Jabra Elite 8 Active Review: Drops Don't Hurt 'Em

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Billed as the 'world's toughest earbuds,' the new Jabra Elite 8 Actives are waterproof and dust-proof, with a rugged design that held up to our drop tests.

The last few years Jabra has released a lot of earbuds, perhaps too many, confusing consumers in the process. These include the Elites 3, 4, 5 and 7 Pro, as well as Active versions of some of those same buds. But now Jabra's marketing team is promising a more streamlined approach, at least at the top of its earbuds line. While it's once again released multiple models at the same time -- the new flagship Elite 10 ($250) and Elite 8 Active ($200), which I'm reviewing here -- Jabra has assured me that there won't be a standard Elite 8 or an Elite 10 Active. That seems like a step in the right direction, and both new models offer some unique traits that help them stand out in the crowded premium earbuds market.

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds of 2023

Of the two new models, the Elite 8 Actives are the more straightforward earbuds. They look, feel and perform like a modestly upgraded version of the Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active, with six microphones instead of four, slightly improved adaptive noise canceling and wind-reduction technology along with a higher durability rating. They have a noise-isolating design -- you jam the tips into your ears to get a tight seal -- and Jabra is billing them as the "world's toughest earbuds" (if you're more interested in the Elite 10, feel free to jump over to that review).

Like the Elite 4, 5 and 7 series buds, the Elite 8 Actives have a noise-isolating design with the same ear tips. They fit my ears quite well and I like that they have physical control buttons for controlling music playback, answering and ending calls and toggling between noise canceling and HearThru transparency mode.

The Jabra Elite 8 Actives barely stick out of your ears.

Jabra's Active earbuds have always been billed as being slightly more durable than their standard Elite counterparts. But for the Elite Active 8, Jabra has really leaned into the whole durability factor, and it's marketing these as the world's toughest earbuds. They're fully waterproof and dustproof with an IP68 rating, and their charging case is dust- and splashproof with an IP54 rating. Jabra also says they're drop-proof to 1 meter and have passed nine durability tests to meet the military spec standard for ruggedized electronics.

While I didn't do any extreme cold tests, I did drop them several times on the pavement from shoulder height (more than 1 meter), fully submerged them in water, and wore them around in 90-degree heat in the streets of New York. They came out no worse for wear, and I was impressed that the pavement didn't leave any marks on the buds. Typical plastic buds tend to show scratches and dings after being dropped on hard, rough surfaces.

The new charging case has rounded corners and does offer wireless charging. It's bigger than both the AirPods Pro 2's and Sony WF-1000XM5's charging cases, but it's still relatively compact. The buds come in four color options: navy, black, dark gray and caramel.

The underwater test.

If you're looking for rugged buds, that would be a key reason to buy these. But they're also lightweight at 5 grams each, and compact, sitting fairly flush with your ears. They have Jabra's ShakeGrip rubber coating that gives them an added bit of grip, and most people should get a very secure fit. In my tests, they worked well for running.

The buds have both adaptive noise canceling and an adjustable HearThru transparency mode that lets you hear the outside world. There are ear-detection sensors that automatically pause your music when you remove a bud from your ears, and you can use a single bud in mono mode while the other charges in the case.

For both the Elite 8 Active and Elite 10 earbuds, Jabra has moved away from using Qualcomm chips, so they don't support the AptX audio codec for Android devices, but they do support the AAC audio codec and are also compatible with the new LE Audio standard that includes the LC3 audio codec. LE Audio features will supposedly be available via a firmware upgrade sometime in the not-so-distant future, though it's unclear exactly when.

Multipoint Bluetooth pairing, which allows you to pair the buds with two devices at the same time, is available from the get-go (it took a while for Jabra to add the feature to the Elite 7 Pro). And Android users get hands-free Google Assistant -- you just have to say the wake word to access the assistant. You can also use your device's native voice assistant, including Siri on Apple devices, but you have to press a button to access it.

The Elite 8 Actives are available in four color options.

One of the noteworthy additions to both the Elite 8 Active and Elite 10 is Dolby's Spatial Sound. However, one key difference between the two buds is that the Elite 10s have Dolby Spatial Sound with Dolby head tracking. The standard Dolby Spatial Audio on the Elite 8 Actives tricks your mind into thinking the sound is coming from more outside your head -- it opens up the soundstage a bit -- but the head-tracking takes the spatial audio to another level on the Elite 10s.

