Jabra Elite 75t vs Active 75t vs 65t: Worth the upgrade?

If you haven’t already made the jump from wired to wireless earbuds, Jabra is making some of the best that are currently available. But if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already decided that Jabra is the brand for you. But that’s only half the battle, now you’ve got to decide if you want 75t or 65t, and what’s the difference between Elite and Elite Active? Let’s stack each pair of buds up side-by-side so you can decide which is the best fit for you.

The first, most obvious, point of difference in the price of each pair of buds. The Jabra Elite Active 75t are the most expensive at $329, then there are the Elite 75t buds at $299. The noticeably cheaper 65t range will cost you $199 for Elite and $229 for Elite Active. Keeping up?

Okay, so that’s price out of the way. Essentially, 65t are cheaper, but in both versions, you pay extra for Active. So what does Active get you?

The difference between Jabra Elite and Jabra Elite Active is small but it could make all the difference depending on how you use it. It comes down to colour choice and water/dust resistance.

In the 75t range, the Elite buds sport an IP55 water resistance rating. That means they are dust resistant, but not dust-tight, and will survive a spray of water from any angle but shouldn’t be submerged. On the other hand, the 75t Active Elites are rated IP57, meaning they have the same dust resistance, but can survive being submerged in water at a depth between 15 centimetres and one meter for up to 30 minutes.

The 65t Elite buds have the same IP55 rating as the 75t Elites, but the 65t Active Elite buds only have an IP56 water resistance rating, meaning they shouldn’t be submerged but can take a fair dowsing of water from any angle.

So in comparing the 65t and 75t models, basically you have three marginally different levels of water resistance.

The next key difference between each model is the colours they’re available in. There’s a huge range of colours available with not much crossover across models. More importantly, the Jabra Active Elite 75t offers wireless charging, but only with the Grey and Navy models at the time of writing.

Besides water resistance, colour options, and price, Jabra’s Elite and Active earbuds are identical. The biggest differences are between the 65t and 75t models.

Upgrading to 75t will cost you a good deal more ($100 more) but there are some clear improvements made in the 75t series. Firstly, the buds and charging case are significantly lighter . But most importantly, you’ll get significantly better battery life out of the 75t buds, up to 28 hours with the charging case, compared to the 65t’s 15-hour battery life total. The 75t buds themselves will last 7.5 hours, compared to the 65t’s 5.5 hours.