Beats Earbuds Comparison - Which Ones Are Best For You?

[00:00] Beats have been really popular for a while for their athlete-focused design and their overall very popular aesthetic. But which Beats should you actually buy? Specifically, if you're looking to buy the earbuds, there are four different options. There's the brand new Powerbeats Pro for $250 or for about a third the price, the Beats Solo Buds.

[00:16] And are there really that many differences between them? Is it worth it to upgrade? And which ones are actually the right ones for you? Well, in this video, I want to talk about the differences between them as I've been testing them for quite a few months. Actually, I've had all of them since they came out.

[00:29] I've made individual reviews about each of them, and I have a lot to say about this comparison here. Also, I do have the headphones as well. I'll mention those throughout this video, but I think the earbuds are really a conversation on their own.

[00:41] Let's talk about which models Beats actually has right now. So, the most expensive ones are the brand new Powerbeats Pro. These are $249, at least here in the U.S., and they come in several different colors. There's a really bright orange, there's a purple, there's this kind of sandstone tan color,

[00:55] and these are pretty iconic. They have a hook that goes over your ear. They're the sequel to the original Power Beats, as you might guess, but now they're a lot smaller, in my opinion, more secure and more comfortable, and they have a lot of other benefits that I'll talk about throughout this video.

[01:08] Then we have the Beats Fit Pro. Now, I really liked these when they came out because Fit Pro kind of made a lot of sense. It's for fitness, but they also fit in your ears really, really well. So they have this little wingtip-style thing that goes into the top of your ear.

[01:21] They're basically AirPods without the stem and with a little wingtip that holds them in very securely, no matter what you do. And these are originally $200, but being that they've been around for a couple years, you're very likely to find a sale for them. And by the way, that little wing tip

[01:34] kind of sparks a big conversation over which ones actually stay in your ears better, the Powerbeats Pro or the Beats Fit Pro. Then going down in price to $170, so not that much cheaper than the Beats

[01:46] Fit Pro, we have the Beats Studio Buds Plus. And they have a lot of similarities with the Beats Fit Pro, but they don't have the wing tip. Instead, these have a much simpler kind of, you pinch the back, and again, they look a lot like AirPods, just without the stem. And then the cheapest model for

[02:01] about $80 are the Beats Solo Buds, so significantly cheaper than the Beats Studio Buds Plus, but the design looks almost identical yet again. So there's a lot to talk about here. There's also a cheaper wired pair as well, and like I said, the two over-ear headphones here that I'll mention

[02:17] throughout this video, but really the focus will be on these four pairs of earbuds. So let's start off with the first category being the design and the fit and the comfort. I'm not going to go through these in a rank order, but I'll talk about the pros and cons of each of them, starting off with

[02:30] the cheapest ones, the Beats Solo Buds. So these, interestingly, have the smallest case because there are no batteries in the case, which you might think, all right, that's a drawback. You don't get to recharge the earbuds in the case, but you really don't need to. Because these don't have active

[02:45] noise cancellation, somehow they manage to get the battery life up to 18 hours in just the earbuds. So that's pretty competitive with a lot of other cases that do have batteries in them. In addition, like the red transparent case here I think looks so cool.

[02:59] The compact lightweight design kind of also resembles a beast pill in a way, like kind of that pill shape right there. And the earbuds themselves, talking about fit and comfort and style, I think they look pretty good. They're pretty simple, very minimal and compact.

[03:11] They're easy to put in your ear by pinching on the side, so you're not going to accidentally control the earbuds. And then putting them in, you just give them a gentle twist. They're in your ears. I find these staying fairly well, not as well as the other ones, especially if I start moving around a lot.

[03:25] Now, of course, everybody has weird ears, as they say, but for me, my left ear is the one that they always fall out of. They never fall out of the right ear, so maybe for you, they would stay in both ears. Otherwise, wearing them, super comfortable. They feel just like AirPods in my ear.

[03:37] There's not a lot of fatigue or anything like that. Then we have the Beats Studio Buds Plus, a significantly larger case, but essentially the same design of the Buds. Now, I like that these are, like, pretty much fully transparent. I think the design looks awesome.

