Jabra Evolve2 55 Stereo Wireless Headphones review: Hybrid headphones get a thumbs up (2023)

fromJabra Evolve2 55 Stereo Wireless HeadphonesThat may not seem like much, but even discerning audiophiles will be amazed by the sound reproduction and rich highs and lows this product offers. As far as comfort goes, it's the only headset I'll use for a full day of calls and meetings.

Review Geek's expert reviewers work on nearly every product we review. We spent hours testing each piece of hardware in the real world and running them through benchmarks in our lab. We never accept payment for recommending or rating products, and we never collect other people's reviews.read more >>

Design, fit and comfort: don't judge a book by its cover

fromJabra Evolve2 55It measures 7.28 inches long, 6.89 inches from left to right cup, 2.56 inches from front to back, and weighs 0.29 lbs. Charging Stand measures 4.57 inches long, 2.76 inches wide, and 0.94 inches front to back (when folded). Both the phone and the charging stand are encased in a matte black ABS plastic case.

The Evolve2 55 headphones look very understated at first glance. Your traditional volume controls and command buttons are mapped to a punch-hole button on top of the right earcup, and there's a noise-canceling switch behind the headband. There's also a Power/Bluetooth button at the bottom of the right header, next to the USB port used to charge the headset. Conveniently, the Evolve2 55 can be purchased in two versionsUSB-AfromUSB-C configuration, this preference carries over to the charging station as well. My review unit was the USB-C version.

When it comes to configuration, Jabra gives you a wide choice of media types Evolve2 55 is optimized to include Unified Communications and Microsoft Teams options. My test model was optimized for Teams, replacing the default answer button on the outside of the cup on the right with a Teams button. If you're the type of person who's always in a Teams meeting, you can join the next meeting in seconds by pressing the Teams button.

Completing the look and feel of the Evolve2 55 are two of my favorite design elements: the included boom mic and Jabra's Air Comfort technology. Since the Evolve22 55 is great for everything from music and podcasts to large conference calls, there's a convenient noise-canceling mic on the end of the swinging boom. If you don't like the way it looks, unfortunately you can't remove it, but there are a few tricks to that rotating tree. When you get a call, it automatically answers the call by turning the microphone to your mouth. You can also turn the lever back on your head to mute the microphone during a call.

Then there's the Air Comfort, which is really nothing more than faux leather padding that covers the left and right earcups and the part of the headband that connects to your head, or so I thought at first. Jabrin's Air Comfort is actually a marvel of the perfect fit, helping to reduce pressure on the ears and head while wearing the Evolve2, and as someone who wears the suit all the timeBluetooth earphoneFor work and leisure, I can't describe how great the Air Comfort is. I like my usual everyday attire,Sony WHCH710N, but my right ear started to fatigue after only wearing it for 15 minutes or less, manifested by burning and itching in the inner ear. During the few weeks I tested the Evolve 2 55, I probably wore them four to five hours a day, andno wayexperience discomfort of any kind.

Oh, and one more thing before we go on; when I first got my hands on the Jabra Evolve2 55, I was a little worried about how light they were. Personally, I've been conditioned to associate weight with power and performance over the years, but that's a consumer technology fetish I should really try to say goodbye to. Even though the cans cost a little over a quarter-pound, the Evolve2 achieved sound quality that totally exceeded my expectations (more on that later).

Connectivity, pairing, and battery life: the best deal ever

The Jabra Evolve2 55 uses the Bluetooth 5.2 standard and supports AAC and SBC audio codecs. You can pair up to eight Bluetooth devices with your phone and make two simultaneous Bluetooth connections simultaneously. Pairing the headphones is a very simple process. Turn on the Evolve 2, then press and hold the Bluetooth power/pairing button for about four seconds until the headset indicates that you are ready to connect to a new Bluetooth device. Then just go to the bluetooth menu on your mobile device or laptop, find the headset and tap/click connect, pair, or whatever "handshake" lingo your hosting hardware uses.

I had no problem pairing the Evolve2 55 with my iPhone 12 and 2021 MacBook Pro, and while the initial connection to my computer dropped the Evolve2 55 from my iPhone, the headphones claimed to connect to both devices after I installed them. Re-pair now.

Evolve2 55 is also equipped withJabra's Link 380 Bluetooth Adapter, a USB-A dongle that acts as a Bluetooth-connected glorifying amp. Thanks to support for Bluetooth 5.0 and HD Voice, the Link 380 improves everything from overall sound and call quality to Bluetooth coverage. I personally didn't notice much of a difference in sound and call quality when using the adapter instead of connecting directly to the device, but I think it's a great tool for busy workplaces.

