Beats Studio Buds
Apple’s affordable AirPods alternative
The only time you’re ever going to want to take them out of your ears is when they need recharging
£129.99 FROM Beats by Dre, beatsbydre.com/uk FEATURES True wireless earbuds, Bluetooth 5.2, Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), up to 24 hours battery life between recharges (8 hours earbuds, 16 hours case with ANC off), iOS/ Android compatible, water and sweat resistant to IPX4, hands-free Siri, USB-C charging port
Beats built its name and reputation on two things: being seen on (and in) the ears of pop stars, elite athletes and other influencers; and bass, lots and lots of bass. Since Apple took over in 2014, things have slowly changed. Beats still has that cool cachet (perhaps even more so), but its cans also finally sound as good as they look – that bass bias has been replaced by something more balanced and neutral. They’re headphones for the rest of us.
That applies to their pricing too. While the second-gen AirPods Pro cost a cool £249, Beats first true wireless in-ears are £119 less. That’s chiefly down to the absence of the H1 chip that enables the AirPods Pro to support features like spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, but it also prevents the Studio Buds from seamlessly switching between devices as you move from iPhone to iPad to Mac and back – instead you have to do so manually. However, that absence also enables the Studio Buds to pair seamlessly with Android as well as Apple devices, and they still offer automatic support for Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio tracks on Apple Music.
Design-wise Beats Studio Buds are very different to the AirPods Pro too. They lack the latter’s long touch-enabled stems, instead replacing them with a stubbier form factor that includes a clickable button that you can press to play, pause, skip tracks or switch between the Bud’s Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) modes – On, Off and Transparency. While we prefer clickable buttons to the hit-and-miss touch surfaces of other in-ears, there is one noticeable absence: volume control – to increase or decrease the sound level, you’ll need to head to your iPhone, Mac, iPad or Android phone instead. Luckily, doing so is straightforward enough, and Beats has said that on-ear volume controls could eventually appear in a future firmware update, so watch this space.
Music to your ears
Available in Black, White and Red, the Studio Buds also come with a pill-shaped charging case, and offer up to eight hours of listening time with ANC switched off or five hours with it on. The charging case can supply an extra 16 hours of power to the headphones before it too needs to be recharged via its USB-C port. However, the case lacks Qi wireless charging support – another reason for the price disparity between the Beats
Studio Buds and the AirPods Pro or even regular AirPods with Wireless Charging Case (£199). To be honest, while wireless charging is convenient, it’s also not that much of a dealbreaker, especially when the Beats Studio Buds make up for it in other ways – they’re supremely comfortable to wear, even during lengthy listening sessions – with a choice of small, medium and large silicone eartips included in the box. They also fit snugly in the ear and never feel like they’re about to come loose or fall out like some other in-ears. They’re also water- and sweat-proof to IPX4, so you can use them while working out or out on a typically-British-weather walk.
But the thing that really makes the Beats Studio Buds worth the money is their sound.
Play anything from rock to jazz, dance to classical and they sound superb, delivering an open, transparent, balanced sound with wonderfully clear highs, ear-stroking mids and deeply enjoyable musical bass that never drowns out the sound like other Beats headphones can. Team that with the high comfort level and the Beats Studio Buds never become annoying or irritating to listen to. In fact, the only time you’re ever going to want to take them out of your ears is when you have to return them to the case for recharging. For the money, then, the Beats Studio Buds sound just great. They’re not perfect, though.
The Studio Buds’ main flaw is their version of active noise-cancellation. In truth, we preferred to leave ANC off while listening as both Transparency mode and ANC have slight issues. Transparency makes external sounds, such as voices, sound muddier than you might expect, while ANC makes the music entering your ears sound slightly airless – intimate and attention-grabbing sure, but also more closed-in. The Studio Buds can also struggle during calls. While you can easily hear the person on the other end of the line, the same is not so true the other way around – even with dual beamforming mics on each earpiece, your voice can sound distant. Rob Mead-Green