They’re comfortable for extended wear, easy to drop on the charger, and they work elegantly with Teams (or UC) depending on your preferences. Unexpectedly, these are fine for other purposes. Audiophiles might hear some of the compromises made to achieve their sound profile and the impact of noise-cancelling technology. But they’re not as evident as we’ve experienced on other business headphones, especially regarding the higher frequencies. There is bass, not excessive amounts, but it offers some. The headset also works with the Jabra Direct desktop software, which combines some of the app features with an on-screen dashboard for calls. Jabra Direct is available for macOS and Windows, but it isn't essential to the operation of the headset. The only downside to ANC is that it reduces battery life, reducing talk time from 24 hours to just 18 hours. That said, unless the shifts being worked are entirely illegal, this isn’t an issue that most wearers are likely ever to encounter. A sufficiently simple layout that most people should embrace after receiving a relatively short walkthrough on how to operate them. What especially impressed us was how easily these can be placed on the charger, reducing the possibilities of those awkward moments when you arrive for work and then realise that the headset isn’t charged.

While it is possible to charge these using only a USB cable, we recommend investing in the charger, as it has a dramatically better design than the original Evolve. Instead of the large and awkward frame that the headset hung on, the new charger is small, discreet and the way the headphones land on it is elegant. While this headset might be inherently easier for a right-handed person to use, this bias isn’t as evident as we’ve seen elsewhere, and the button selection is reasonably well dispersed between the two sides. What is more difficult to gauge is the clarity of speaking for those at the other end of the line, as that’s potentially more important than the experience of the wearer. The left side has pins that interface to the charging base, the power button that doubles for Bluetooth pairing, the USB-C charging port and a button that controls the noise-cancelling function. Everything about the new design is smoother and more elegant, with a shorter retractable microphone boom and a discrete charging base.The eight-mic array features four analog and four digital MEMS mics for maximum clarity. In our tests, with the boom mic extended, you get excellent intelligibility. The mics emphasize the range of frequencies that the human voice covers, and do a superb job of increasing clarity and minimizing surrounding noise; we understood every word from a Voice Memos recording we took on an iPhone. For those using these on a Windows PC or Apple Mac, Jabra provides Jabra Direct, a tool to manage the headphones and apply firmware enhancements when required. Softphone support is provided by default for Microsoft Teams, and Zoom on the MS Teams variant. These should also work well with Skype and Mitac, amongst other popular tools.

But being realistic, Jabra made the Evolve2 75 series with exactly this price point in mind, and they’re constructed and specified accordingly. And, therefore a cheaper version of this design probably wouldn’t perform as well or last as long in frontline use. It’s an additional cost on what aren’t cheap headphones, but having this item made encountering an uncharged device less likely.Jabra chose not to do that here, and the Evolve2 75 is significantly different from the original Evolve 75 it replaces in both form and function. The Bluetooth on the Evolve2 is version 5.2, supports the pairing of the headphones with up to eight different devices and can connect to two of those at any one time. This functionality allows you to use two different computers or devices, and seamlessly transition between them. It’s tempting to wish these were cheaper, so someone sourcing headsets for many employees wouldn’t eliminate these from a procurement exercise-based purely on the cost per unit.

Those using the Jabra Direct software can make adjustments to increase or decrease the output across bass, the mid-range and treble as required. Jabra estimates that the headset can last for up to 36 hours for music or 24 hours for talk on battery (without ANC or the busy light activated). Your results, of course, will vary based on your volume levels and use of certain features. The big issue here is the price. Because almost everything else about the Jabra Evolve2 75 is suitable for those that need to communicate effectively during their working day. Typically, when headphone maker produces a second version of a successful design, they often retain much of the original structure and technology, primarily to reduce costs.They’re also a significant improvement over the original Evolve 75 design, not that those are bad in any significant way. When you fully retract the boom, the headset mutes the mics by default. If you prefer, you can turn off this behavior in the app and use the headset for calls in a more discreet configuration. Predictably, the clarity suffers a bit with the boom retracted, but it’s still about as good as you get with a traditional pair of Bluetooth headphones. Overall, these sounded much better than we’d anticipated, and we can see no good reason why these couldn’t be used for other purposes than conference calls when the need arises.