I've gone through many earbuds over the last decade, if not longer. My ears are meticulous and have fit issues with most products. Either earbuds stay in my ears, and they hurt, or they easily fall out. I've tried the AirPods Pro 2 and they fall out, Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro but they don't have an iOS app, Beats QC Earbuds II/Ultra, Sony WF-1000XM4/XM5, Beats Studio Buds+, PowerBeats Pro, Technics AZ60M2, various Jaybird models, and a few from Jabra's past (Elite 75t, Elite 7 Pro, Elite 8 Active, and Elite 10).
So far, every earbud has some major fit issue or a big compromise. I want something with ANC, but it doesn't need to be class-leading ANC. Just enough to cancel out the noise at my office and enough to be used in public so that I can't hear much when music is playing. I also want something that's water-resistant (at least IPX4), has a comfortable fit, features like a Qi charging case, and both multi-point and a companion app are a bonus.
For me, Jabra has hit is out of the park. I started with the Elite 8 Active, and they were fine, but their ANC had a bug where higher pitched noises (like silverware clanging in a drawer) were amplified when ANC was on, as if certain frequencies couldn't be canceled and instead switched the earbuds to transparency mode. They also sit much further in your ear canals, so I ended up having comfort issues after an hour or two of wearing them.
I returned them and decided to go with the Elite 10 because of their fit and higher reviews for both sound quality and ANC. For me, Jabra has hit it out of the park. The Elite 10 sit in the outer portion of your ear canals, even more so than AirPods Pro 2 or Beats Studio Buds+. They have cone-shaped ear tips that don't plug up your ears and the earbuds themselves have at least two vents. This means you won't get a clogged ear feeling and the pressure the ear tips exert is minimal.
The Elite 10 are covered in a soft-touch rubber like the Elite 7 Active, Elite 8 Active, and Elite 75t Active. This makes them more comfortable and easier to handle. The inside of their case has the same soft-touch rubber, which is a blessing and a curse. I'll touch on that later.
The Elite 10 have a shape like most people's outer ears and mine have two main points of contact: my outer ear canals and the bottom. I have yet to experience fatigue when wearing these and my ears don't hurt after hours of listening. I've even worn them while side sleeping and they're fine. My ears usually hurt after doing that with most earbuds. Not these.
Jabra rates these as being IP57 dust and waterproof. You can fully submerge these in up to 1 meter of water for half an hour. They're rated at a level 5 for dust ingress. These are safe to use at the beach, outdoors, and in dusty environments. You can clean them by either completely submerging them in water or running them under a faucet.
For me, their IP57 rating negates the need for the Elite 8 Active. Those are rated at IP68, so they have more resistance to dust and water (their case is also IP68 rated), but the practical differences between IP57 and IP68 are minimal. It's not like people are going to bury these in the dirt. The IP57 rating of the Elite 10 is already more than most other earbuds, including everything from Apple/Beats.
The Elite 10 sound quality is top notch. They have a 10mm dynamic driver, but driver size isn't always indicative of higher audio quality. These come fairly balanced out of the box with slight boosts in the lows and highs, a mild exaggeration of the Harmon curve. You can pick from a series of 9 preset EQs or customize your own using a 5-band EQ in their app. I ended up making my own to suit my needs. I wish more companies, especially Apple, would get on board with this.
Their soundstage is wider than most other earbuds, likely due to their outer ear canal positioning and open vents. Atmos content in Apple Music allows for instrument placement and a wider soundstage than usual. You can enable Dolby Atmos in the Jabra+ app, which makes it so the earbuds "upscale" stereo content to Atmos with or without head tracking. Like upscaling from Bose and other companies, it sounds terrible. You're better off forcing Atmos in your music player (Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, and Deezer all have Atmos mixes), the Elite 10 handle that just fine. Leave stereo content alone unless you enjoy having everything sound more muted.
ANC is good with the Elite 10. When I had the Sony WF-1000XM5, I switched their ear tips from the included foam ones (which hurt my ears) to silicone ones for better comfort (but the earbuds would fall out). The Elite 10 have similar performance to the XM5 when using silicone tips. The XM5 (and XM4) heavily rely on their foam ear tips for better ANC performance, and they're able to isolate outside noise better with those. I'd put the Elite 10 equal to the AirPods Pro 2 but still behind the two earbuds from Bose. ANC is an upgrade over the Elite 8 Active. Some outside noises still make it through due to the vented design of the Elite 10, but it's not bad and I don't notice it when playing music.
Bluetooth connectivity has been rock solid, it reminds me of when I had AirPods Pro 2 paired with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I have yet to experience any dips or audible issues. The Elite 10 have multipoint and will automatically switch between two devices, they remember up to 8 paired devices. I have them paired to my iPhone and MacBook Pro, they have zero issues automatically jumping between the two. It's a smoother process than Apple's iCloud syncing.
All this being said, the Elite 10 aren't perfect. I would give them more of a 4.5 out of 5, but I felt like rounding up. First, their ANC is not competitive with other earbuds in their MSRP range. Both the XM5 and Bose QC earbuds perform better and their MSRPs aren't too far ahead of Jabra. Second, their battery life could be longer. 6 hours with ANC/transparency on and 9 hours with ANC/transparency off isn't bad, but other companies have started getting into the 8–10-hour ranges with ANC/transparency on. Lastly, the soft-touch rubber coating on both the earbuds and inside of the charging case means these collect dead skin cells, skin oils, dirt, hair, clothing fibers, and other small things. I've been able to easily clean them with a moist microfiber cloth. But still, the picture inside of my case is just from one day of using the Elite 10.
Still, I can live with some of those setbacks given their comfort, ANC performance (when these are on sale and not their full MSRP), audio quality, Jabra's excellent Jabra+ app, and feature set. I have a pair of over-ear ANC headphones for when I really want to shut things out. But, for most of the time, I'll be listening with these. They're rugged, stay put no matter what I'm doing, and have a solid Bluetooth connection with source audio devices.
I can't recommend these enough if you're tired of earbuds that go deep into your ear canals and/or have fit issues with earbuds like the AirPods Pro 2.