NEXT-LEVEL
AIR CAREHOT SONICS
26 T3 OCTOBER 2020Horizon
ALL HAIL THE NEW KING OF
NOISE CANCELLING BUDS!
AirPods Pro beware: Jabra is serving up what looks to be a dream
combo of fit, sound quality, ANC and battery lifeThe current big thing in headphones is true
wireless buds with active noise cancelling
(ANC). And often, ‘big thing’ is quite literal.
Just ask anyone who has had Sennheiser’s
Momentum True Wireless or Sony’s WF-
1000XM3 protruding from their ears.
Some other recent challengers, such as
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live and Google’s
Pixel Buds have offered ANC in a more
compact package, but with some
compromises on in-ear fit and audio quality.
Enter Jabra with its all-new Elite 85t
(£219, jabra.co.uk). This promises to offer a
perfect combination of advanced ANC and
awesome sound quality, in a truly compact
pair of buds. We haven’t been able to listen
to them yet, but we believe Jabra will be
able to pull it off.
Why? Well, the brand’s current
flagship buds, the Elite 75t, already offer
excellent audio quality, excellent battery
life of up to 28 hours, and an incredibly
comfortable and discreet fit. The Elite 85t
upgrades to bigger drivers, a ported rather
than fully sealed design, adds top-grade ANC, and yet is somehow only
fractionally larger and a few grams heavier
than its predecessor.
Sound quality, for both music and calls, on
the 75t is already among the best of any true
wireless buds, so a move to drivers twice the
size, along with the addition of ANC, should
make the 85t’s sonics truly class leading.
The 85t’s ported design and option to
‘hear through’ – letting ambient sounds
through via the mics used for noise
cancellation – should also mean they sound
more natural, as well as feel more like an
earbud and less like an earplug, as is the case
with the 75t. Battery life remains impressive
at 5.5 hours (and 25 in the case) with ANC on
all the time.
There’s not only good news for those
looking to upgrade. The 75t, which will
remain on sale at £169, will also be getting
(less advanced) ANC added via an update.
There are a lot of great ANC true wireless
buds out there already, but with the Elite
85t, Jabra might just have the best of the
lot. Find out when it hits shops in October.KEBAO AIR 3
One of the bugbears of air
purifier ownership is having
to shell out for a new filter
every year. Not so with Air 3,
which has no filter, instead
promising to ‘incinerate’ bad
smells, viruses and bacteria
for ‘surgical grade air’.
£1,600, kebao.co.ukLG PURICARE
At last: an air purifier that
you can wear on your face!
With eight hours of battery life
and advanced HEPA filters,
PuriCare supplies ‘fresh,
clean air indoor and out’ via
dual fans and a ‘patented
Respiratory Sensor’.
£TBC, exhibition.lg.comBLUEAIR BLUE PURE
Rather boring in comparison
to the above, but somewhat
more attractive, this
Swedish-designed box of
tricks is a fan that also filters
the air. It looks very chic,
and the filters are washable,
rather than replaceable.
£249, blueair.comIM
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IMAGE^SOURCE:^ JABRA