Best bluetooth headphones with laptop support
June 14, 2020 11:09 AM Subscribe
So, given that I'm home constantly and need to avoid disturbing neighbors with my music/movies/phone conversations, I bought a pair of Jabra Elite Active 75t headphones. But... they suck at connecting to both my phone and my laptop. It's a nightmare of constant fiddling. (And to boot, Jabra tech support says their chipset does not support laptops and so they can't help with that half, just their failure to work with my Pixel phone.) I'm planning to return them. What are my other options?
I like the Jabras for comfort, and I'd like a similar Bluetooth earbud to replace them. Jabra says their chipset "does not support laptops". I don't want a separate set of headphones for my laptop and my phone.
Also, honestly, they're terrible at connecting to my phone, too. I can get them to connect, but it consistently takes two or three tries where the phone *claims* that the headphones are connected, but the sound is still coming out of the phone itself (or the laptop speakers, depending on device).
I want a wireless device that doesn't require constant fiddling to get it working, is comfortable to wear, is earbud-style, and has good sound. Bonus if it's robust enough for working out. Does this... even exist? Please hope me.
I like the Jabras for comfort, and I'd like a similar Bluetooth earbud to replace them. Jabra says their chipset "does not support laptops". I don't want a separate set of headphones for my laptop and my phone.
Also, honestly, they're terrible at connecting to my phone, too. I can get them to connect, but it consistently takes two or three tries where the phone *claims* that the headphones are connected, but the sound is still coming out of the phone itself (or the laptop speakers, depending on device).
I want a wireless device that doesn't require constant fiddling to get it working, is comfortable to wear, is earbud-style, and has good sound. Bonus if it's robust enough for working out. Does this... even exist? Please hope me.
Response by poster: It's a 2015 Macbook Air. I can connect to it, it just takes a few tries, same as the phone.
However, I don't know how long my Macbook will last, and I want to continue being able to use these headphones with whatever laptop I get next. So it was concerning to me that Jabra tech support basically just says "nope we don't support laptops at all, not our problem".
Most common issue in case this is illuminating at all: I connect, headphones say "connected", phone screen says they're connected, I press play, audio comes out of the phone's built-in speakers. Then I go to the Bluetooth menu and manually disconnect and reconnect a few times until it fixes the problem.
posted by cnidaria at 11:52 AM on June 14, 2020
However, I don't know how long my Macbook will last, and I want to continue being able to use these headphones with whatever laptop I get next. So it was concerning to me that Jabra tech support basically just says "nope we don't support laptops at all, not our problem".
Most common issue in case this is illuminating at all: I connect, headphones say "connected", phone screen says they're connected, I press play, audio comes out of the phone's built-in speakers. Then I go to the Bluetooth menu and manually disconnect and reconnect a few times until it fixes the problem.
posted by cnidaria at 11:52 AM on June 14, 2020
My Jabra 65ts have no problem connecting to my Dell XPS or Pixel phones, FWIW. Something in the Airpod family is worth considering, as you'll get the benefits of Apple's inside edge working with themselves.
posted by Candleman at 12:04 PM on June 14, 2020
posted by Candleman at 12:04 PM on June 14, 2020
Hate to say it, but if you have a mac the best headphones for connectivity are the airpods or Beats. The w chip works really well. Best sounding - not really ly - but connectivity is locked in
posted by rtimmel at 12:13 PM on June 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by rtimmel at 12:13 PM on June 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I use LG Tone headphones (I really like the around the neck design, as it's way more secure and way less likely to disappear into the ether) which connect great with my 2015 Macbook Air and my Android phone.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:27 PM on June 14, 2020
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:27 PM on June 14, 2020
Agreed. In my experience, Airpods work pretty flawlessly connecting to my ca. 2013 MacBook Pro and Pixel 3. I haven't done any really strenuous workouts while wearing them but they stay in fine while out walking, doing dishes, heavy yardwork etc.
posted by Jemstar at 12:29 PM on June 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Jemstar at 12:29 PM on June 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Well, I have a Macbook but my next machine will probably be a Windows/Linux dual-boot. And I have a Google Pixel for a phone. Do Airpods work with non-Apple products reliably?
posted by cnidaria at 12:47 PM on June 14, 2020
posted by cnidaria at 12:47 PM on June 14, 2020
Response by poster: I have an older set of the LG headphones with the around-the-neck design, maybe from 2015 or earlier? But the reason I got these new headphones was my older LG headphones had horrible sound quality with my laptop (no idea why...), so bad I have been using my work air-traffic-controller-style USB wired headphones with the dorky microphone situation instead.
posted by cnidaria at 12:48 PM on June 14, 2020
posted by cnidaria at 12:48 PM on June 14, 2020
Bluetooth in general sucks. That said, I have the Bose QC35ii's and they've been great with my 2015 and 2019 macbook pro.
posted by jeffamaphone at 12:49 PM on June 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by jeffamaphone at 12:49 PM on June 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
I've been using two sets of Apple Airpods (my regular ones and the kid's Pros) on my Dell Precision laptop with Windows 10 and they've worked great.