[03:50] Unfortunately, neither these nor the Solo Buds have wireless charging, and the earbuds themselves, again, also transparent, but almost the same exact design with some pretty significant differences in the controls that I'll talk about in a second.

[04:02] But again, you pinch them, put them in your ear, and these also sit in there very comfortably, but they do also fall out of my left ear if I'm doing any kind of more dynamic workout. The Beats Fit Pro then have an even larger case, so we're kind of just going up in case size here.

[04:14] Still, I would say pocketable, but when you open them up, you can see just how much extra space is in there. presumably for some battery technology and maybe a couple other things. I think they could have made a smaller case, and I hope they come out with a sequel with a smaller case in the future.

[04:27] But looking at the Buds, these, I mean, these look almost exactly like AirPods on the inside. The additional sensor in the middle is a proximity sensor, which is a huge benefit. The first two do not have any ear detection. So when you take them out, say you're listening to a podcast and you just set them on your table,

[04:42] it's not going to pause your podcast. And same with music or anything else you listen to whereas these the Fit Pro and of course the Powerbeats Pro they both have that Now that wingtip on the top when you put these in your ear and twist back it really grabs on very well

[04:56] and I would say probably almost every ear out there is going to fit and stay securely in your ear. So I can do any kind of workout with these. I've literally never had them fall out, and being that all of the Beats earbuds, unlike most other earbuds on the market, have a physical button,

[05:10] again, easy to adjust without accidentally managing those controls. This case also does not have wireless charging, which I think is a drawback considering how large the case is. There's plenty of room for a coil on the bottom. And then going up finally, the Powerbeats Pro.

[05:23] This one fortunately does have wireless charging, finally, thank you Beats. And the earbuds, again, significantly larger than the Beats Fit Pro, but kind of a different style of staying on your ears. So the hook goes behind your ear like this, they kind of slide into your ear.

[05:37] So the drawback here is it is going to take an extra second to put these on. It's not like a quick little put-in-and-twist. You kind of have to hang it over your ear like that. And these initially do not feel as secure as the Beats Fit Pro in my opinion,

[05:50] but despite thinking that they will fall out, they absolutely never fall out of my ears. They never fall off. And I think these are going to be the most versatile fit for the most people out there. No matter what your ear shape is, no matter what kind of workout you're doing,

[06:03] these are almost definitely going to be staying on your ears. A drawback, though, is because they go over your ear, They can interfere with sunglasses or any other glasses. They could also potentially interfere with, I don't know, if you wear like a headband or a hat or something like that.

[06:18] Usually that should be fine, but just something to keep in mind because there is something on top of your ear here. Also, the case is definitely the largest. Setting these side by side, you can see just how much bigger this case is, and so that's going to be a negative.

[06:31] But it's still smaller than the original Powerbeats case, which nonetheless was a very popular pair of earbuds. And these have a special trick up their sleeve. You'll notice, of course, they do have that proximity sensor to detect when they're in

[06:43] or out of your ears. But on the other side, they also have a heart rate sensor. So if you're working out with these, which is kind of the whole point of them, you're able to connect this to, you know, a lot of other apps that contract your heart rate. I believe you can connect it to a lot of popular exercise equipment machines, treadmills and

[06:58] bikes and stuff like that. So if you don't like wearing a watch when you work out or for whatever reason, the watch just moves around a lot, maybe these earbuds are going to be the right thing for you. Now, when I first tested this, it was kind of hit or miss. Sometimes it was incredibly accurate, and other

[07:13] times it would lose signal for a very long amount of time and just like not show your heart rate for up to a minute or two minutes in the middle of your workout. So there are some bugs they had to work out. I haven't tested the heart rate sensor since launch, but at launch, like when it was

[07:27] tracking, it was very accurate. It just hopefully they can get better tracking more of the workout. Now, talking about the controls on these, we do have a benefit with the Powerbeats Pro, and that is these extra little buttons on the top are that kind of little stem that points up on your ears.

