BEATS STUDIO BUDS

These wireless earbuds can do it all, and cost less than most of the competition

Beats’ latest are affordable, easy to pair and sound smashing

Wireless earbuds has become a very crowded landscape, with the best ones rapidly dropping in price while more and more of them include active noise cancellation. But the Beats Studio Buds have come in aggressively, offering not just a great price and ANC, but also fast-pairing and anti-loss features.

Compared to most noise-cancelling true wireless buds, they’re impressively small. These Beats models feature a design that’s both clever and usefully ergonomic. They extend away from the ears a bit, but taper to a thinner strip – which is then perfect for grabbing with your fingers. It makes them super easy to remove from the case, and to position or tweak in your ears.

Setup is a snap with these, whether you’re on iPhone or Android. Instant pairing on both platforms means you just open the lid and follow the instructions on-screen. This is a first for Beats on Android, though it’s worked this way on iPhones for a few years.

The drawback is that they can only pair with one device at a time. When paired with the phone, it will not connect to anything else even when the phone is off and vice versa. We’ve used plenty of Bluetooth devices over the last few years that could pair with multiple devices at once without issue. It’s a slight annoyance.

One of the major features of these earbuds is the implementation of ANC and Transparency modes. While neither mode has blown us away, they work well enough. When using ANC, the Beats Studio Buds can block all background noise in a crowded gym or when going for a walk not right next to traffic. The transparency mode is a little less successful. You can certainly hear ambient noise better than you would without it. But it’s not like speech or similar important elements really stand out – with music playing, it can be a bit of a din.

The sound quality is probably the most important aspect of any pair of headphones. And, the Beats Studio Buds are able to deliver... for the most part. The highs and mids are well balanced, so you’re able to hear everything clearly. The highs are detailed without being too bright and the mids are rich enough that you won’t feel like anything is missing.

However, it seems to struggle with dynamic range when bass and mid-range are both pounding. Bass is full, and compared to some of the best-sounding headphones for the price, the mids will feel slightly recessed and compressed.

We were able to get just over five hours of battery life with ANC on from a single charge of the buds themselves. The charging case gives you two more full charges for a total of 15 hours of use with ANC and 24 with it off. This is a bit low, and these are the only wireless headphones in a while to leave us actively surprised when we couldn’t get any more juice from the case.

The Beats Studio Buds are a really strong set of earbuds. You can find options with better sound, or better battery life and so on – but barely anything does it all so well in one package.