TWS earbuds are now very much popular and they’re everywhere. Jabra is one of the top leading companies in communication equipment and it’s not a surprising thing that they’ve excelled in the TWS earbuds market as well.

The all-new Jabra Elite 4 Active is the company’s newest product and it’s one of the coolest you can get out there.

Anyone seeking to grab TWS earbuds in 2022 would be looking for qualities such as size, battery life, connectivity range, audio output, and how well they can make calls with it.

The new Jabra Elite 4 Active comes with a US$80 price tag and it covers the majority of users’ wants well enough. Even though the price tag might be much or affordable depending on your budget, you’re definitely getting a top-tier audio output from this device and that is something that’s worth all the bucks.

Speaking of quality, the new Elite 4 Active TWS earbuds are designed to cater to your daily life. Whether you’d like to take it out for a routine workout schedule or you just want to block out ambient noise and distraction around you, then its ANC is powerful enough to get you covered.

Design aesthetics

Personally, I love the design approach that Jabra had always taken concerning its TWS earbuds and that extends to the new Active 4 Elite – the exclusion of a long stem seen on popular TWS earbuds like Apple’s AirPods and the likes.

The Jabra Elite 4 Active TWS earbuds also include ear tips to keep the device in place so you won’t have issues when juggling or doing other rigorous exercises.

But most of all, it’s very comfortable when worn thanks to its lightweight. It’s also aesthetically pleasing and doesn’t unnecessarily protrude out of your ear lobes.

Similar to the previous Elite 3, the Jabra Elite 4 Active looks pretty close to the previous model without the one big button on the Elite 3. Even though the button is still present on the Elite 4 Active, it’s not as pronounced because it’s sealed off.

For this model, you also get an IP57 water resistance which gives it the protection needed when used in certain situations such as exercising or if you happen to be in an unexpected situation of rainfall.

One main issue though which might require a muscle memory is the undefined control panel of the earbuds. This can often cause issues when trying to locate the buttons in order to switch tracks or just pause a song.

Jabra made the outer part of the Elite 4 Active smooth and there isn’t any raised dot that would indicate that you’re touching the right part in order to control the device.

But this isn’t a problem as mentioned, just that users coming from previous models such as the Elite 3 might need to retrain themselves on where to place their finger when trying to control the Elite 4 Active.

Features of the Earbuds

Thanks to the Jabra Sound+ application, you can tailor the Elite 4 Active to your very own need. There are a couple more features on this device compared to the entry-level Elite 3 even though the Elite 4 Active sits at the mid-range of other Jabra TWS models out there.

One great thing is the fact that the ANC functionality is customizable even though it’s not exactly adjustable. Using the Sound+ application, you can control the level of noise cancellation while setting up the earbuds.

You can also tweak the balance if you want one ear to be louder than the other. And the process can be repeated if you need to.

Then there is the Transparency Mode or HearThrough which can be controlled via a slider in the Sound+ application. It’s also possible to set what the onboard control for sound modes does.

For example, you can configure buttons to switch between HearThrough and ANC or just HearThrough on and off or ANC on and off.

You can also turn on and off Sidetone using the application. The feature allows you to hear your voice when you’re on a phone call. There is also the Find My feature on the Elite 4 Active that allows you to easily locate the earbuds when misplaced.

Last but not the least is the ability to configure your preferred streaming service such as Spotify with a one-tap access. This feature is available on Android.

Audio output

In the audio department, there’s a lot to get here. For one, the fact that the earbuds are well tucked into your ear with the silicone ear tips neatly blasting cool sounds into your ear drums might be soothing. But also, there is the audio quality which is something I find interesting about the device.

Although there’s option to modify your EQ thanks to most modern music player application (Huawei Music app is extreme with personalizing your music to your own need), you can still expect some really premium audio output when listening to songs via the Jabra Elite 4 Active.

Depending on the song you’re listening to, you will obviously feel the bass because the earbuds are closer to your ear canals but then the fact that you’re able to feel the presence of other audio instruments is an interesting about the device.

Personally, I often make use of What to do by Travis Scott to test audio qualities in most cases and truth be told, this device did perform excellently in that regard.

I love the sound separation in which you can tell what instrument is being played apart from one another. That way, it feels as if you’re using a bigger headphone rather than the tiny earbuds.

Most high-end Samsung smartphones like the Galaxy Note and S series comes with Dolby sound all of which can add some quality vibes to your audio experience.

That is why the audio output quality is extremely subjective. But the Sound+ app allow you to do much more thanks to a set of EQ sliders all of which allows you to customize your audio experience to better fit your needs and wants easily.

The presence of its ANC is one of the cool features that places the Elite 4 Active right above the previous Elite 3 model. Also, remember that you’re able to customize the intensity of the ANC feature. So if you want to be in your bubble totally, the Elite 4 Active will let you and if you want to let in some sounds, it also will let you.

On the phone call aspect, the earbuds comes with four microphones for calls and also for ANC. The mics are covered with mesh in order to reduce wind noise when you’re outdoor.

However, if you’re speeding on a bike and you want to make a phone call using the earbuds, the mesh might not be useful in blocking out the wind noise as it may end up disrupting your phone call altogether.

Battery life

This is something that is very important to some like me – who wears his earbuds or headphones for an extended period of time. The Jabra Elite 4 Active comes with a seven hours of battery usage under a single charge and the case can do 28 hours.

However, Jabra failed to distinguish whether the battery life will be affected by ANC – which it obviously did as it reduces the battery life a little bit. However, While trying the earbuds on, it worked for nearly 7 hours at a loud volume while it went a little bit past 7 hours with a moderate volume.

With ANC, the battery life got dwindled a bit to about 6 hours and 30 minutes or a little bit more. However, the result is quite subjective as it could be more or less depending on several factors.

In terms of specifications, there aren’t so much to look for here even though the US$120 price tag might be seem overpriced considering the fact that there are cheaper earbuds that offer even more interesting features.

Anker’s Soundcore line of TWS earbuds or Edifier TWS earbuds line are great competitors of the Jabra Elite 4 Active in many regards.

But credit to Jabra, the Elite 4 Active did well and it’s a cool upgrade above the previous model even though there are a couple of misses here and there which doesn’t necessarily count if you don’t mind.