The Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 provide an interesting alternative to Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 for the iPhone crowd, especially if you want really long battery life.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great battery life | Noise cancelling isn’t quite premium grade… maybe |
| Fun range of colours | Bulky carrying case |
| Inbuilt heart rate monitoring | Bass-centric tuning won’t suit every fitness fan |
Score: 3/5
In this review
Powerbeats Pro 2 Design
Powerbeats Pro 2 Performance
Powerbeats Pro 2 Battery
Powerbeats Pro 2 Conclusion
Apple’s audio brand Beats is best known for bass-heavy tuning and extremely in-your-face design.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 manage both of these feats in headphones best suited for those who need really long battery life and light wearing weight – or in other words, the very athletes that they’re primarily pitched at.
Audio quality isn’t quite as good as Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 (with a slight caveat, see below) but if you’re after a sealed pair of running buds with ANC that stand out from the pack, and you can meet their $399.95 asking price, there’s a fair amount to like here.
Ethical disclaimer: Beats sent me the Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones for review, and headphones are typically not products that go back to go out to other reviewers for hopefully understandable hygiene reasons.
If I ever get a set of “used” headphones in, I’d refuse to review them, because ear infections are a thing… and not a fun thing, but I digress.
As with every other product, this has no influence on my review, which is fully editorially independent, as it should be. I do feel that upfront disclosure is preferable in these instances. Now, on with the review.
Design
So, the very first thing that I did when the Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones turned up was go for a run with them, because that’s very much the point:
The Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones are the Powerbeats Pro 2 because, naturally enough they’re the successors to the Powerbeats Pro headphones that Beats released back in 2019.
I quite liked those, describing them at the time as “AirPods with Muscles”, though sadly I can’t point you towards that original review any more.
They build on the Powerbeats Pro design with a similar ear hook that sits over your ears while each individual bud pops in for actual audio delivery.
These are straight up Bluetooth wireless buds, not bone conduction a la the many models of Shokz headphones you could opt for if you’re a fitness fanatic.
They’re also rather colourful. The Powerbeats Pro 2 ship in Jet Black, Quick Sand, Hyper Purple or Electric Orange finishes. Beats sent me the Electric Orange models, and they’re very bright indeed.
This doesn’t just help with the extrovert side of your personality (if you have one, that is), but also in a simpler way, because while I can lose a standard set of white wireless headphones in a blink of an eye on my sofa, sideboard or working desk, the electric orange Powerbeats Pro 2 stand out absolutely everywhere.
Beats’ contention is that they’re lighter and more comfortable for use while exercising and in longer term use, thanks to being 20% lighter than their predecessors.
Comfort varies a lot, but I’ve had few complaints on that score across many 5km runs, with the ear loops sitting well against my glasses.
Like so many of its competitors, Beats provides a range of tips, coloured to match you Powerbeats Pro 2 in the box, labelled in as XS, S, L and XL, while (presumably) the M set are pre-installed.
So very many wireless headphones these days rely on touch controls to keep their design lines sleek and clean. I’m rather thankful that the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 don’t do this, instead opting for clickable buttons on both earpieces as well as volume controls on the right earpiece.
Physical controls are preferable because they’re much easier to hit while you’re exercising, with less fiddling around trying to find touch zones or slide fingers around trying to adjust volume, at least in my view.
Performance
Beats are (and have been for some time now) a wholly owned part of the Apple empire, and this means that the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 will automatically try to pair with nearby iPhones the moment they’re turned on, as well as registering themselves with Apple’s Find My network if you let them. You don’t quite get the same level of full-on directional finding the way you do with AirPods Pro, just a more rough map-based location, though you can get them to play sounds to help you find them if you did manage to misplace them at home.
They’re not stuck wholly within the Apple ecosystem, however, with a simple physical button to engage pairing mode. I’ve successfully paired them with a number of Android phones during my review period, as well as a Nintendo Switch with no problems at all.
As you might expect, audio tuning is bass-centric, because that’s very much Beats style. Thankfully it’s not quite so heavy on the bass as some very early Beats headphones were, delivering a decent-but-not-spectacular level of sound to my ears across both in-office and on-track use… with one rather particular caveat.
Apple’s headphones that use rubber tips will let you perform a “fit test” on iOS devices to ensure that you’re wearing the right sized tips.
I usually find that my ears fall within the scope of the standard M sized tips placed on most buds, but I did feel at first that the audio coming from the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, while not bad, wasn’t quite as robust and clear as it could be – and certainly not on par with the identically priced AirPods Pro 2, for example.
