I agree. I have been using and testing the Jabra Elite Sport for the last few months, by pairing them with as many older devices as possible and Thinkpad X1 (1st Gen) being amongst them. Although, the reception can be patchy on the outer range - which is probably due to the antenna and it's positioning, rather than the BT 4.0 chipset on the laptop. However, the earphones pair easily as soon as they are removed from the charging case.

I have the same model the OP posted about, exactly the same issues as him. This whole time I've been thinking it my systems fault. Despite the fact I had it on a Surface Book and a Toshiba Portege and a Surface Pro 4.

I've resigned myself to using the dangle and not using it when away from desk (dongle is plugged into the Screen on my desk).

I'm going to stop buying Jabra and will probably stop the company buying them as well. Bluetooth is meant to be a universal standard. This is bullshit and shouldn't happen.