilizers of fins, these buds offer a very stable fit once you find the right pair of ear tips. Assisted by their 'ShakeGrip' rubberized coating and ergonomic fit, they can stay in place regardless of how much sweat you work up during your workouts.

• Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 headphones
• 3x ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable + 3.5mm adaptor (80cm/31.5")
• Quick Start Guide
• Warranty/safety information

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless have a balanced sound profile that doesn't disproportionately emphasize any particular frequency bands. The bass range is flat, so kicks and basslines come through with a tangible yet not overwhelming amount of boom and slam. The mid-range is virtually flat, resulting in vocals and lead instruments that sound clear and detailed. The same can be said of the treble range, except for a peaky mid-treble range that injects sibilants with some harshness. Fortunately, there are a few EQ presets to choose from if you feel like mixing up the sound. We also observed that switching between ANC modes induced almost no changes in the sound profile, though using the mic to take a phone call would bring about a more noticeable drop-off in audio quality.

These buds have excellent frequency response consistency. You'll be rewarded with consistent audio delivery between listening sessions once you achieve a good fit with the right pair of ear tips.

The bass compliance is remarkable. The response is slightly emphasized compared to our target curve across the entire range. In practice, this means low-end elements, like kicks and basslines, sound clean and full without being overbearing. It's well-suited to the detuned bass and guitars in songs like Deftones' Change (In the House of Flies) and can even do justice to an 808-filled Metro Boomin production.

The mid-range compliance is outstanding. The response is very aligned with our target across the entire range, resulting in crystalline vocal reproduction. There's a very slight bit of emphasis in the top part of this range that helps vocals shine a little more.

The treble range is outstanding in its compliance with our target. It matches our target curve across the lower half of the range, so the upper harmonics of vocals sound smooth and natural. While there are some more deviations from the mid-treble onwards, most of these occur in the high-treble, a range we lose sensitivity to over time.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless have good peaks and dips performance, meaning they generally control their own sound profile well. There's a slight emphasis across the whole bass range that affects the right driver more, adding boom to kicks and basslines. A small dip in the high-bass thins out some of the warmth in bass guitar, though. Some smaller peaks across the low-treble range add detail to the upper harmonics of vocals, and then a much larger peak in the mid-treble causes sibilants, like S and T sounds, to veer towards sounding bright.

The imaging performance is amazing, as we've come to expect from Jabra, given their reputation for ergonomics and quality control and the imaging performance of the other products we've tested. Group delay falls below the audibility threshold across the entire range, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers are also well-matched in terms of phase, amplitude, and frequency. While there are some small mismatches in the phase in the low-bass and mid-mid, they're not audible in real-life content, and the stereo image is even, with audio objects placed well within it. However, imaging varies between units, and these results are valid only for our unit.

Like most in-ear buds, the passive soundstage is terrible. Their design doesn't allow for much interaction with your outer ear, which is what creates the impression of space. As a result, audio sounds like it's coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed around you.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless come equipped with Dolby Spatial Audio, which can help create a more immersive, open sound. You can enable this via the companion app. Unlike the Jabra Elite 10 True Wireless, they don't feature any head-tracking capabilities.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. All frequencies fall within good limits, making the resulting audio clear and pure.

These are the settings used to test the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless. We used the small silicone tips for all sound testing and the medium tips for isolation testing. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless have a remarkable full-range noise isolation performance. Their ANC can effectively attenuate against external noise across the entire frequency range, blocking out both low rumbles and high-pitched squeals alike. These buds performed even better than the top-of-the-line Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 Wireless, which could be attributed to their improved passive isolation seal on our B&K 5128 testing head. You can see the difference between the two tips here.

While multiple users have reported issues with the Jabra's ANC performance in the comments, we were unable to replicate the bulk of the issues after a thorough investigation. We tested the earbuds before and after updating to firmware 1.2.2 (1033) in regular use and multiple spot checks. Spot checks with transient noises like spoons smashing together and sustained noise from a faucet (alternating on and off) did not result in any behavior outside the norm for ANC technology. That said, we were able to replicate loud feedback once by cupping one of the buds in one hand and closing it. If you experience similar or other unexpected behavior with the earbuds, please let us know in the comments.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless do a superb job of blocking out noise from common scenarios. They're very effective at cutting out the low rumble of plane engines, as well as the scraping of chairs and clicking pens in an office environment. However, they really excel when it comes to blocking out blaring car horns and curb-side chatter. If you're interested in headphones that have a similar real-world noise isolation performance but are user-repairable, consider the Fairphone Fairbuds True Wireless.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless have a wind noise reduction feature you can enable via the app. This can help reduce some of the irritating noise created when the ANC tries to cut out wind noise frequencies. However, using this feature can alter the efficacy of the ANC across the entire frequency range as you can see here.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless leak very little audio. Regardless of the volume, you won't bother anyone positioned near you.

