Beats Studio Buds
The long rumored Beats Studio Buds are Beats’ first – and tiniest – true-wireless earbuds, and they compete with Apple’s AirPods Pro and Sony’s WF-1000XM4 in active noise cancellation. The Studio Buds are designed to work with both Android and iOS smartphones, and they also enable Apple Audio’s Dolby Atmos-powered spatial music.
If you have an iPhone, you can utilise the same one-touch pairing that Apple uses with its AirPods. In the meanwhile, Android Fast Pair makes pairing the Beats Studio Buds with modern Android phones a breeze.
App Support
There’s support for Find My iOS and Find My Device Android, as well as Class 1 Bluetooth for longer range. Beats claims that the earbuds themselves are 25- to 50-percent lighter in weight and up to 80-percent lighter in loudness than their primary competitors. Each earpiece weighs a little more than 5 grams.
Despite their small, they manage to cram a lot in. The earbuds are sweat and water resistant to IPX4 standards, and feature a bespoke 8.2mm driver with a two-chamber acoustic design and a two-piece diaphragm built specifically for ANC. New silicone ear-tips, which Beats claims were designed after analysing thousands of different ear shapes, are included in new small, medium, and large sizes.
Active Noise Cancelation
Beats designed the active noise cancellation mechanism in Beats Studio Buds, which is different from the one Apple developed for the AirPods Pro. There’s also a Transparency mode, which uses real-time adaptive gain control to let some ambient noise or conversation through. On each side, Beats instals two beam-forming microphones.
With a long push on the “b” button on each earbud, you may switch between the two. This can also be used to answer and finish phone conversations, as well as control music playback. Beats chose a physical button over a capacitive control because of the confidence and reliability it provides.
How to Set them on iOS and Android?
Both earbuds come with the same button shortcuts out of the box; however, the button on each can be remapped. There’s “Hey Siri” voice triggering for Apple’s assistant on the iPhone, but if you’re on Android, you’ll need to remap one of the long-press shortcuts to trigger the Google Assistant instead, as there’s no wake word support. Beats says it’s looking at what capabilities could be added later to provide more consistency; aptX profile support is also now unavailable, with the Beats Studio Buds relying on AAC.
The Beats app for Android or the iOS settings can be used to manage customizations. Android users can also check for firmware upgrades and battery life in this section.
Charging and battery Life
With ANC turned on, you can expect 5 hours of music playback from the earbuds, followed by two full charges from the case for a total of 15 hours. With ANC turned off, you may expect 8 hours of listening time, with a total listening time of up to 24 hours. Using Beats’ Fast Fuel feature, five minutes of charging in the case provides an hour of ANC-free listening.
The case charges through USB-C, but no wireless charging is available due to AirPods Pro support. In-ear recognition, which automatically pauses music when you take an earbud out and resumes it when you put it back in, is also absent. According to Beats, the sensor that would be required would take up far too much room.
Availability and Pricing
One major advantage over prior Beats earphones is, of course, size. The Powerbeats Pro will continue to be available alongside the Studio Buds in 2019 – their ear-hook design makes them more suited to sports use – but while the earbuds themselves are smaller, it’s the Beats Studio Buds’ charging case that has shrunk significantly, making the whole thing far more pocket-friendly.
The Beats Studio Buds are available to pre-order today for $149.99 on Apple site (Amazon too) and will be shipping from June 24 in black, white, and Beats red.