Jabra Elite 85t vs Galaxy Buds (2021): Choosing True Wireless Earbuds

A new pair of true wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC) is coming to town: the Jabra Elite 85t. Needless to say, they’re succeeding the ever-popular Elite 75t, coming with a few big design changes here and there.

But as the question always is, are they worth the buy? After all, most would argue that there are tons of affordable options that can get the job done nowadays. On that note, we compare them to the Samsung Galaxy Buds to find out, which are considered to be premium Bluetooth headphones that won’t break the bank.

Jabra Elite 85t vs Galaxy Buds Comparison Chart

Model	Jabra Elite 85t	Samsung Galaxy Buds
Price	Check Price at Jabra.com
Fit	Semi-open	In-ear
Active Noise Cancellation	Yes	No
Transparency Mode	Yes	Yes (Ambient sound)
Water Resistance	IPX4	IPX2
Battery Life	Up to 7 hours or 5.5 hours with ANC on	Up to 6 hours
Wireless Charging	Yes	Yes
Fast Charging	n/a	15 minutes for 1.7 hours
Release Date	November 1, 2020	2019
Colors	Titanium, Gold	Black, White, Yellow, Aura Glow Silver

Design and Fit

Sound will leak through the Jabra Elite 85t’s semi-open fit, but not through the Samsung Galaxy Buds’ in-ear form factor.

Both earbuds follow the same iconic design cues of their respective brands. That basically means you’d know the Elite 85t are from Jabra and the Galaxy Buds are from Samsung just by looking at them. It goes without saying that’s either a good or bad thing depending on your preference.

However, the Jabra Elite 85t are taking a different route in terms of form factor. While their predecessor have an in-ear fit, these are semi-open. In other words, you won’t be inserting their tips into your ear canal, and you won’t be getting a tight seal. They have weaker noise isolation in that sense, but that’s where ANC comes in (more on that in a few).

Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Buds have excellent noise isolation because of their in-ear design, assuming the right tips are used. In fact, they’re way above average to the point that ANC would feel excessive if they had it, which would still have been a welcome feature, though. The takeaway here is they’re capable of effectively keeping unwanted sounds out.

Sound Performance

Both have features to let you hear your surroundings.

Now the Jabra Elite 85t aren’t available yet at the time of writing, so their audio quality is still hard to tell. But from what we can gather, they’ll sound better than the previous iteration, thanks to their larger 12 mm drivers.

The Jabra Elite 85t have three microphones on each earbud. Crunching the numbers real quick, that’s six microphones in total, four of which are used for active noise cancellation. Called Advanced ANC, it’s a type of noise canceling made for earbuds that don’t create a secure, noise-isolating fit into ear canals. They also feature HearThrough, a transparency mode to let you hear your surroundings. You get to adjust this setting over 11 levels of sound, from complete transparency mode to complete ANC.

As mentioned earlier, the Samsung Galaxy Buds don’t feature ANC, but they can passively isolate noise well. These buds even have Ambient sound so you can hear the outside world with them on. They also sound decent—for the most part, that is. By that, we mean they emphasize bass more. That’s pretty much a nonissue if you listen to hip-hop most of the time, but the same can’t be said when it comes to other genres.

Connectivity and Other Features

If history is anything to go by, the Jabra Elite 85t will have Bluetooth multipoint pairing.

One of the strong points of Jabra true wireless earbuds is multipoint pairing. The Elite 75t have it, and it’s not a stretch to believe that the Elite 85t will have it too. Speaking of, the new generation will likely have at least Bluetooth 5.0 as well.

In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Buds don’t support multipoint, but they do have Bluetooth 5.0 and, as a result, a good track record of maintaining stable connections. They even have Scalable Codec, a technology available to select Samsung devices that continuously balances sound quality and stable connectivity to never miss a beat.

Both have auto-pause, but the Jabra Elite 85t do it better. To explain, you only have to remove one earbud for them to pause any playing content. On the other hand, you’ll have to take both of the Samsung Galaxy Buds at the same time, which is a hit-and-miss affair, if past user reports are anything to go by.

As expected, the two have water resistance too, but again, the Jabra Elite 85t have the upper hand. They have IPX4, which is a step down from the Elite 75t’s IP55, but despite that, they still beat the Samsung Galaxy Buds’ IPX2 rating. To put that in context, IPX4 means a device can withstand splashes from any direction, while IPX2 means it won’t survive splashes at certain angles.

Battery Life

With ANC off, the Jabra Elite 85t can last longer than the Samsung Galaxy Buds.

Right off the bat, the Jabra Elite 85t can go up to 7 hours or 31 hours with the charging case with ANC off. They’re rated to last up to 5.5 hours or 25 hours with the case with ANC on. Last but not least, they also support wireless charging, and they’re compatible with any QI-certified charger.

On a single charge, the Samsung Galaxy Buds can stay on up to 6 hours, and their case can hold up to 7 hours of additional power. As everyone knows, they have wireless charging support too. On top of that, you can get up to 1.7 hours of battery life in only 15 minutes.

Verdict

The Jabra Elite 85t have plenty of advantages over the Samsung Galaxy Buds that make them a better pick.

Without a doubt, the Jabra Elite 85t are the better earbuds of the two here. For starters, they have ANC and a higher IP rating, and they’ll likely have Bluetooth multipoint pairing to boot.

However, the Samsung Galaxy Buds are still worth considering, especially for Galaxy device owners. For one thing, they’re more affordable, and they deliver an A-OK performance for everyday listening. Moreover, they have certain features such as Scalable Codec.

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Last update on 2022-07-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API