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The Jabra Elite Active 65t were brilliant sports headphones. So brilliant we awarded them an Editor’s Choice badge. So it stands to reason that the Jabra Elite Active 75t headphones, which improve on the 65t in a number of ways, are also going to be brilliant sports headphones.

And what do you know? They are. The Elite Active 75t buds are great, with a longer battery life than the 65t and a slightly more robust, waterproof design that bumps up the IP rating from IP56 to IP57. I’d put them right up there with the best sports headphones I’ve tested. If there’s one fly in the ointment, it’s the stiff competition provided by the non-Active version – the Jabra Elite 75t.

These offer all the same features as the Elite Active 75t aside from having a smoother and slightly less waterproof design, while costing £20 less. The Elite 75t still has an IP55 rating though, which is more than enough to see you through sweaty workouts or wet weather without any real fears of them breaking. With Jabra offering a two-year warranty on the Elite 75t, I’d certainly be tempted to go with them.

Going from IP55 on the Elite 75t to IP57 on the Elite Active 75t means the buds can withstand immersion in up to 1m of water, upgraded from surviving low-pressure jets of water at the IP55 level. So if you want to immerse your headphones, definitely get the Elite Active 75t. You still can’t swim with them, though.

The design of the buds has been changed slightly from the Elite Active 65t, but the fit is just as secure. During my runs with the Active 75t buds I never found that they started to drop out of my ears, and they are also comfortable when worn under a fairly tight hat or headband.

Perhaps the most important improvement on the 65t comes in the shape of the 75t’s bulkier battery life. The buds now last 7½ hours on a single charge, and the carry case contains another 20½ hours of juice. That’s a big jump from the five hours on the 65t, and also puts the 75t buds ahead of rivals like Jaybird’s Vista buds, which only offer six hours. There is also a fast-charge feature on the Elite Active 75t headphones – 15 minutes in the case yields two hours of playback.

Everything is rosy on the connectivity front too, with the 75t connecting easily to various devices and able to stay connected to two devices at once. I had one or two short dropouts while running, but the headphones quickly found my phone again and restarted playback.

The in-ear fit of the headphones helps them produce impressive sound quality, and you can also set up your EQ preferences in the partner Jabra Sound+ app. For those who don’t want to fiddle with the settings directly, you can select presets like bass boost. There’s even a speech option for those who listen to podcasts and audiobooks while exercising.

The headphones have Jabra’s nifty Hear Through feature too. Click the button on the left bud once to activate it and you’ll suddenly hear a lot more of the world around you – useful when exercising outdoors on busy streets. Click the same button and it’ll turn off, and you can go back to the immersive sound created by the passive noise cancellation of the in-ear design.

Unlike many headphones, the controls differ on each bud, which can make them a little confusing at first. On the left side the controls are single tap for Hear Through, double tap for skip to the next track and hold to turn the volume down, while on the right you have play, pause and volume up. Once you get it straight in your head they are easy buttons to use though, another improvement on the 65t headphones, which were a little more fiddly in my experience.

The Jabra Elite Active 75t headphones are brilliant, then, but expensive at £189.99 – especially when the Elite 75t buds are right there for £20 less. If you’re shopping at this end of the market I’d say both the Elite and the Elite Active are the best sports headphones you can get, though the active noise cancellation on the Apple AirPods Pro is exceptional if you can stretch even further to £249.

Buy from Jabra | £189.99

Nick Harris-Fry is a journalist who has been covering health and fitness since 2015. Nick is an avid runner, covering 70-110km a week, which gives him ample opportunity to test a wide range of running shoes and running gear. He is also the chief tester for fitness trackers and running watches, treadmills and exercise bikes, and workout headphones.