The mic's recording quality is okay. It's very similar to the previous generation, as your voice sounds relatively full-bodied, but the roll-off in the treble range still means it doesn't sound totally natural. If you make a lot of calls with your headphones, check out our recommendation article on the best earbuds for phone calls.

The mic has an impressive noise-handling performance. It takes a few seconds for the mic's noise gate to kick in in moderately noisy environments, like a crowded street. However, during this initial adjustment period, the mic effectively separates your voice from the background, maintaining clarity. It performs similarly well in noisier environments like a subway station, where your voice remains audible in the face of all but the loudest noises.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 True Wireless have a good battery life performance. They offer a comparable battery life performance to the last generation, with just shy of eight hours off a single charge. The case holds an extra three charges. There's even a fast charge feature advertised that grants you up to one hour of charge off five minutes of charging. The auto-off timer and standby mode can also help you stretch the battery life to its limits.

The Jabra Sound+ app is great. It lets you adjust the sound using the five-band graphic EQ and presets and toggle through ANC and 'Hear-Through' modes, the latter of which uses the mics to feed some external noise into your audio. You can also access the Dolby Spatial Sound settings, remap the controls, or even playback soothing ambient audio soundscapes to lull you to sleep. You can look at how the app works here. On the other hand, if you want even more hands-on control, the nine-band EQ and adjustable ANC strength of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro Truly Wireless are appealing as an alternative for Android owners.

The earbuds come with a 'smart case' that doubles as a wireless transmitter, in case you want to plug wired devices directly into it. You can plug USB-C devices directly into the case or use the included 1/8" (3.5mm) TRS to USB-C adapter. Once you've connected your device, you can press the button on the case and wait till the light turns white to confirm you've paired the buds. This system is great for those who want to use their buds with devices like older AV equipment or in-flight entertainment interfaces. There's a fair bit of latency with both USB-C and analog input types, though, which makes them impractical for gaming.

That said, we had some connection issues when using the provided USB-C to 1/8" (3.5mm) adapter, which meant we often had to connect, re-connect, and generally play with the connection to get audio to play from both buds. We suspect this is an issue with the adapter rather than the case itself, as we also encountered the same problem with the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 True Wireless.

They have great Bluetooth connectivity, aided by the extremely functional 'smart case' that serves as the focal point for connections. You can use the case as a Bluetooth transmitter by plugging in devices, like older TVs or PCs, directly into the case via the included USB-C cable or USB-C to analog adapter. The case then transmits audio to the buds using Bluetooth LE Audio. We found during testing that we could get more consistent audio using a USB-C connection, though, as the USB-C to analog adapter could be finicky. You can connect up to two devices simultaneously to the buds directly using Bluetooth, using either AAC or SBC codecs. However, latency via the SBC codec is high enough that you'll notice sync issues between your audio and video if you're watching a movie. That said, different apps and devices compensate for latency differently, so your experience may vary.

These buds have audio and mic compatibility with PCs via a standard Bluetooth connection. That said, if you need to use a wired connection type, you can always plug your PC into the 'smart case' with a USB-C or analog cable, though we'd recommend USB-C for a more stable connection. This connection method only gives you audio support, so you'll need a standalone mic if you want to communicate with others.

You can connect your PlayStation console with the 'smart case' via a USB-C or analog cable, though we recommend USB-C for a more stable connection. This connection method only gives you audio support, so you'll need a standalone mic to communicate with your teammates. If you plug directly into your controller, you'll have to contend with the adapter hanging off the edge of your controller.

You can connect your Xbox console with the 'smart case' via a USB-C or analog cable, though we recommend USB-C for a more stable connection. This connection type only lets you receive audio, so you'll need a standalone mic to communicate with your teammates. If you plug directly into your controller, you'll have to contend with the adapter hanging precariously off the edge of your controller.

The 'smart case' is multi-function. It charges your earbuds and functions as a transmitter for wired devices. You can connect the case via the USB-C port to USB-C or 3.5mm audio ports and listen wirelessly to the earbuds. It only receives audio from your device and sends it to the earbuds, though, so the mic won't work with wired devices. The case can also charge wirelessly.