Designed to be the world’s first UC-certified truly wireless earbuds, the Jabra Evolve 65t takes everything I loved about the Jabra Elite 65t, and made them that much better for working professionals.
With the Airpods of the world everywhere you turn, the Jabra Evolve 65t that I received to review are another take on wireless headphones with the exception being the Evolve being more geared towards business individuals. Aside from that, the Jabra Evolve have essentially the same build quality, aside from providing their microphone performance when making phone calls. Here are some specs and important features of the Evolve 65t:
- Certified for excellence – Skype for Business certified to provide validation for a high-quality experience
- Sound on the go – Superior true wireless sound with 4-microphone technology
- Power to last the day – Up to 15 hours of battery life (with charging case) and fast-charge feature to power 1.5 hours of additional use on just a 15-minute charge
- Dual Connectivity – Connect to two devices simultaneously for the optimal collaboration experience. Superior true wireless stability to reduce call and music dropouts
- Mobile Concentration – Multiple fitting options for a perfect seal and hear-through functionality for an adjustable Passive Noise Cancellation experience
- Music, the way you want to hear it – Superior music experience with integration to the Jabra Sound+ app for personalizing the sound and user-experience
- Voice commands made simple – One-touch access to digital assistants of choice
But before I get ahead of myself, let me speak on the design. The Evolve 65t, outside of the color of the outside of the earbud are all but the same model. Just like the Jabra Elite 65t, the Evolve are quite possibly the most comfortable pair of headphones that I’ve used for casual listening purposes. While I wouldn’t suggest wearing them to the gym, especially if you sweat a lot, they are great for commuting to and from work. Jabra states that they are IP55 for dust and water resistance, but I treat them with care and absolutely refuse to take these poolside, or even near water. But if you are outdoors and it somehow rains, I highly doubt it would ruin the earbuds. What I did notice is that the case of the Evolve 65ts is a bit more study than the Jabra Elite, opting for a more solid lid that stays shut when closed. There were many cases that my phone would random connect to my Jabra Elites when they were in my bag because the door clasp on the charging case was pretty flimsy.
The Evolve 65ts basically take everything from the Elite, including the comfort and the controls, with each earbud having its own separate button that allows you to handle call management, or toggling Amazon Alex and Google Assistant. As someone who absolutely dreads Siri and opts for Google Assistant, the Evolve are leaps and bound better in terms of hands-free control. Being able to turn off my Hue lights, or even check sports without picking up my device helps, especially when my Evolve are connected to my Pixel 3XL. The caveat though is when you press too hard on the button, this pushes the entire earbud a bit further in your ear which could be a discomfort to some.
When it comes to sounds, the Jabra Evolve 65t come complete with noise cancellation which is something I toggle on daily at the office. Being able to shut out outside noises has been great, and dare I say the noise isolation fo the Evolve work a bit better than the Elite 65ts. Jabra states on its site that the Evolve 65ts come with professional-grade sound, and are Skype for Business Certified (if you still use Skype). I tested this theory by using the Jabra Evolve’s for Podcasting.
Typically I have wired headphones that I monitor sound in while recording, but for testing purposes, I connected my Jabra Evolve’s (courtesy of the included USB) to my MacBook Pro in order to directly do our recording through Zoom.US, and surprisingly it’s ability to capture not just my voice audio, but blocking out background noise made for great audio for the show. While I wouldn’t advise using it for recording a podcast weekly, if you are in a pinch, and only have your laptop and your Jabra Evolve headphones, this would be a great method of video conferences thanks to its ability to seal out sound when it needs to. Obviously, you can turn on the Passive Noise Cancellation if you need to which is helpful in airports and public spaces.
Overall, I personally love using the Jabra Evolves, even more than I do my Jabra Elites. While it’s not as “iPhone” friendly as my Airpods are, I still carry the Evolves everywhere I go due to its ability to give you five hours of total battery life on a full charge, (with 15 total hours using the charging case), but what’s more, the Evolve allows you to connect to two devices at the same time, which for me is always either my iPhone XS Max and my MacBook Pro, or my Pixel 3XL and iPad at any given time, depending on the circumstances. If you are a business user, you would be happy to know that the Jabra Evolve work with some of the more popular platforms including Skype, Microsoft Teams, Cisco, Google Hangouts, Unify Circuit, Fuze and Alcatel Rainbow — on top of being able to be used with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri for day-to-day commands. If you would like to purchase yourself a pair, you can head over to Jabra’s website today for more information.
Source: Manufacturer supplied review unit
What I Like: Fully integrated with various business platforms; Alexa/Siri/Google integration
What Needs Improvement: On Device buttons are somewhat hard to press