With the Powerbeats Pro up for pre-orders and the first batch of shipments expected to make its way to the hands of customers within the next few days, the first set of reviews of the wireless earbuds are out. The Powerbeats Pro is an interesting product from Apple since they are notably superior to the more popular AirPods in many ways and offer a number of features which consumers wished were available on the latter.
The Powerbeats Pro might not have the same convenient design as the AirPods but they offer a better fit, sound quality, and battery life which is ultimately more important. Below is what some notable publications have to say about the Powerbeats Pro.
Powerbeats Pro Review Roundup
The Verge
The publications call the Powerbeats Pro the best Beats product ever and better than the AirPods.
The new Powerbeats Pro put any such worries to rest. They are the most sincerely and comprehensively new Beats product since the Apple takeover, and they are a triumph. The Doctor’s headphone elves have been quietly busy, and the first true wireless Beats earphones happen to also be the best Beats headphones of any size or kind. At $250, they don’t come cheap. However, the Powerbeats Pro deliver numerous advantages over Apple’s cheaper and simpler AirPods, and those upgrades totally validate the Beats price premium.
There’s one issue though, the carrying case is large — like really large.
Upon unboxing the Powerbeats Pro, you’ll have to stifle a laugh at the size of their carrying case. It’s like a regular true-wireless headphones case with a serious case of gigantism. You could probably fit four AirPods cases in the volume occupied by the Powerbeats Pro’s indulgently chunky box.
Wired
The publication also says that the Powerbeats Pro is better than AirPods.
The $250 Powerbeats Pro are a more rugged, better-fitting, and better-sounding version of the AirPods. The design is obviously different, with the inclusion of that familiar ear hook as well as the chunky plastic body that contains the device’s battery and guts.
What’s impressive is that the Powerbeats Pro work as reliably with Android devices as they do with iOS devices.
The new Powerbeats work as regular Bluetooth headphones for non-Apple products, too. This requires you to pair them by pressing a little button on the surprisingly bulky charging case while the earbuds are in there and go through the ordinary Bluetooth pairing ritual. After that, they’ll connect to that non-iOS device when you put the buds in your ear just as dependably as they do to iOS devices.
The sound quality is also pretty impressive.
Here’s the kicker: the Powerbeats Pro sound good, too. I wasn’t ready for this, because I think the AirPods as well as the old Powerbeats 3 sound uninspired. The Powerbeats Pro uses a pistonic driver that Beats says reduces distortion and delivers better bass response. There is also a little hole cut into the housing of each earbud to move more air and improve the acoustics. The details of the upgraded design sound a little bit like jargonized marketing to me, but I will admit that the Powerbeats Pro have surprisingly good bass for a set of earbuds.
CNet
Its the same story with Cnet’s review. They also found the Powerbeats Pro to be better than the AirPods in terms of sound quality and battery life while offering the same benefits as it.
The Powerbeats Pro have better sound and battery life than the AirPods and will stay on your ears securely. They offer all the same basic conveniences of the 2019 AirPods, including fast pairing, rock-solid wireless connectivity and always-on Siri voice-recognition for iOS users. Phone call quality is excellent. Physical buttons for music playback control will appeal to Android users.
However, the large carrying case of the Powerbeats Pro is definitely an issue and the lack of wireless charging/USB-C means charging the earphones/case is not as convenient.
What are your thoughts on the Powerbeats Pro? Will you pick one up by paying the additional moolah over the AirPods for better sound quality and fit?
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