Jabra Elite Active 75t Review: Great for Your Next Hot and Sweaty Session

When I reviewed the Jabra Elite 75, I called them the best-sounding true wireless earbuds you can buy. I’ve had the Elite Active 75t, which add water- and sweat-proofing to the package, for the last several weeks, and guess what? It’s the same story here. But now you can sweat all over them.

So, here’s the thing: these earbuds are almost identical to the Elite 75t. Everything I said about those—from the case, to the fit, to the sound quality—can be applied to these. They’re literally the same headphones when it comes to all of those things. So, instead of writing the same thing all over again, I’ll point you to that review for the meat and potatoes.

Instead, I’m going to focus on the one thing that is different with the Elite Active 75t: using them for workouts. The Elite 75t has an ingress protection of IP55, making it dust-resistant and waterproof against jets of water. The Elite Active 75t, on the other hand, bumps the protection up to IP57, which carries the same level of dust resistance but increases water resistance up to full immersion at one meter.

All told, it’s not a huge difference. Both sets of headphones even carry a full two-year warranty against dust and water. Really, if you’re only looking for a set of ‘buds that will work well in the occasional rainstorm, then either pair should be good. But if you want something to wear while you work out, then the Active model is for you. The superior water resistance should also keep sweat at bay, which is what you want because your nasty salty human excretion can really mess up a set of earbuds.

Speaking of nasty salty human excretion, I’m an active cyclist and I’ve been wearing the Elite Active 75ts on my workouts for the last several weeks (all indoor training though—no earbuds outside!). The best part is that these showed up right as I increased my training load, which means I was just getting started with harder longer workouts. That also means more sweat. So much more. Honestly, it’s pretty disgusting.

But I digress. The point is that I’ve been sweating all over these badboys during some of the most intense workouts I’ve done in a long time. When I reviewed the Elite 75ts, I applauded the fit, and while I didn’t test them while working out (as I wanted to wait for the Active model for that), I said “I can’t see them coming out even intense workouts.”

Now that I’ve spent plenty of time with the Actives, I think that’s mostly true. On my hour-long workouts (which are generally on the easier end of the scale), they’re fine. But when I push into the 90- and 120-minute workouts (which are generally much more intense), they start to slip as I sweat more. (Note: I’m a pretty heavy sweater, though it’s not particularly salty.)

Now, I get that fit is highly subjective because everyone’s ears are different (and most people’s ears are even different than each other), but I tried all three different sets of tips and still had issues with the left ‘bud. The more I would sweat, the more it would want to slide out of my ear. It never directly fell out, but there were times when I thought it was going to happen.

You know what I really wish? That the Elite Active 75ts had ear wings. You know, the little hooks that attach to the ear tip and secure the bud inside your ear? Like on the excellent Jaybird Vista. Those are still some of the most secure workout ‘buds I’ve ever worn. If I could combine the fit of the Vista with literally everything else about the Elite Active 75t, oh boy. It might just be the perfect set of true wireless earbuds.

But that’s just me daydreaming. If I had to lay the Elite Active 75t down in the most simplistic way possible, here it is: great sound, excellent battery life, and good fit most of the time. If you sweat like I do, they may slip. But also, they may not because you might find a better fit. Your ears are your ears, man.

If you’re trying to decide between the Active and non-Active Elite 75t models, though, just throw down the extra $20 on the Actives. The extra water resistance is easily worth that. Consider it an insurance policy if you drop them in up to one meter of water.