The Elite 5 earpieces are chunky but lightweight, and come in black or tan. They are secure and comfortable in the ear canal. The box contains three pairs of eartips. The audio is handled internally by 6mm dynamic drivers. The earphones are Bluetooth 5.2 compatible, support the AAC, AptX, and SBC codecs, and have multipoint connectivity. They are compatible with the Google Fast Pair feature on devices running Android 6 or later. Instead of capacitive touch panels, physical buttons are used. Because pressing a button can affect fit security or make it feel like you’re pushing the earpiece deeper into your ear canal, most in-ears rely on touch controls. The good news is that neither problem exists here the earphones are snug enough that button presses don’t jostle them loose, and the controls are responsive. The home screen of the Jabra Sound+ app (available for Android and iOS) includes an image of the earphones as well as battery readouts for the individual earpieces and the charging case. The Sound Modes section below that allows you to toggle between ANC, HearThrough, and Off modes. Both the ANC and HearThrough modes have a fader to control their intensity. The five-band EQ defaults to a flat, neutral setting further down. Several presets are located beneath the graphic EQ. You can customize them to your liking and save custom presets, or you can start from scratch. You can choose from some surprisingly effective sound loops for relaxing or focusing in a Soundscape section beneath the EQ presets. The immersive Diving loop is the default, but there are also white and pink noise options, as well as more natural recordings, such as those with ocean waves and songbirds. Another ANC slider appears in the settings menu; this one adjusts the frequencies the ANC focuses on and allows you to make changes specific to your environment. If you don’t want to mess with it, the default middle setting is the best option and appeared to be the most effective in testing. Surprisingly, you can also control how much noise the right and left earbuds cancel separately. You can also download firmware updates, adjust the on-ear controls, and assign any of the typical controls playback, track navigation, voice assistance, call management, and ANC/HearThrough modes to single, double, or triple presses in the settings menu. You can also toggle in-ear detection and add an Off mode to the on-ear cycle of noise cancellation modes. Hands-free Alexa access and Spotify Tap round out the features.