[07:41] So all the Beats earbuds have the same button on the little Beats logo. You just press it. It's going to be a little different. So the worst, by far, I would say would be the Beats solo buds. When you push the button, like, it really moves the whole earbud. You have to push pretty hard. It's not a very even control of the button.

[07:55] Just overall, a pretty low-quality button that just is not comfortable to use, and in my opinion is one of the biggest drawbacks of those earbuds. You have the same button problem on the Beats Studio Buds Plus, although the button is slightly better.

[08:08] It's a little bit more even. You can press anywhere, but you're still pushing on your ear fairly hard when you control it. The Beats Fit Pro have a button that you push more on the bottom, so it's a little bit gentler, and I find that that one is significantly better out of the lineup.

[08:22] And then, of course, the PowerBeats Pro I think really mastered it even a little bit more, a gentle button on the bottom. and as I mentioned that extra button on the top of that stem is able to control volume so it's actually a rocker for volume up or volume down. Now let's get

[08:35] into some active noise cancellation tests. All of these have ANC except for the solo buds. That's kind of one of the main reasons they are so much cheaper but I want to do three different ANC tests. Jet noise, higher voice or just generally voices, higher frequencies in general and then in a quiet environment how much

[08:50] static or white noise do they actually have. So now getting into a microphone test. These are the Beats Solo Buds indoors in a studio environment. Now, because these don't have a transparency, I feel like my ears are plugged, and I have to talk a little bit louder if I'm on a phone call.

[09:04] So that's definitely a bit of a negative here. I don't have any feedback of my own voice playing through my ears. Now, these are the Beats Studio Buds Plus. Again, I'm not really hearing much of my voice through the earbuds,

[09:16] so I have to talk a little bit louder. But by the way, we are obviously in the studio here, so this is probably as good as these earbuds can sound. We will go outside in a minute and see how they sound in a louder environment But of course leave a ranking down below

[09:28] Let me know how you think these earbuds microphones actually perform now for the Beats Fit Pro These having that transparency mode really makes a huge difference to me as the caller I can hear my voice It sounds natural It a lot like using AirPods Pro for example I mean it sounds pretty good But let me know how the microphone sounds on the other end

[09:46] So if I was on a phone call, it would sound something like this. And, of course, the PowerBeats Pro. So as I said, let me know which one sounds best. We'll go outside, and we'll see how they can pair out there. So if you're spending the answer money, are you actually going to get a better microphone?

[10:00] Obviously, these are more geared towards working out, but I think it's still important to be able to use them during the workday, answer phone calls and stuff like that. So this is a really popular environment. These are probably from the square with some wind gear and a lot of traffic behind.

[10:13] Now for the Beast's Solo Buds, again outside. This road, a lot of wind. Another thing to note, I did, I don't know if you noticed, I did cut my hair between when I filmed the A-roll and when I'm filming this. So, I don't know.

[10:26] So these are the Beast Studio Buds Plus. You can see right here. Fun fact about these, I actually had to buy two pairs. The first pair I got, the earbuds would not connect to my phone. So I don't know if that was just a one-off issue or if that's like an actual thing that's common with these, but I did experience that.

[10:41] These, these shit grow up. They're really clicking my earphones, earbuds. Yeah, very windy out here. So let me know out of all four of these, which one sounds the best indoors and which one sounds the best outdoors. Now, of course, talking about the sound quality on each of these.

[10:55] Now, Beats in the past, specifically with their headphones, were really known for kind of a muddy, bassy sound, in my opinion. Now, they've kind of moved towards more of a neutral balance, kind of in line with a lot of other Apple-style products.

[11:09] So, they're going to be better for a lot of different genres. I think that's a big positive, and that's true across the entire lineup here. So, starting off with the Beats solo buds, like I said, a little bit more of a neutral balance. But their vocals can get a little bit buried, or a little bit, like, the higher frequencies are not as clear.

[11:24] so they do sound a little bit thin. They lack some details. Like, they're $80 earbuds. They're not going to be audiophile earbuds. But I would say it does sound like there's a bit of an emphasis on the lower mids, maybe around, like, 600 hertz.