Jabra claims a Bluetooth range of up to 30 meters with the Link 380, though the only time you're likely to come close to those three figures is in an unobstructed environment. But guess what? Jabra proved me wrong again.

For my first pairing experiment, I connected the Evolve2 55 directly to my iPhone 12 (instead of the Link 380). I left my phone in the living room and left the apartment, as far away from my building as possible. As I grew further and further away from myself, I kept thinking, "Well,arriveIt's time for the headphones to hang up," but the Evolve2 kept playing my iPhone's white noise song. I didn't finally lose the connection until I was about 300 to 30 feet away from my When the apartment was about 50 feet away, the headset reconnected to my phone.

This is the best bluetooth range I've ever experiencedLos AngelesA device and an important feature for a busy office environment where you might have to jump from your desk and run to your co-worker's cubicle across the room while keeping your phone and laptop by yourself on the workstation.

As for battery life, Jabra claims you can get up to 18 hours of music playback with ANC off and up to 15 hours with ANC on. In terms of talk time, you can get up to 16 hours with ANC off and up to 10 hours with it on. Based on my time with the headphones, I can definitely back up these claims. On occasion, I even exceeded the Jabra's expectations, listening to music for about 17 hours with ANC on, even though the songs I played were relatively quiet. I also appreciate the quick power boost you get from the USB-C charging dock or the USB-C direct connection, which Jabra says will get you from zero to 50 percent battery in just half an hour.

Noise Cancellation: The Only Pain Point

andsoReally wanted to write great stuff about the Evolve2 55sActive Noise Cancellation(ANC) is working, but to be honest, ANC is not working very well. This is a real problem, but despite my desire for the ANC to filter out ambient sounds like the HVAC system, vacuum cleaner, and my sound generator, the earphones performed poorly in almost every type of ANC test I put them on. I even turned the ANC control up in the Jabra Sound+ app (foriPhoneüandroid), but everything from wobbling fans to passers-by made me check to see if I had ANC turned on.

Unfortunately, this ANC debacle affects everyday listening and calls, which is a shame when you hear what I have to say about the actual sound and call quality in general (both are great). But yes, no matter what tweaks I made or what listening situation I put myself in, the Evolve2 55 did little to block out the sounds you didn't want to hear while watching a movie or listening to music. This was especially frustrating when I was trying to make a call outside on a windy day, as the Evolve2 did little to mitigate the wind gusts that interrupted my calls.

Sound quality: Dare to go where no headphones have gone before

In terms of overall audio performance, the Evolve2 55 is one of the best stereo headphones I've tested, and that was before I delved into tweaking some settings using the Sound+ app. As standard, the 28mm speakers produce a crisp and clean sound with excellent high-frequency definition and a surprising amount of low-end. I say unexpectedly because, I'm very conditioned to believe that a headphone with good bass should be heavy, but it's not. I did several media tests with the Evolve2 55 and was very pleased with the results each time.

My girlfriend and I love using the Roku Mobile app because of the handy private listening feature that activates the TV speakers and sends audio from movies and TV shows to any wireless or wired headphones paired with your mobile device. We're Disney fans, so we thought we'd givePetar Pan and WendyPlayed with Evolve2 55 for an hour. I found Disney+ and Mix to be very successful in reducing excessive dialogue and overemphasizing background music and sound effects, and I found these unbalanced sound profiles across multiple devices streaming old and new Disney content. So I'm especially happy to say that the Evolve2 55 eliminates most of my typical complaints about Disney+.

The opening scene of the latest adaptation of "Peter Pan" is an introduction to the Darling family, and we follow John and Michael to a wooden sword duel as they go to bed. Every sibling's dialogue is focused and clear, and every swordplay defense gets proper attention on the soundstage. Behind all this action is your typical Disney orchestral score, to which the Evolve2 55 responds beautifully. Individual instruments are striking and sound pleasant, but no part of the orchestra stands out or is distracting. Oh, and there's a thunderstorm out there, and every bump and rumble gets good mid-range and low-frequency response (especially the rumble).

In a subsequent sequence, Peter and the Darlings are seen dodging fire from Captain Hook's ship. With such an exaggerated situation looming, I had fully prepared the Evolve2 55 to underestimate or overestimate certain recklessness, but again I was wrong. From the cacophony of screaming pirates to the bass of every cannonball, Evolve2 makes the scene sound as epic as it looks.

In the music world, the Jabra Evolve2 55 performs equally well. Metallica's big, bold self-titled album (dubbed "The Black Album" by fans) is always a solid bet for testing headphones of any kind. Bob Rock's idea of ​​radio-friendly Metallica was more about stomping than head-banging, as songs like "Sad but True" exemplify. Evolve2 55 takes the song's percussion to new heights, adding power and definition to every guitar and bass hit. When James Hetfield starts singing, his vocals take center stage in the soundstage, and the Evolve2 isolates the intense instrumentation well.

