Beats Powerbeats Pro Wireless Earbuds – Appl
Price:
(as of – Details)
The totally wireless Powerbeats Pro earphones are built to revolutionize your workouts. With zero wires to hold you back, the adjustable, secure-fit ear hooks are customizable, making comfortable earbuds that are perfect for running or the gym. A reinforced design for sweat and water resistance lets you take it to the next level. Each earbud has a microphone, full volume and track controls, and up to 9 hours of listening time to fuel your training with powerful, balanced sound.
Highlights
Compatible with iPhones and Android devices
Powerbeats Pro features the Apple H1 headphone chip, delivering a faster and more stable wireless connection to your device for extended range and fewer dropouts.
Features hands-free controls via “Hey Siri” on iOS devices, and voice capability with the push of the b button on a variety of compatible devices, you can stay in the zone
Class 1 Bluetooth for extended range and fewer dropouts
What’s in the box
Powerbeats Pro totally wireless earphones
Charging case
Eartips with four size options
Lightning to USB-A charging cable
Quick Start Guide
Warranty Card
Battery
Powerbeats Pro with Charging Case: More than 24 hours listening time
Powerbeats Pro (single charge): Up to 9 hours listening time
Fast Fuel: A 5-minute charge provides up to 1.5 hours of playback
Other features
Dual beam-forming microphones
Dual optical sensors
Motion-detecting accelerometer
Speech-detecting accelerometer
General
Powerbeats Pro earphones:
Height: 2.2 in / 5.6 cm
Weight: 0.71 oz / 20.3 g
Form factor: In ear
Power: Rechargeable lithium-ion
Powerbeats Pro case:
Height: 3.04 in / 7.7 cm
Power: Rechargeable lithium-ion
Connectivity
Apple H1 headphone chip
Powerbeats: Class 1 Wireless Bluetooth
Charging Case: Lightning connector
Packaging
Powerbeats Pro product box uses 70% recycled fiber
Excluding the sleeve
Totally wireless high-performance earphones
Up to 9 hours of listening time (more than 24 hours with charging case)
Adjustable, secure-fit earhooks for lightweight comfort and stability
Reinforced design for sweat & water resistance during tough workouts
Volume & track controls on each earbud, voice capability, and Auto Play/Pause
Powerful, balanced sound with dynamic range and noise isolation
Earbuds connect independently via Class 1 Bluetooth for extended range and fewer dropouts
With Fast Fuel, a 5-minute charge gives 1.5 hours of playback when battery is low
Enhanced phone call performance and call handling from either earbud
What’s in the box – Powerbeats Pro, Charging case, Eartips with four size options, Lightning to USB-A charging cable, Quick start guide (USB power adapter sold separately)
K. Furr –
Works great, long battery life
These are very nice handy earbuds, achieving the dreams I had years ago for Bluetooth ear pieces suitable for working out. You can probably still find my reviews from 15 years ago blasting massive, poorly-built, LED-blazing Bluetooth earphones. For years I’ve been using the earlier Powerbeats wireless (the buds connected by a cord). These Pros do fit a bit differently than the Powerbeats, but for me they fit fine and stay secure — I prefer buds with the over-the-ear arch. And unlike Jabra sport buds I also have, they do not seal off my ears SO snugly that I’m overwhelmed with the sound of blood rushing around my head and my own pulse.The audio sounds fine. I don’t pretend to be an audiophile and I don’t listen to music much anymore — mostly audiobooks, podcasts, and YouTube — so I won’t attempt to judge the full audio range of it. Also I pretty much never make voice calls on my iPhone so I don’t know how well the mic would work.Tricky to measure the battery life, since there is no way to turn these buds off except to insert them into their case, at which point they start to recharge. If you just disconnect them and set them on the counter outside of their case, they remain “on” and the battery may be drained next time you go to use them, so don’t do that. But once I drained the battery of the case itself, I could commence tracking battery life, as at that point the buds are turned off when in the case, and cannot recharge in a depleted case. When the case drains to 4% battery, it will slow down how much it charges the buds, but does gradually deplete to zero. But close enough to say that when the case gets to 4% it stops effectively charging the buds.On iOS, upon opening the case, you get a nice window that automatically pops on the iPhone or iPad giving the exact battery levels of case and buds (this however does not happen when the case is truly drained, though you can plug it into the charger for just a moment to power up the case and activate the battery window). One annoyance here: that automatic popup window only pops up about 60-70% of the time. Often it just doesn’t appear, even though the buds are automatically connecting. And if the window does not automatically appear, there is no way to manually force it to appear — aside from just shutting and then opening the case until it works (Maybe a software update will fix that someday.)So at that point of draining the case to turn OFF recharging, how long do the buds last on just their own batteries? I tracked this and my observation is about 8.5 hours (far better than my earlier Powerbeats ever performed).But unless you plan to wear the buds for a single extended session that doesn’t much matter. I use mine for walking and working out, so I’m not often going to need them for more than 2 hours at a shot. What matters for me is the life of fully charged buds AND case together, using the case to charge the buds as needed til they both expend their batteries. I tracked this accumulated usage also, and found I got 26.0 hours of usage by the time both case and buds were depleted. Note — the battery meter gets wonky at low charge. When I did finally get the buds down to 25% and stored them in drained case, the next day the buds were dead.Of course how I’m REALLY going to use the case is to plug it into the charger long before any battery gets low, so effectively battery life is just not going to be a concern with these buds, whereas my earlier Powerbeats required some attention: I had to be very careful to plug in those buds after every second walk or workout, and often did have the battery die mid-activity. These new Powerbeats Pros are just infinitely better in that regard and really no complaints.I’ll come back and add one complaint: the case is pretty but is as slick as a wet bar of bath soap. It’s even SHAPED like a bar of bath soap. I’ve dropped it multiple times, and I’m afraid I’ll break it. So, I’ll uglify this pretty case by slapping on some masking tape for a bit of friction. As with Apple’s history of atrocious Apple TV remotes, sometimes Apple lets pretty design trump practicality.
