Jabra Evolve2 85 Review

Travis GneitingFirst Look, Reviews

Jabra Evolve 2 85 Review
  • Quality
  • Price
  • Battery
  • Sound
  • Microphone
  • Features
  • Value
4.4

Summary

The Jabra Evolve2 85 is a premium work over the ear headphone. It boasts a 37-hour battery, Bluetooth, multiple device connections, and noise-canceling and filtering. They are great headphones for listening to music at the gym or home as well as using for work calls with Zoom or Microsoft Teams. With a 40mm speaker, the audio quality is superb. For calls, there are 10 microphones and active noise cancelation for a very clear compressed-sounding conversation. Overall, the call quality, comfort, various microphones, design, and features make this headphone a productivity powerhouse. It may be lacking a little in the spillover background sound when using the active noise cancelation and the price is definitely something that can’t be ignored. However, when compared to the competition it’s hard to find a headphone that compares for in-office and on-the-go use.

I have been personally using the Jabra Evolve 2 85 Wireless Headphones for the last few months. My primary use has been for listening to music around the house, at my desk, and at the gym. I also used the Evolve2 Headphones for Microsoft Teams, and Zoom meetings daily.  I have used many headphones over the years from over the ear, on-ear, and in-ear. While I’m not a professional audiophile, This is my honest review of my experience with day to day use of headphones.

Design

Features

In this section of our Jabra Evolve 2 85, we’re going to highlight all the key features that make it an excellent product.

Maximum Comfort

Jabra Evolve2 85 features a soft cushion and leather pads for prolonged usage. Enjoy wearing it all day without too much pressure on your ears.

Extended Battery Life

With long-lasting battery life, enjoy up to 37 hours of endless calls or music. Also, you can quickly charge for 15 minutes and enjoy 8 hours of battery!

Active Noise Cancellation

Active noise-canceling gives your voice a filter to avoid background noise without degrading the quality!

Software-Configurable

Jabra Evolve2 85 has downloadable software to enhance your overall user experience. You can use the equalizer in your audio, enable or disable noise cancellation, and more! Check out their Support Page to learn more.

10-Microphone Technology

Jabra Evolve2 85 improves your communication experience with its microphones. Enhance your voice further by using the boom mic.

User Hearing Protection

Jabra Evolve2 85 features Jabra SafeToneTM that gives extra protection to your hearing. Avoid high audio levels and random distortions with Jabra SafeToneTM!

Comfort 

The Jabra Evole2 85 is padded with very soft padding around the ears. The over-ear design and adjustable head strap make them comfortable headphones to wear all day long. I wear them all day long listening to music and online calls. I can still wear them to the gym and they feel great on my head.  The headphones are made from soft memory foam. The headphone earcup also swivels to help make a good seal for further noise cancelation. Jabra scanned hundreds of heads to get just the right shape of the headband and ear cups to be comfortable on any head. 

The cons of the comfort are when I am wearing glasses with the headphones for a long time I do get pain from the large ear covers pushing on the glasses.

Using the Headphones

There are a lot of buttons and gadgets on the headphones and I forget what buttons do what on the headphones and wondering if I should be using the fold-out microphone or just use the built-in microphones without the boom. There are 10 microphones with digital processing and noise cancelation.

Sound

The headphones have a powerful great-sounding immersive 40mm speaker. There is a digital chipset for processing and a modern AAC codec to help the music come in sound as good as possible.

Active Noise Cancellation: 4 microphones digital hybrid ANC

Speaker size: 40mm

Speaker sensitivity: 117dB @1mW-1kHz

Speaker max input power: 50 mW

Speaker frequency range: 20Hz-20.000Hz

Speaker bandwidth – Music mode: 20Hz-20.000Hz

Speaker bandwidth Speak mode: 100Hz-8.000Hz

Microphone

The clarity of voice, tone, and background noise are the main items when using a headphone that is often complained about. I would say that my personal use and friends on the other end say that the headphone sounds great. It’s amazing how well the noise cancelation works with multiple microphones and advanced software.  When compared with other noise-canceling headphones they perform as well or better than most.

Microphone type: 4 Analog MEMS / 6 Digital MEMS

Microphone sensitivity: -35 dBv/Pa (analog microphone)/-26 dBFS/Pa (digital microphone)

Microphone frequency range: 5-20.000Hz for analog microphone/100Hz – 8000Hz for digital microphone

Audio codecs supported: SBC, AAC

User hearing protection: Jabra SafeToneTM

Certifications: Leading UC vendors; meets Microsoft Teams Open Office requirements*

Price

These headphones are expensive for an individual at $450. Additionally, if you want the cradle charger you can add on another $70. When you compare with other headphones that offer the same comfort and features they are pretty comparable in price.  These are high-end, meant to be used all day, and are an investment but can be thought of as a way to improve call quality, productivity, or physical activity, and it’s hard to put a price on those if it works.

Battery

The headphones have a wide variety of how long they will last on a single charge. Jabra claims that a full charge can get 37 hours of battery life in charging only 2.5 hours. Even more incredible is the fast charge for 15 min gets you 8 hours of battery life. It should be noted you need to use the provided charger to get this charging speed. 

Talk time: Up to 30hrs (with ANC/busy light off)/Up to 20hrs (with ANC on/busy light on)

Music time: Up to 37hrs (with ANC off)/Up to 32hrs (with ANC on)

Charging time: Up to 140min

Power consumption: 5V/500mA

Battery status % after 30 min / 60 min: 30% after 30 min and 60% after 60 min

Connectivity

Connection (computer and mobile devices): USB-A/USB-C Bluetooth adapter, 3.5mm jack (corded), Bluetooth

Bluetooth® device

  • Bluetooth version
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • Bluetooth profiles: HSP v1.2 , HFP v1.7, A2DP v1.3, AVRCP v1.6, PBAP v1.1, SPP v1.2

Operating range: Up to 30m/100ft

Bluetooth pairing list: Up to 8 devices

Simultaneous Bluetooth connections: 2

Wireless Range

Bluetooth connectivity is one of my favorite features of these headphones. I work from home, can connect to my computer, walk around the house, head downstairs to a home gym, all while being connected to a computer, and have the ability to control the music and volume directly from the headphones.

Durability

It really depends on how these headphones are used. Sitting on my desk all day they only see a small amount of wear on the hear cups and headband.  However, I can see as I wear them to the gym and constantly put them in their case or wear them around my neck I can see the foam breaking down over the last few months of using them.  I still think with average use these would last many years.

Headphone Warranty

Cordless products: one (1) year from the date the products have been purchased

https://www.jabra.com/footerpages/warranty-and-service-business

Conclusion

These have been my favorite over-ear headphones I have used. I don’t like using them for mowing lawns or in the gym every day but from time to time they can be used in every situation. They rate highly on many other websites and youtube videos. The biggest complaint I hear is around the cost. They are premium professional headphones, but if you are on virtual calls daily and also enjoy listening to music while being active or sitting at a desk these are a great option and highly recommended.