My ears are apparently “wrong”… at least in this instance. I always just thought of them as ears.
So I ran the fit test, and it suggested I should try a different size. So I did, going up to the L sized tips. Same result… and it was the same result with the XL, S and XS tips.
According to Apple’s Fit Tip test for the Powerbeats Pro 2, I have faulty ears!
Well, actually, I don’t think I do, because running the exact same test with a set of the AirPods Pro 2 saw my ears pass with flying colours.
I eventually settled on using the XL pair of buds, because they produced the best sound to my ears, but I do have to place the caveat there that as far as the Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones are concerned, I’m not wearing them right… because it seems that there’s no way for me to wear them right!
The original Powerbeats Pro headphones lacked any level of active noise cancelling, but it is a feature of the Powerbeats Pro 2. You don’t quite get the same full levels of ANC that you see on the AirPods Pro 2, and my experience of it was one that felt a little less impressive, though again I do have to place that against the caveat of that failed fit tip test.
They might be better if your ears pass Beats’ standards, I’ve really no way of knowing. Based on my own experiences, however, they’re definitely a few grades below the best in class for diverting unwanted audio while exercising.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones other party piece is that they’re capable of heart rate detection, with dedicated sensors built into each ear that enable heart rate monitoring in compatible apps.
One interesting inclusion here is that it’s not just limited to Apple Health as you might expect; compliant Android apps with a paired set of Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones will collect heart rate data within that app, though you do have to start that process manually on the Android side of the fence.
The other catch here to my understanding is that if you are on iOS and you’re using an Apple Watch as well, it will divert to using the Apple Watch’s readings in every instance if you’re wearing it.
I often get asked about microphone quality from headphones for calls, and I’m often reluctant to give any absolute determination there, because voice call quality can depend on a lot more than microphones. Still, in this case, I can give you an example of what the microphones in the Powerbeats Pro 2 can manage in the video below:
Battery
The Powerbeats Pro 2 carrying case is large, and while that might not be convenient for every fitness fan, it’s in the service of giving these buds more running time than most other wireless buds.
Beats rates the Powerbeats Pro 2 as being capable of running for up to 10 hours on a single charge. Those figures are for using the Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones with ANC disabled – a trick most headphone makers pull to make their headphone battery life claims seem more impressive – dropping to a claim of 8 hours with ANC on.
Add in the charging case and you’re looking at a claimed battery life of up to 45 hours in total. Though you’d also have to factor in recharge times if you were planning on a whole lot of marathon running there.
By way of comparison, the AirPods Pro 2 top out at just 6 hours of listening time each and up to 30 hours from the charging case.
These figures do track with my own testing, though I’m not claiming to have gone on any 10 hour runs while testing these out. I’m just not that fit, OK?
However, I could get close enough to 10 hours of in-office listening time out of the Powerbeats Pro 2 without too many troubles, and taking them out for my typical 30-40 minute 5km run saw them drop by a very predictable 5% each time I tested that way. That equates out to 10 hours rather neatly, too.
Recharging is via USB-C – Apple doesn’t want you to think about the existence of the Lightning port any more – or wirelessly with a compatible Qi charger.
Powerbeats Pro 2: Alex’s Verdict
At $399, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 sit amongst the upper tier of true wireless buds; it’s not likely to be coincidental that this is the exact same price as the AirPods Pro 2 headphones, for example, though there are other higher-tier sets such as models from the likes of Sony, Bose or Samsung that sit in similar price tiers.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 are better suited towards exercise fans who find regular wireless buds a little too loose for their ears, whether that’s a real experience of having them drop out while you’re working out, or just the fear that your pricey buds might fall down a drain if you’re not careful while out running.
However, I do feel that you can do a little better in pure audio terms than the Powerbeats Pro 2 if that’s what’s vital to you. The inclusion of ANC is a definite benefit, but it’s not as strong – to my admittedly failed-the-tip-test-ears – as it could be at this price.
Powerbeats Pro 2: Pricing and availability
The Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones retail in Australia for $399.95
About the Author
I noticed the ANC was weaker than PBP2, even though Apple claims it’s the “best-performing Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) we’ve ever developed.”
Are there any known explanations why it seems so much weaker? I went back to using PBP2 for my workouts because I like to block out the maximum background noise.
Sorry, noticeably worse than Airpods Pro 2! ^^ I went back to using my Airpods because they’re better noise cancelling