Beats Pill (2024) Review: My kind of medicine

The Beats Pill delivers great sound and plenty of battery life to go with it.

Pros	Cons
Great audio output	Multifunction power button is tricky to use
Superb battery life	Heavy for a portable speaker
Find my and reverse charging are neat inclusions	Design means it only ever sits horizontally

Score: 4/5

In this review

Beats Pill Specifications
Beats Pill Design
Beats Pill Performance
Beats Pill Battery
Beats Pill Conclusion

Design

The Beats Pill – this is the 2024 revision of the speaker of the same name that Beats hasn’t actually updated for many years now – is a portable speaker that, like so many Beats products, absolutely thumps you over the head with its branding, with that prominent “b” logo that was an absolute style icon… cough… many years ago… back when the thing to do was to be seen with a set of Beats headphones on your skull. Is it still a style icon? Discuss below.

The 2024 revision is a solid and rather large speaker with a casing that’s mostly soft rubber save for the front speaker grille which is solid metal. Available in Matte Black, Statement Red or the Champagne Gold colour Beats sent me for review, it sits on tiny little rubber feet that raise it ever so slightly off any surface it is placed onto.

That’s not accidental or just a style note, mind; raising the feet gives it more space to push out bass, because this is, after all, a Beats product. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

The downside to this design that naturally informs its “Pill” naming is that unlike some competing portable tube speakers, you can’t place it vertically at all – or at least not without a lot of adhesive.

Adding googly eyes to the Beats Pill makes it look like a sad muppet.

Wherever you place the Beats Pill, it’s going to take up serious space unless you hang it from the included loop. At 680g, it’s also on the heavier side for a portable Bluetooth speaker, though that does give it some robustness that has a positive impact on its audio output.

With portability in mind, it’s also great to see that the Beats Pill is IP67 rated, so it should survive a few beach trips or a little inadvertent water. As always, it’s not a great idea to treat devices like these as full on pool speakers, because water resistance naturally fades over time – and in any case specific water resistance testing isn’t done in pool water anyway.

Controls for the Beats Pill all sit on the top of the speaker, with power to the left, a multi-function button in the middle and volume controls to the right. They’re squishy in a way that some people will find deeply satisfying – though others might find the sensory feel of them somewhat unsettling.

The USB-C port on the rear of the Beats Pill is for both charging and USB Audio, but there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack. Call me old school if you must, but I would have liked to see it present, just for specific audio accessories I have that still use a standard audio wire.

Performance

Pairing up the Beats Pill is a mostly painless experience, with support for NFC pairing or Bluetooth pairing. I say mostly painless because for some daft reason, the pairing is tied to the power button, with a longer press initiating pairing mode.

That’s mostly standard for speakers, but typically only when you’re powering them up, because that’s when you might want to pair. The Beats Pill goes into pairing mode on a long press when powering up or powering down, which means more than once I’ve gone too long on a press when trying to power it down and entered pairing mode instead. Not a killer problem, but definitely a daft control decision there.

The Beats Pill can take audio via Bluetooth, losslessly via USB-C or in true stereo if you do have a pair of them – which I didn’t, with the majority of my testing being via Bluetooth from both Apple and Android devices.

Beats contends that the redesigned array within the Beats Pill allows for more air volume, which means more impact on its bass. That’s a very Beats-style line to take, because the brand has long been associated with more bass-centric music. It did concern me though because I’ve often found that Beats-equalised speakers and headphones tended to concentrate on those lows at the cost of high tones… but I needn’t have worried.

The audio output on the Beats Pill speaker, even in a singular formation is excellent across most audio sources and music genres. The contrast between instruments and vocals on Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” rang through cleanly from the Beats Pill, even from a distance. The deliberately raw guitars and vocals on The Beatles “Helter Skelter” sounded suitably dense, while – because hey, it is Beats By Dre – Dr Dre’s “Nuthin’ But A “G” Thang” – still delivered that bass heavy tone that Beats is best known for.

The Beats Pill will also act as a speakerphone when paired up to a smartphone, with decent microphone pickup. With full honesty I hadn’t considered this when first pairing up, and then my phone rang and I rather rapidly tested that feature because the iPhone 15 Pro I had paired to it defaulted to it as the audio source.

Callers noted that I sounded little different to if I’d had the phone to my ear, which is pleasing – though I will once more note that mobile call audio is often far more subject to network audio issues than straight up microphone ones.

Beats is 100% owned by Apple and has been for years, and that does mean it incorporates a few Apple-specific features. Power up the Beats Pill near an iOS device and it’ll detect it automatically in the same style as you get with AirPods and AirPods Pro, which is always fun.

It’s also compatible with Apple’s Find My network if you choose to enable that functionality, which should make it easier to find if you leave it down at the beach one day – at least in theory. As I’ve discussed previously, Find My isn’t a silver bullet to all your lost and stolen device problems, but it’s certainly nice to have here.

Battery

Beats doesn’t specify the battery size on the Beats Pill 2024, merely noting that it’s good for “up to” 24 hours of battery life, and I’m yet to see anyone attempt a teardown to discover just how much power it’s packing.

“Up to” figures are inherently rubbery – technically one minute is going ‘up to’ 24 hours – but I have no real complaints about the Beats Pill’s general audio endurance. While a 24 hour listening session is a little bit more than I want to do in one sitting – I have to sleep sometimes and the neighbours would complain – I’ve certainly managed 24 hours between charges, and sometimes even more.

One interesting inclusion in the Beats Pill’s playbook is the ability to charge other devices from its USB-C port. It’s not putting out a particularly high level of power – none of the phones I connected up to the Beats Pill detected themselves as fast charging in any way at all – but it does add to its value proposition as you could just pack the Beats Pill and perhaps leave a dedicated battery pack at home.

Speaking of charging devices, while there’s a USB-C cable in the box with the Beats Pill, you don’t actually get a charger, though it should be able to take power from just about any USB-C source.

Beats Pill 2024: Alex’s Verdict

Beats hasn’t been my go-to for audio for some time simply because of its focus on bass, and while that’s still present and a big part of the brand’s appeal, devices like the Beats Pill do go a long way towards making me enthusiastic about the brand again.

You can get cheaper Bluetooth speakers of course, and if you just want basic music there’s no shortage of choices, including a number that include similar water resistance if outdoor use is also part of your mix. However, if you want a good quality speaker that delivers music that just keeps going, then the Beats Pill could be just what the doctor ordered.

Dre in this case, obviously.

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