In what is surely one of the rarest occurrences in tech, Jabra announced a massive free upgrade to its existing Elite 75t and Elite Active 75t true wireless earbuds: Both models will receive active noise cancellation (ANC) via a firmware update starting in mid-October for free.
The news follows on the heels of Jabra’s debut of its Elite 85t, the first true wireless earbuds the company has released with ANC baked in as a standard feature. Between the Elite 85t and today’s surprise announcement that 75t models will also receive ANC, Jabra’s ANC earbud lineup has gone from zero to three overnight.
The update will be delivered via the Jabra Sound+ app to all owners of Jabra Elite 75t and Elite Active 75t earbuds in mid-October — the same timeframe in which Jabra will add the feature to all new purchases of these models. It will enable Jabra’s standard ANC solution, which applies to music and media playback.
The key to the upgrade — and why we probably won’t see other companies offering the same upgrade to their non-ANC true wireless earbuds — is the hardware and software that these two models already have onboard, specifically their Qualcomm chips and digital audio processor.
The Elite 75t and Elite Active 75t use their external microphones to offer Jabra’s HearThrough mode, which pipes external sounds into your ears when you need it. These same mics will be used for ANC, too.
Turning ANC on will have an impact on battery life, but curiously, the Elite 75t models will end up with the same or better battery performance as the new Elite 85t: 5.5 hours on a single charge (24 hours in total with charging case) when ANC is on, and the normal 7.5 hours and 28 hours in total with ANC off.
Digital Trends considers both Elite 75t models to be two of the best true wireless earbuds you can buy, and with the addition of ANC, they may also join our list of the best noise-canceling earbuds. But we’re not going to assume anything: As soon as we get a chance to try it out on both models, we’ll update our reviews.
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