Why I dislike the AirPods Pro and I choose the Jabra Elite (Active) 75
All the post is one line: volume control in the earphones.
As simply as this, I’m using my earphones for walking, cycling (pic), running, make activities in general, and I hate to don’t have the opportunity to change the volume “on the fly” with a tap on the earphones. For this reason I always left the AirPods /Pro in the box. How I can change the volume if my phone is in my pocket, or in my back pocket when I’m cycling? I can’t. I have to ask Siri to do it, very slow and very uncomfortable way to do a simply task. Modern earphones should make your life better and easier, not difficult and with tricky steps.
So when the first AirPods went out I bought the Jabra Elite Active 65t, when the AirPods Pro went out I bought the Jabra Elite 75t with wireless case. But I was not happy with the color because they’re only black on black, and I was in love with my 65t black/titanium, the only available option was the Active 75t without wireless charging case. But I was skeptical of the cable, tech should make life easier, wireless charging add it: I bought the 75t not-Active with wireless charging case.
Wonderful, beautiful earphones! Smaller than the 65t, a lot smaller than AirPods, magnetic case, compact USB-C case and wireless charge. But… as we know the wireless charge can make things warmer, and the case of this earphones became very hot! So in order to avoid damages and burn-out of the battery in quick time, I started to use the USB-C cable and I found the charge was super quick! Wow! Just few dozens of minutes to charge it from 40/50% to 100%, and zero heat (PS: using the iPad Pro 12,9" charger, so I suspect the 75t are abilitated for fast charging).
But I was missing the beautiful color of titanium/black from the Active 75t :-( I waited months in order to have the Active 75t with wireless charging case but nothing…
In the end, since I was not using very often the wireless charging case, I ended to buy the Active 75t and I tried to use to wireless charge fom the normal 75t: surprise, it works fine! So I have no idea why Jabra is not selling the Active 75t with wireless charging case.
Want to rise volume? Long press right earbud, want to lower volume? Long press left earbud. Pretty simply and work very good, better than the 65t with both the rise/lower volume buttons on the same (left) earbud.
Price: 150€/$ now for both the 75t Active or not (obviously buy the Active at the same price, nicer and water sealed).
The AirPods pro are nice and have some cool features like Spatial Audio or auto-connect to devices you’re using (if you like it), but they’re not an Apple product as I intended to be, they don’t make your life easier, why I would have some earphones without volume control? It’s pointless to me…
About the comparison, meh, both are tiny earphones so don’t expect a great sound, they’re both very good for listen podcasts or some music at a low volume. They both work well for this. The ANC on the AirPods Pro is a little better but the Trasparency mode on the Jabra 75t is better and you can choose how much you want to ear the surround environment. The 75t also have some nice features like audio customization based on your ears sensibility (it runs a test with demo sounds), customization for calling experience, the configurable buttons/pressing, the HearThrought intensity and playback, ect… here are some screenshots from the Jabra app.
In the end it’s your choice, I prefer the Jabra mostly for the volume buttons but also for these simply nice-to-have features! If you want the white look and you use a lot the ANC and handoff between devices: go for the AirPods Pro. If you want the features and you control the volume via the earbuds, go for the Jabra. Try both and make your choice.
PS: if you want the wireless charging case on the Jabra Active 75t you have to buy it without wireless charging case and buy also the normal 75t, then you can swap the earbuds between the two cases. Not simply, expensive, but possible.