RowNut405 –
Almost perfect headphones.
I have had my Powerbeats Pro for about a week now and after a bit of a rocky start and an adjustment period, I find them to be almost perfect headphones. When I first put them on, I was wildly disappointed. They were uncomfortable and sounded tinny with no bass at all. I genuinely believed I would be returning them and getting second gen Air Pods instead. But, given how excited I was for the Powerebeats Pro to come out and the cost, I decided to put in a little effort and give them a chance. It wasn’t until about 3 or 4 days in that I decided to keep them.So, if you are like me and think your new Powerbeats Pro sound like garbage when you first put them on and you wonder if all the positive reviewers are high, experiment with all the tips before dismissing the headphones as crap. In-ear buds need a good seal to sound good. I have freakishly small ears so I always start with the smallest tip available when trying out new headphones which usually works for me. Not this time. It sounded awful and I was briefly outraged that I had paid $250 for garbage. It was counter-intuitive, but I finally tried the biggest tips instead which gave me a good seal and let me wear the headphones without having to go as deep into my ears which made them more comfortable too. Once I found the right fit with a good seal, I discovered that yes, in fact, these things do actually have some nice ear-thumping bass. I think the bass is better than original Air Pods but also not overwhelming as Beats products have a reputation for being. It’s satisfyingly skull shaking without being distorted and is balanced out nicely by clear highs. I’m not an audiophile by any means, but I won’t listen to any old crap either. I like a little bass and good clarity and the Powerbeats Pro deliver.My biggest issue with these is comfort. As I mentioned, I have freakishly small ears and while I have been using Air Pods for a couple years, I was doing so with discomfort. I put up with a little paind because of the convenience of function. I love the automatic connection, the ability to use one bud at a time and charging on the go in the case. So, when I first read about the Powerbeats Pro, I was expecting something that would have the convenience of Air Pods with better comfort and something that wouldn’t fall out of my ears all the time. Generally, I do okay with headphones that have different sizes of silicone tips so I was expecting the Powerbeats Pro to be a comfort upgrade. Initially, they actually hurt my ears more than Air Pods, especially my right ear. I fully blame this on my freakishly small ears. I’m one of those people who often finds “one size fits all” to be laughably ridiculous. Again, I was determined to love these things so I tinkered a bit to find an acceptable level of discomfort. The largest tip allows me to get a good seal without having to put them in so deep, relieving some pressure and cutting down on pain. When I first tried them, I could only last about 20 minutes before the pain forced me to take them out. After adjusting to find a good angle and replacing the silicone tips with Comply Sport tips, I’m a lot more comfortable and can last 2 or 3 hours before I feel discomfort. Even then, I would call it discomfort and not outright pain. It’s discomfort I can live with and not any worse than what I experience with Air Pods. Also, my discomfort is only in my right ear instead of both like I get with Air Pods. Since I go with one bud a lot of the time, I’ll just use the left one. No biggie. I can’t blame the manufacturer for my tiny ears which is why I’m not taking away a star.On the plus side, the fit is very secure. I have worked out in them several times and they don’t budge. I never could work out in Air Pods because they fell out all the time. I can also wear these while laying down which I couldn’t do in Air Pods without them falling out periodically. Also, the connection is great. Original Air Pods used to randomly lose connection or not connect when they were supposed to. The chip upgrade in the Powerbeats Pro seems to have resolved this little annoyance. They connect faster and after a week, I haven’t experienced a drop or glitch once.The Powerbeats Pro do come with a tradeoff when it comes to the size of the case. If you are used to carrying around Air Pods in your pocket in their tiny case, forget about it with Powerbeats Pro. The case is significantly larger. It goes in a bag or purse without taking up a ton of room but it’s too big to fit comfortably in a pocket. The extra battery life for Powerbeats is nice though. I frequently use one bud at a time and used to drain an Air Pod and have to switch ears regularly. I’m using the Powerbeats Pro the same way and haven’t drained a bud yet. I’m okay with the bigger case since the better battery life makes me feel secure about leaving the case at home when I need to go bagless.So in summary, these are the best sounding buds I have used. They are super convenient, easy to connect and won’t fall out of your ears. If you have normal human sized ears, they will probably be comfortable and the battery life is great. You have to deal with a bigger case but the positive improvements over Air Pods make the size trade-off worth it. If you don’t hear the bass, try different tips and twist them around a bit before you give up. Hopefully you won’t have to work as hard at it as I did to find your happy place with Powerbeats Pro but the effort has been worth it. These are really great headphones and worth the price.