Jabra? 75e review and rating is leaning towards the intended purpose of this Jabra 75e wireless headset which focuses on the business user (Skype certified) instead of musical.

Engineered to be the world?s first professional UC-certified wireless earbuds that are also Skype for Business certified, and feature Active Noise Cancellation, around-the-neck wireless earbud design, and up to 14 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Currently priced at USD 259, Jabra Evolve 73 offers three-microphone technology to create a unique talk-zone, making sure you are heard, while other nearby voices are filtered out. With an around-the-neck, wireless earbud design.

Accessories.

What?s in the box?

• Manual
• Tips XL, M, S
• Earwings
• USB cable
• Bluetooth adapter
• Case

Jabra provided good quality tips, it’s soft and comfortable with an attractive design (a red base with grey color tips). Even though Jabra provided three pairs of tips with different size, I find it that the seal isn’t that good, probably because of the shape of the tips which is oval instead of round.

the earwings certainly helps to keep the earbuds on your ear. it also comes in 3 different sizes.

There’s mold inside the casing, I take it out and never use it again because I find it troublesome to put the earphone inside that.

I find it that the case is too small for the headset because I need to bend the cable a little bit at the end of the neckband to fit it in.

The case comes with a simple organizer, a placeholder for the cable and dongle. the dongle placeholder is very useful! the last thing that you wish is for is a missing dongle.

Design.

The Jabra 75e has a neckband with a modern look. It does blend well with professional attire. When you are not using it and you let the earphone dangle on your neck, there?s a magnet on the earphone that clamps together.

I don’t like the material, it’s made from matte rubber. The issue with the matte rubber is that it will transform to sticky melted plastic in a long run. the good thing so far is that I’ve been using it for 2-3 months and it hasn’t turned to sticky plastic.

the neckband is a little bit heavy packed with up to 14 hours of playback and call time for a single charge (8 hours with ANC on). it will take 2 hours to fully charge the battery.

I’m not sure whether it’s just me but often I found it that the neckband slide to the back because of the weight when walking or moving quite a bit.

the good think about neckband is that you can just leave the headset around your neck when you are not using it, it’s useful in an office environment.

As I mentioned before the headset has a magnet that keeps both earbuds together when you are not using it. when you receive a call, you’ll get a vibration notification. By picking up / separating it, the earbuds will answer the call. When the earbud is connected the music or call will be ended.

There are five buttons in total:

• Volume Up
• Volume down
• Multifunction button (turn on/off headset, play/pause music, answer / reject call)
• ANC / Listen in button
• Mute/voice button

The buttons are easy to reach and could be confusing at times especially the volume up and down button, perhaps that’s just me and just a matter of remembering.

It’s also supports Siri or Google Now by pressing the mute/voice button when not on a call

It’s a good thing that the shape of the buttons is a little bit different. Without looking, you can feel the buttons even though i can’t differentiate with touch the volume up and down button.

There are two LED in total:

• Busylight LED
• ANC/listen-in LED

There is a small LED light near the earphone. This busy light feature will let the people around you aware about your Skype status but this is barely helpful because it’s too small and people still approach me even though the tiny busy light showing red. Could you disable the Busylight? Yes!

There’s a USB charging port on the neckband, connect it and charge approx 2 hours to fully charge the headset. Could you use the headset while charging? Yes!

I didn’t know there’s a headset voice guidance, I guess it was turned off accidentally. the voice guidance is announcements intended to guide the user or give headset status updates such as connection and battery status. I wish that the battery status comes with percentage instead of high medium or low status.

It?s difficult to get a good seal, because of the shape of the earbuds. My ear starts to feel uncomfortable after about half an hour, again perhaps it?s because of the shape of the ear tips. You may have a different experience based on the shape of your ear.

Wireless Connectivity.

Datasheet mentioned about up to 30 meters / 100 feet of wireless range
for true mobility. during testing with the Bluetooth adapter, it could only reach about 15 meters before it starts to drop.

The antenna design is not that great. It’s located at the neckband, when the neckband touch your skin or it’s sweaty it will affect the connection quality.

The headset uses Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) to eliminate outside disturbance,
allowing you to fully focus especially in a noisy office environment.

The ANC does help to reduce the noise around but perform below average especially when compared to SONY WI-1000X. In the office when people around me talking the ANC does help a little bit to reduce the noise.

The listen-in is pretty useful that enables you to hear your surrounding or engage in conversations without the need to remove the headset. Activating the listen-in (pressing the ANC button for 2 seconds) while listening to the music, will remove the music but it will not pause the music.

Sound quality and Impression.

To be fair this, the Jabra 75e is designed for the business users. In a UC (Unified Communication) landscape, clarity is the most important thing because you want to hear what the other people are saying and don?t want to miss a single word.

The Jabra 75e delivers a clear voice during the call but for listening pleasure the Jabra 75e is not the best option.

Bass.

Sub bass and midbass lack of clarity and separation but able to perform with a good punch. Listening to Wide Awake – Kate Perry, sub bass doesn’t play very well, it could sound muddy at times. in terms of the amount the bass is there but sub-bass is lacking.

Mids.

While listening to For the Stars – Anne Sofie, vocals in this range sounded okay, it’s clear but lacks details. listening to Fleet Foxes ? Fool’s Errand, The mids are overwhelmed by the highs at times. It lacks separation and harmony.

Highs.

Listening to Silent Lucidity Queensryche, you can hear that the highs are boosted. the highs are sharp and distortion at high volume. the good thing is that I don’t hear any sibilance. Highs are too engaging and overwhelm the mids. this is not a surprise because it tunes toward a voice clarity.

Overall balance and dynamic is not bad for listening to music, even though I find it lack of harmony. With the way it?s designed, it could deliver a pretty clear presentation especially on the vocal.

It sounded a little bit artificial at times. to be fair, the Jabra 75e was engineered to be the world?s first professional UC-certified wireless earbuds, for office use. for normal office use, the voice comes out clear and good.

Something that should be mentioned is that Jabra 75e is using 3-microphone call technology that creates a noise-blocking zone ? making sure your voice is made crystal-clear.

Jabra 75e Review – The Evolve Summary.

Jabra 75e has a professional look and designed for unified communication (Skype for Business Certified). Although it a little bit heavy but you’ll get up to 14 hours for music playback (up to 13 hours for talking ). I wished that it has a cable management like SONY WI-1000X.

The control buttons are easy to reach with a good functionality, turning on and off the ANC, listen-in feature. Jabra manages to score this one with a good magnet mechanism for keeping the earbuds together and answer/end call mechanism.

The busy light is a smart move as well but too bad it’s barely visible and in real life, people don’t bother about this.

Sweat and water resistance is another plus point for this headset. it’s rated as IP54. for the connectivity, you can connect to two devices simultaneous, very useful in the office environment to answer calls from laptop and phone.

Audio quality for conference calls is good but don’t expect too much in musical aspect, it’s acceptable since it’s focused on conference audio. The ANC is below average, it still has a long way to catch on SONY / BOSE Active Noise Canceling.

At the end of the day USD 259 is expensive, I think price around USD 150 will be nice. it’s more expensive than SONY WI-1000X (priced at USD 228 currently). Which one is my pick? If you don’t need the busylight and skype certified I would take SONY WI-1000X.

The rating below reflecting the combination of the audio for conference and music aspect.