Beats Studio Buds Review: Not quite budget AirPods Pro

On paper, the Beats Studio Buds are an attractive proposition. Manufactured by Apple, the latest Beats wire-free buds come in at half the price of AirPods Pro, while still offering an in-ear fit, noise-cancellation, and what some would argue is a cleaner design. But when the Beats Studio Buds cost $199 and the AirPods Pro are $399, there's also a question of whether they're too good to be true.

To start, the Beats Studio Buds deliver on sound. While Beats has very much moved away from its aggressive tuning, you still get somewhat heightened bass and sweetened treble. This doesn't muddle the mix, however; there's still a good amount of clarity. You could definitely do worse if you're just after buds for day-to-day listening.

While the Beats Studio Buds sound great, their noise-cancellation is just okay. An in-ear seal already blocks out a decent amount of the outside world, but the dedicated noise-cancellation tech doesn't take it too much further. It definitely helps make the world just that little bit quieter, but I could still hear the odd bit of chatter when wearing the Buds. When I swapped to the AirPods Pro, they blocked it out entirely. The Beats Studio Buds also have a transparency mode, and while it works well enough, it's not quite as clear as what you'd get on the AirPods Pro.

The Beats Studio Buds are Apple's first crack at stemless (and stabiliser-free) wire-free earbuds, and I'm a fan. While there's a pill-shaped embellishment that juts out from your ears a bit, they're far more subtle than wire-free options like the NuraTure and Sony WF-1000XM4s. Well, unless you get them in red. I haven't had any issues with fit, they've been secure enough that they haven't popped out of my ears when running, and they're also rated IPX4 for sweat resistance.

The aforementioned pills also double as buttons that can be used for playback controls and to toggle noise-cancellation. They've got a great clicky feel to them, and are much more reliable than the touch controls you tend to find on earbuds these days.

The stemless design has however resulted in one trade-off worth mentioning: the microphone quality isn't great. I had at least one phone call where I had to take off the Beats Studio Buds and swap to my phone speaker, because I wasn't coming through clear enough.

Battery life is however on the shorter side for wire-free earbuds. You'll get about five hours of listening per charge with noise-cancelling on which is par for the course for the category, but the included case will only give two extra full charges for a total of 15 hours. Disabling noise-cancelling will extend this to eight and 24, respectively.

Since Apple took over Beats, the vast majority of Beats-branded products have featured the same kind of H1 chip you'd get in AirPods. This is absent the Beats Studio Buds, and for some, it will be a pretty big omission. Apple's H1 chip is essentially the AirPods' special sauce, the tech that enables seamless fast pairing and instant multi-device support.

Even without the H1, the Beats Studio Buds emulate how AirPods and other Beats pair to your iPhone. Open them next to your device and you'll get a little pop-up asking if you'd like to connect them. It's seamless, and I haven't had any issues with reliability. You can also still use hands-free Siri.

The big loss is multi-device support. When you pair AirPods to an iPhone, they're linked to your Apple ID. This means they'll automatically work with any other Apple product you're signed into, whether it's an iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. They can even intelligently switch as hop between devices. This isn't the case with the Beats Studio Buds. Whenever you want to use them with a different device, you'll need to pair them. If you're not overly invested in the Apple ecosystem (or you know, you're using an Android phone), this doesn't really matter. This is how all other Bluetooth headphones work after all. But if you were hoping the Beats Studio Buds went toe-to-toe with AirPods on this kind of functionality, you may be disappointed.

If anything, the Beats Studio Buds feel like Apple made earbuds for Android users. They're the first pair of Beats to support Android Fast Pair, which links them to your Google account and makes it easy to take them from Android phone to Android phone. Information like battery percentages appears natively in Android's Bluetooth settings. And they charge over USB-C, rather than Lightning. The only real omission is hands-free Google Assistant.

Beats Studio Buds - Final Thoughts

For $199, the Beats Studio Buds are an excellent buy. They sound great and fit well. Just don't expect all the perks you get from Apple's pricier headphones. If you're deep in the Apple ecosystem, AirPods may be a better bet, but if you're just after a reliable pair of wire-free earbuds for a good price, the Beats Studio Buds are a treat.

Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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