[11:37] You can't really EQ them either, so that's a little bit of a drawback. I would like to see a little more fullness on these. And considering that this price range is getting a lot more competitive with, like, the Nothing Ear A, for example, Soundcore has a lot of cheaper earbuds in its price range,

[11:51] and many of those offer a lot more than these. so I really think that these would kind of need to step it up with sounds in order to really compete in that category. But nonetheless, out of the Beats lineup, it's really not a surprise that these, being by far the cheapest ones,

[12:06] have, in my opinion, the lowest quality sound. Moving up then, we have the Beats Studio Buds Plus. These are pretty clean. They have a little bit of distortion, not a whole lot, though. They're way less bassy, like I said, than older Beats, but they still lack a little bit of detail.

[12:19] Like, cymbals can be a bit mushy, there's not a ton of instrument separation, and the vocals can be a little bit less rich than I would like, but nonetheless, I think listening to, you know, if you're working out, you're just listening to some whatever, rap, rock, pop, anything like that, they sound fine.

[12:35] Like, I think a lot of people, casual listeners, not audiophiles, are going to listen to these and say, yeah, they sound pretty good. And the same story can be said with the Beats Fit Pro. These are, again, kind of even more in line with the AirPods, but really following that same motif here.

[12:50] Just, you know, their Beats earbuds, they sound pretty good, good enough for most people, but they're not going to have Hi-Fi codecs or anything like that. Now, the PowerBeats Pro has the H2 chip on the inside, as I'll talk about in a minute, and that does, well, it doesn't give them Hi-Fi codecs, but it does give them lots of audio with the Apple Vision Pro.

[13:08] So kind of an interesting thing, like if you happen to have the AVP and you are using these, and they don't interfere with the strap, I think that maybe could interfere with the strap, but if it doesn't, then yeah, you can get lossless audio on these with that.

[13:20] The sound is actually, I think, pretty impressive on the Powerbeats Pro. For simpler songs, there's not a lot of instruments, not a lot of stuff going on. They have a pretty decent balance. The bass is definitely more capable than AirPods, in my opinion, but still not overwhelming.

[13:34] But like I said, it's going to be better for like simpler songs. when you have a lot going on, a lot of instruments on the stage, you're not going to get the best spatial reproduction and the best instrument separation on these earbuds.

[13:46] And I mean, these sound pretty good, but I think the bass could be a little bit tighter. Sometimes it can be a little bit congested, but it kind of sounds like I'm tearing these apart and really nitpicking on the audio quality. I'd just like to point out things that maybe have room for improvement

[13:59] so you know what these are actually going to sound like. But overall, the Powerbeats Pro, I'd say pretty balanced, pretty fun to listen to, definitely pleasant as well. They get a lot louder than I would ever use. Like I usually don't go above like maybe 50, 60% volume.

[14:13] I know some people really want to crank the volume up and I think you can get pretty loud on these earbuds. Also, I know some people are like major bass heads. They want as much bass as possible. You would really need to EQ these in order to do that And I not seeing an EQ in the app and there actually no app for iOS at all In iOS so on an iPhone you only going to be adjusting these in your settings natively

[14:34] whereas on Android, there is a Beats app. Not really any difference in the controls there. Everything is available. Just there's no EQ. Talking about the features of these, we do have the H1 chip on the Beats Fit Pro and the H2 chip from Apple on the PowerBeats Pro, so those give you a lot of those Apple-style

[14:49] things, active noise cancellation, transparency, the way it analyzes the voice and the processes that through the microphone should be fairly similar to the AirPods, which is very positive, I think. It's going to sound pretty good, and it is giving us stuff like spatial audio and

[15:03] personalized spatial audio as we're getting on the new Powerbeats Pro here. But with that said, despite having Apple's chip on both of the flagship Beats products here, the cheaper ones, by the way, don't have that, we are still lacking some of the AirPods features that you'd otherwise

