These earphone promises a longer battery life along with a snug and comfortable fit. Not to mention, they are considerably cheaper its counterpart. So, if we were to pit these two earphones against each other, which one of these two would come out as the winner? Well, that’s what we will find out today in this face-off between the Creative Outlier Air and the Jabra Elite 65t wireless earphones. Let the game begin.
Design and Fit
It’s 2019, and now, earphones sizes have gone down comparatively. As long as you are wearing the proper fit, you can rest assured that they won’t fall off from your ears. The Creative Outlier Air sports a compact design, which looks good on your ears. And the nozzle-like design makes them fit your ear canal easily. Plus, they also carry the IPX5 rating, which means that they can withstand water splashing, even when projected with force. On the other hand, though a lot of folks praise the fit of the Jabra Elite 65t, the outer shell of these earphones are slightly bigger. That means the outer part will be protruding out from your ears slightly. Though they aren’t quite as big at the Bose SoundSport Free, they aren’t the most discreet either. Quite naturally, a slightly bigger outer body means that you get a feeling that the buds will fall off if you do some strenuous activity. Thankfully, they manage to hold on quite well and in the process, seals the ear canal completely, thus giving you an immersive sound experience. When it comes to the buttons, both the earphones sport physical buttons. So, right from controlling the volume to navigating music tracks or answering your phone, these buttons will take care of it all. While the buttons on one of the buds allow you to skip tracks or lower the volume, the other is a multi-functional button which you can use to answer/reject calls, call for your voice assistant or play and pause music. The good thing about the Elite 65t is that the double tone finish gives it a neat look. You can pick from three color options – Titanium Black, Copper Black, and Gold Beige. The Creative Outlier Air has a stylish notification rim. However, the mechanism isn’t simple. To change the volume, you’d need to press and hold the button. While it doesn’t seem to be a big issue initially, the somewhat limited flexibility of the buttons tends to put a little pressure on the ears.
The Edge of Companion App
The key advantage that earphones like Jabra Elite 65t and the Galaxy Buds (see Jaybird Run XT vs Samsung Galaxy Buds) have over other earphones like OnePlus Wireless 2 and Creative Outlier Air is the companion app. The Jabra Sound + app comes with plenty of control. Right from the sound transparency (HearThrough) feature to the built-in Equalizer and Soundscapes, you can play around with a lot. What’s more, there are features like Find My Earbuds and Auto-pause. One of the most significant features is the HearThrough, which lets you adjust the degree of ambient noise. And the best thing is that you can enable it right from the earbud or the companion app. If you are leaning towards the Creative Outlier Air, don’t be disheartened. It also comes with a feature called Mono Mode, which lets you carry on your calls (or listen to songs) while one of the buds is in the charging case.
Bluetooth: Connectivity & Codec
Bluetooth 5.0 is the flavor of the season, and you can find it on almost the new earphones, including the Elite 65t and the Outlier Air. The newer version of Bluetooth brings a better range and faster connectivity. Coming to Bluetooth codecs, the Creative’s brand new product comes with both aptX and AAC codecs, both known for their lossy digital audio compression techniques. However, with the Jabra 65t, you don’t get any high-quality streaming options. These buds have the plain simple SBC Bluetooth codec, meaning you might have to sacrifice high-quality audio fidelity.
Battery & Charging
Be it a phone, a wireless earphone, or even an electric car, the battery is one of the crucial parts of an electronic device. You wouldn’t want your wireless earphone maxing out at three hours, however awesome they may sound. When it comes to the Creative Outlier Air, the crux of these earbuds is its impressive battery life. The Outlier Air promises to deliver a whopping 30 hours of battery life. While the earbuds are capable of a carrying a 10-hour long charge, the rest is filled by the charging case which provides the rest of 20 hours (divided into 10-hour cycles). The folks at SoundGuys tested this claim and believed that the Outlier Air could live up to around 7.78 hours of playback time. With the Jabra Elite 65t has, you’ll get 6 hours of run time on a full charge. The case will give you an additional 10 hours, provided it’s fully charged. Again, as per the guys at SoundGuys, the Elite 65t lived up to its claim giving an output of 5.8 hours on a full charge.
Which Earbuds Should You Buy?
Talking about any audio accessory isn’t complete without a mention of the audio quality. The Jabra Elite 65t though produces great sound for casual listening, isn’t made for the bass lovers. They tend to suppress the high-end frequencies, which could sometimes leave the music lover in you a tad bit dissatisfied. But if you use them to listen to podcasts or you are a casual listener, they won’t disappoint you. Interestingly, the Creative’s Outlier Air earphones are quite the opposite. These are a pair of bass-heavy earphones with a rich and balanced output. And needless to say, the bass-lover in you’ll come to love the thump. Plus, there’s a lot of positive reviews to back up this claim. Last but not least, there’s the price to consider. At $80, the Creative Outlier Air earphones are priced almost half of the $160 price tag of the Jabra Elite 65t. Next up: Are you on a lookout for earphones with really long battery life? Read the post below to see the best ones in the lot. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