I'd say they're very reliable, they probably pair faster than my other bluetooth devices, but maybe one out of ten times I need to quickly jump to Win10 Settings and hit connect to make it light up. But that's not a dealbreaker for me. You just need to make sure your phone's bluetooth is off because the airpods seem to prioritize the phone over the laptop.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:55 PM on June 14, 2020
I'd say they're very reliable, they probably pair faster than my other bluetooth devices, but maybe one out of ten times I need to quickly jump to Win10 Settings and hit connect to make it light up. But that's not a dealbreaker for me. You just need to make sure your phone's bluetooth is off because the airpods seem to prioritize the phone over the laptop.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:55 PM on June 14, 2020
Best answer: Anker Soundcore headphones are great - cheap, great sound, very reliable, good battery life and they connect every time. I have their over ear ones for music/podcasts in the house and the Spirit X ones for walking around. They’re both great.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:55 PM on June 14, 2020
posted by Happy Dave at 1:55 PM on June 14, 2020
Best answer: It's completely meaningless to say they "don't support laptops". A chipset is a chipset. I realise this doesn't help you much but the issue isn't your laptop, it's a shitty Bluetooth implementation.
posted by turkeyphant at 2:10 PM on June 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by turkeyphant at 2:10 PM on June 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Yeah, I'm confused by that. Either they support Bluetooth or they don't. (My Sennheiser Momentums work fine with my laptop, as does the 1More headset.)
posted by praemunire at 2:49 PM on June 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 2:49 PM on June 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: From my communications with Jabra tech support:
"The 75t is made for mobile phone chipsets and profiles and we cannot guarantee a stable connection to the PC.
"We would like to clarify that the Jabra Elite 75t series is optimized for use with mobile phones. It is not optimized for use with smart TVs, computers, or software like Skype for Business or Zoom. You can find more information about this here. Your best bet is to use a Bluetooth dongle like the Jabra Link 370 to pair with a computer, although we cannot guarantee that this will offer the functionality you are looking for since it is not officially supported.
"If you are able to connect with a computer, but one of the features is not working properly, please test on a phone. If the Elite 75t works as expected with a phone, then the challenge is likely due to the unsupported connection."
But yeah, it seems bizarre to me, too. Isn't Bluetooth Bluetooth?
posted by cnidaria at 3:17 PM on June 14, 2020
"The 75t is made for mobile phone chipsets and profiles and we cannot guarantee a stable connection to the PC.
"We would like to clarify that the Jabra Elite 75t series is optimized for use with mobile phones. It is not optimized for use with smart TVs, computers, or software like Skype for Business or Zoom. You can find more information about this here. Your best bet is to use a Bluetooth dongle like the Jabra Link 370 to pair with a computer, although we cannot guarantee that this will offer the functionality you are looking for since it is not officially supported.
"If you are able to connect with a computer, but one of the features is not working properly, please test on a phone. If the Elite 75t works as expected with a phone, then the challenge is likely due to the unsupported connection."
But yeah, it seems bizarre to me, too. Isn't Bluetooth Bluetooth?
posted by cnidaria at 3:17 PM on June 14, 2020
I have a mid-2015 MBP and Jabra Evolve 75s. They pair well, though MS Teams (or is it Skype?) resets the input (mic) volume to zero every time the app launches.
They work wonderfully with my iPhone 8.
The BT controller in the laptop happily talks to the headphones, but from what I read last week, the BT protocol itself is bad at handling the traffic load of two-way audio. They sell a USB dongle that offloads the Bluetooth which I don't own, and which I don't think I will buy. I believe that our computers have a BT chip that runs version 4 of the standard while our newer phones can do 5, or maybe it's version 3 and 4, respectively.
So our headphones are different models of the same era and our laptops are roughly the same. I don't have the same problem as you, which is weird.
Can you get a used BT dongle (called a Jabra Link) on eBay or something? The Jabra subreddit r/Jabra has a few posts about off-brand dongles, and many more (mostly unhappy, I'm afraid) about the 65t and 75t earbuds.
posted by wenestvedt at 3:46 AM on June 15, 2020
They work wonderfully with my iPhone 8.
The BT controller in the laptop happily talks to the headphones, but from what I read last week, the BT protocol itself is bad at handling the traffic load of two-way audio. They sell a USB dongle that offloads the Bluetooth which I don't own, and which I don't think I will buy. I believe that our computers have a BT chip that runs version 4 of the standard while our newer phones can do 5, or maybe it's version 3 and 4, respectively.
So our headphones are different models of the same era and our laptops are roughly the same. I don't have the same problem as you, which is weird.
Can you get a used BT dongle (called a Jabra Link) on eBay or something? The Jabra subreddit r/Jabra has a few posts about off-brand dongles, and many more (mostly unhappy, I'm afraid) about the 65t and 75t earbuds.
posted by wenestvedt at 3:46 AM on June 15, 2020
I have for years used Logitech H800 headphones for work, to connect to both my laptop and phone. They have a USB receiver that plugs into the laptop and connect to the phone via Bluetooth. the head set has a switch to select either the laptop or phone. I have used them with a Windows PC the spec say they support Mac too. They are comfortable that I can wear them all day if necessary. I use a pair of earbuds with my phone when not working.
The problem I have had with using Bluetooth headphones on both is you have to disable Bluetooth on the phone or Laptop in order to connect to the desired device.
posted by tman99 at 8:21 AM on June 15, 2020
The problem I have had with using Bluetooth headphones on both is you have to disable Bluetooth on the phone or Laptop in order to connect to the desired device.
posted by tman99 at 8:21 AM on June 15, 2020
I wear Aftershokz Aeropex all day and they work quite well for calls and sound from both my Android Phone and my Windows Laptop. The only one of your requirements they don't cover is the form factor, but I got used to it very quickly coming from airpods.
posted by fjom at 6:30 PM on June 15, 2020
posted by fjom at 6:30 PM on June 15, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
I have the Jabras and use them with my laptop and phone all the time without problems. Unlike my bluetooth speaker...
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 11:19 AM on June 14, 2020