Finally, there's a Find My Jabra feature that can tell you the last location of your buds before they disconnected from your device. The Find My isn't as sophisticated as the AirPods Pro 2's Precision Finding that allows you to track your buds much more precisely. But at least there's some help if you've misplaced your headphones.

Equipped with new 6mm drivers (the Elite 10s have 10mm drivers), the Elite 8 Actives lack a bit of refinement and accuracy compared to even more expensive buds, including the Elite 10s and Sony WF-1000XM5s. But all in all, there isn't a whole lot to complain about. The buds have decent clarity and punchy bass. While their sound didn't blow me away, it's in line with what I get from other sports buds in this price range, including the Beats Fit Pros, which also deliver very good but not necessarily great sound. And like with the Elite 10s, you can also tweak the sound a bit in the app with some preset EQ options or create your own custom EQ.

As I said, the biggest benefit of activating Dolby Spatial Sound in the Jabra Sound Plus app for iOS and Android (you can deactivate it) is a wider soundstage. More average earbuds and headphones leave you feeling like the sound is stuck inside your head. But better ones deliver more open, airy sound that sounds bigger and has more depth to it. And with Dolby Spatial Sound on I did feel as if the sound was more outside my head. I generally left it on.

Neither the ANC or transparency are quite up to the level of the AirPods Pro 2, which retail for a similar price. But the noise canceling seems slightly improved from the Elite 7 Pro. These use Jabra's adaptive hybrid noise canceling, which it lists as its second most technologically advanced noise canceling technology.

The Elite 10 earbuds use Jabra's Advanced noise canceling, which it says delivers a "completely bespoke sound experience however loud your surroundings," but the Elite 10s have semi-open design and their noise canceling is that strong compared to that of Bose, Sony and Apple. In fact, because the Elite 8 Actives block out more noise passively than the Elite 10s due to their noise-isolating design, the Elite 8 Actives muffle ambient sound better than the Elite 10s.

Note that the adjustable HearThru, or transparency mode, is an important feature for runners who want to let sound in and hear the outside world for safety reasons. It's a decent transparency mode, but doesn't sound quite as natural as the AirPods Pro 2's transparency mode.

The buds have Jabra ShakeGrip rubberized finish that adds a bit of extra grip to help the buds stay securely in your ears.

The voice-calling performance for both the Elite 10 and Elite Active 8 left me slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it was quite good when I was making calls in less noisy environments. Callers said they could hear me clearly. But with both buds now featuring six microphones and improved wind noise reduction technology, I expected a little more in harsher conditions. In our torture test in the noisy streets of New York, callers told me they didn't reduce background noise as well as competing models like the AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5s, and my voice warbled at times.

If you watch my companion video review, you can hear a test call I recorded with the Elite 10 that gives you a sense of the call quality in a harsh environment, though note the call is recorded via the nternet so a little bit of fidelity in my voice is lost. The Elite offered similar voice-calling performance. As I said, it's good -- but I was hoping for great.

Battery life is rated at up to 8 hours with ANC on and 14 with it off. Good numbers for sure, and better than the Elite 10, which is rated for 6 hours of battery life at moderate volume levels with ANC on.

As noted in my intro, the Elite 8 Active is a modestly upgraded version of the Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active with added durability and slightly better sound and noise canceling. The Elite 7 Pros also carry a list price of $200 but have regularly been on sale for $30 to $50 off, dipping to as low as $120 recently. As with the Elite Series 7 buds, I think you'll see some discounts on the Elite 8 Actives as we head into the holiday buying season, so keep an eye out for that if you're on the fence about these (it would make sense for Jabra to price the Elite 8 Active lower than the AirPods Pro 2 if it wants to attract more Apple users).

While I did feel they had some small shortcomings in their voice-calling performance even with their upgraded six-microphone array (three on each earbud), I did come away feeling these were really solid buds overall and are an appealing option for those looking for really durable buds that stay in your ears securely. Hopefully, we'll see some firmware updates that make the buds even better. If so, I may raise my rating slightly.

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