[15:15] see, like their hearing suite, their conversation awareness, their precision finding, and those are things that I think could really differentiate the Beats lineup if they did exist, but the fact that they don't exist kind of makes the decision even tougher between this entire lineup here. Like,

[15:30] if you're not getting those extra features that you'd see on AirPods Pro, then why would you spend AirPods Pro money on the Powerbeats Pro when you could spend less and get a lot of the same features on the Beats Studio Buds Plus, for example? Well, let's talk about durability. So, these all have

[15:44] IPX4 water resistance, except for the Solo Buds. Makes sense. They're a lot cheaper. They're not going to pay for that IP rating right there, but IPX4 should be fine for like drizzling or sweat and basic stuff like that. Just don't go dropping these into a puddle. The battery life is significantly

[16:00] better on the Powerbeats Pro though, which makes sense. They have a larger design, larger case, larger stem on the side. You're getting 10 hours in the earbuds and 45 hours when you include the case. The Solo Buds get 18 hours and that's just in the earbuds, no extra battery in the case.

[16:16] The Studio Buds Plus gets six hours in the earbuds and 24 hours when you include the case. And the Beats Fit Pro has six hours in the earbuds and 24 hours in the case as well. So similar battery life between the Studio Buds Plus and the Beats Fit Pro.

[16:28] So ultimately, which earbuds should you get? Well, I mean, obviously, it's going to come down to your use case. So it's going to break down different use cases. I don't want to just say if you're on a budget, get the Beats Solo Buds, because I don't think that's necessarily true. If you're spending under $100 and that's your main constraint,

[16:43] there are better earbuds out there, in my opinion. that give you more features, better sound, and better, or they just have active noise cancellation, while these don't. For example, the Nothing Ear A are a very compelling buy, but if size is your

[16:55] main constraint, you want something very small, very pocketable, then yeah, I have to give it to them. Beep did a really good job of that on these earbuds. Additionally, if you really care about the way they look and you are on a budget, then yeah, they're going to look just the same as the other

[17:09] ones, while being significantly cheaper. But aside from that really small sliver of people, I don't usually recommend the Beats Solo Buds to a lot of people out there. The Beats Studio Buds Plus, this is an interesting one. So these are about $170-ish. There's going to be sales and things

[17:24] like that, but I did buy these. These were $170. And I have to say, while they are comfortable and they work well, I would really recommend spending the extra money on the Beats Fit Pro. The Beats Fit Pro just, one, they stay in your ear significantly better. Two, in my opinion, they have better

[17:40] features, and I think the ANC sounds a little bit better, in my opinion, on those. I think that although there are a lot of similarities between them, and the case is a little larger, again, just having that wingtip on here, I've really appreciated it for a long time, especially if

[17:54] you're working out. You're never going to have to adjust these. You're never going to have them falling out of your ear. I think that's a huge positive, and that's why I've really been using these very regularly while working out since they launched. Then, the Powerbeats Pro. These are

[18:07] definitely the most expensive here. They're an extra $50 more than the Fit Pro, and that's excluding any kind of sales or anything, but these, in my opinion, are probably going to be the best seller out of the group. Even though I think that these Fit Pro can really satisfy most of the audience

[18:22] out there, there are going to be people that really want that hook over the ear just because it makes them feel like it's going to be more secure, and maybe for some ears it is going to be more secure. Also, the heart rate sensor, while it can be a little bit gimmicky, like if you already

[18:35] have a smartwatch you probably won't need that but if you don't like wearing a smartwatch then yeah it's kind of a cool feature to track your heart rate as long as they're able to release some updates and fix the heart rate tracking and make it a little bit more consistent. Additionally

[18:48] the H2 chip on there is giving you more features it's making it more future-proof as Apple and Beats roll out more features on that so I think there's a lot to really say about that I think that's why it's going to be the most popular one out of this group but those are my recommendations

[19:01] I hope that wasn't too vague if you want a comparison between these and the headphones please leave a comment down below or let me know if I should compare any one of these to any other earbuds out there AirPods, Sony, whatever. Let me know in the comments down below. Thanks for watching guys. I'm Mike O'Brien and I'll see you in the next video