For easy listening, Paramore's "This is Why" is a disco ball anthem, and the Evolve2 55 makes it even more dynamic and vibrant. Everything from the guitar and bass to the vocals is clean and accurate, enhancing the overall rhythm of the tune. Opting for a more indie rock vibe on the latest album, one of the biggest changes is the way drummer Zach Farro mixes his gear. For most of the songs, the result is his better playing style, especially compared to the band's past anthem drumming. But I don't know if I would have been able to record this kind of detail without the Evolve2 55. The Farr's low-key approach, responding to every snare hit with a mix of fill and treble emphasis, didn't sound as good on my other headphones.

Call quality: Best with poor ANC

It's one thing when music and other media sound great through headphones, but when we're talking a bunch of cans with dedicated mics, we can expect big effects. Fortunately, the Evolve2 55 doesn't disappoint in this overall category either, although the lack of proper ANC functionality poses some obstacles.

From a listener's perspective, regular phone calls and virtual meetings sound nice and clear. I didn't need to do anything with the EQ other than tweak the volume a few times, although I did try out some of the cool stuff the Evolve2 55 is capable of. In Jabra's Sound+ app, under Call Experience, in the Call Quality menu, you can choose between three caller profiles: Neutral (default), Treble and Bass. As you can imagine, switching to treble mode adds a touch of high-frequency clarity to the caller's voice, which I think makes it easier to hear what the caller is actually saying. I found the bass mode slightly less impressive, with the deepening of dialogue and certain ambient sounds a bit too distracting for my tastes.

The Evolve2 55 also includes a feature called Sidetone that isolates your own voice during calls while filtering out office chatter, passing traffic and other hard-to-ignore sounds. In the Sound+ app, you can turn sidetone on and off and adjust the amount of isolation applied to your voice. I kept my isolation around two-thirds, which gave me a good balance between the clarity of the caller and the clarity of my own voice.

I also think it's impressive that Jabra considered adding noise cancellation (a patented technology called Jabra Clearvoice) to the Evolve2 55 microphone, but unfortunately it's not much. People who talk to me say my voice sounds deep, like I'm in a bad relationship. I wonder if Jabra can fix some of these ANC issues with a firmware update. Speaking of updates...

Jabra Sound+ app: Take your Evolve2 to the next level

Jabra's Sound+ app (foriPhoneüandroid) is more than just a typical headphone tool. In fact, when it comes to fine-tuning your Evolve2 55's sound and overall performance, you're missing out on some great features and customizations if you don't dig into Jabra's excellent app at least a time or two.

When your Evolve2 55 is turned on and paired with your mobile device, the main screen of the app will give you a readout of the remaining battery life of the headset, as well as noise cancellation adjustments, music equalizer, various music settings, background sounds and toggles to the headset busy light (the LED on the headset lights up red when you are on a call). You'll also see an option to update the firmware at the top of the home screen, but for some reason I haven't been able to download the actual update. Every time I try, I get an error message that the installation failed. I've even restarted the phone, headphones and the app multiple times, to no avail. There may be a firmware update...to fix the firmware update.

Tap the "Settings" icon in the upper right corner of the screen to get into real meat and potatoes customization. The settings screen allows you to adjust various settings for the headset's sound, calls, and general use, from whether to play music to how long it lasts when HearThrough (Jabra's version of ambient listening) is on. Enter sleep mode with Evolve2. My favorite tweak is a feature called MySound, a calibration tool that optimizes the headphones based on how well you hear certain test tones. Once you're done, you can use this sound profile for all your listening media, and let me tell you, there's a big difference between music with MySound enabled and MySound disabled. The former is better in every way, from the overall sound reproduction to the nuances of high and low frequencies.

At the bottom of the home screen is a ribbon with three menu options. Tapping the Discover icon (light bulb) will let you do things like register your Evolve2 headset and access digital copies of the Quick Start Guide and Owner's Manual. Clicking on the "About Sound+" icon (the "i" in the middle of the circle) will give you a link to the Jabra support team, as well as other useful information such as the software version of the headset and a link to the Jabra Privacy Policy.

Should you buy the Jabra Evolve2 55?

fromJabra Evolve2 55Checks a few key boxes for an effective stereo headset, especially when it comes to overall sound quality, call and meeting shortcuts, and in-app customization. Still, the headphones don't score high on ANC, which is a pretty big failure in my opinion, and the lack of firmware updates shouldn't be overlooked.

Personally, I think $319 is a bit steep for a headset that simply doesn't deliver. As of the publication of this review, the headphones are also completely sold out at Jabra, and Amazon has marked the item as temporarily out of stock.