Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Beats Studio Buds Plus: A Clear Winner.”.
Hey folks, here they are, the new Beats Studio Plus earbuds that come in black white and a transparent version that everyone seems pretty excited about, because who doesn’t like transparent electronics, at least those of us who lived through that whole clear craze thing back in the 80s And 90s that brought us such Classics as the Nintendo Game, Boy, Color, clear and translucent iMac G3. But I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about the color of these earbuds, because that’s all just cosmetics and if you’re here to watch a review. You probably want to know more about how they perform and how they’re different from the original Studio buds that came out a couple of years ago. Thank you. First, things: first price, the new buds cost 170 or 20 more than the studio Buds, and they look almost the same, at least on the surface. The case is the same size and the buds are the same shape and size and only weigh one gram more than the original Studio buds.
The Originals fit my ears well with the largest set of ear tips, and these fit my ears well too. But some people with small ears had trouble getting a tight seal and secure fit with the originals so like with the airpods Pro 2 Apple, which owns Beats decided to include a set of extra small ear tips to go along with a small, medium and large tips. That should help those of you with smaller ears but like with all in-ear headphones.
I just can’t guarantee that they’ll be able to fit everyone’s ears equally well, as with the originals, these don’t have touch controls, but have a physical control button on each earbud, which I like. There are some small cosmetic changes, but the biggest changes are on the inside side. Beach says: 95 percent of the components are new and improved. The speaker, drivers haven’t changed, but these are powered by a new, more powerful custom chipset and have three new microphones in each Bud that are three times larger and more sensitive.
All that, along with better microphone placement and new venting, help improve not only the noise canceling performance, but the voice calling performance which is now quite impressive right up there with the airpods pro 2’s voice calling performance. You can get a sense of that in this test. Call with my fellow CNET editor John Falcone, from the streets of New York, hey John I’m doing a test call here from the streets of New York.
It’S pretty noisy. I have lots of traffic going by um. How do I sound you sound, really clear.
I really can’t believe you’re outside. To be honest, I don’t hear any traffic noise or any wind noise really whatsoever. The buzz also sound cleaner, with better overall Bass Performance. I didn’t think they quite offer the same level of refinement or detail as premium earbuds from Sony and Sennheiser, for example, but they deliver bold, Dynamic, Sound, that’s well suited for today’s music, whether it’s pop hip-hop EDM or a country, and everything in between these aren’t audiophile Grade earbuds, but they do sound very good for their compact size.
The upgraded sound is due in large part to the improved digital processing associated with that faster processor. That’S more akin to the H1 and H2 chips found in the airpods line. However, the new processor still doesn’t support all those chips features for Apple users anyway, like the studio buds. These are geared toward both Apple and Android users, with Android users able to take advantage of Google Fast pair and also able to download the Beats app for Android to their devices. Interestingly, there’s multi multi-point Bluetooth, pairing for Android users, with automatic switching between devices on your Google account. However, if you’re an Apple user, the buds link to your iCloud account but you’ll have to manually switch between devices, which Some people prefer, because Auto switching can be a little wonky and irritating at times. The only thing that Android users don’t get is hands-free Siri. That’S the feature where you get access to Apple’s Voice Assistant by saying the Siri: wake command; there’s still no spatial audio for movies.
That’S spatial audio with head tracking, though you do get spatial audio for music and there’s a find. My feature that helps locate your earbuds should they become lost, but it’s not the same Advanced Precision, finding that’s included with the airpods pro 2.. As I said, the noise canceling is improved, beats says the buds are 1.6 times better at muffling ambient noise, and in my test they definitely did a better job using ambient noise across a wider range of frequencies.
I also thought that transparency mode was better with virtually no perceptible hiss or white noise that you sometimes hear when you put some buds into their transparency mode beats says the transparency mode is two times better overall, like the studio buds. These are ipx4 Splash proof and I was able to run with them without having them fall out of my ears. That probably won’t be the case for everyone. Battery life is also improved. It’S now up to six hours from five on a single charge with noise canceling on, and you also get three additional charges from the charging case instead of two there’s USBC charging, but no wireless charging, typically buds in this price range do feature wireless charging, foreign. Those are the improvements in a nutshell, alas, for those of you bought the original Studio buds. I’M sorry to report that these new plus buds are definitely improved and by significant margin.
The reality is the sound and perform similarly to the Beats fit Pro which carry a higher list price of 200, but often get discounted to 160 dollars. So why would you buy these instead of the fit Pros, particularly since the fit Pros include spatial audio with head tracking for Apple users? Well, it comes down to what style of buds you, like. Not everybody likes the fit Pro’s design with their integrated sport fins and while I ultimately think the airpods Pro 2 are superior, Some people prefer earbuds without stems, and these are quite discreet, barely sticking out of your ears and let’s get real if you’re an Android User. You’Re, probably not going to be buying the airpods Pro 2, the studio buds plus are the a better choice.
All that said, I do think these earbuds are a little expensive at 170 dollars, but the original Studio buds quickly came down in price and now sell for less than a hundred dollars. I expect that the studio, Bots plus will follow a similar path and ultimately cost Thirty to fifty dollars less. However, I can see the black and white models getting discounted before the translucent version does gimmick or not. I do think that model will be very popular. Clear is still cool, but what do you think do you like the studio buds plus better than the fit pros and airpods Pro 2, and how do they compare to nothing’s earbuds, which also have a translucent design, though maybe not quite as translucent as these? I’M David carner for CNET, thanks for watching .