PowerBeats Pro 2 Review: Still Better than AirPods!

(upbeat music) - So, little known secret, but before a new piece of tech comes out, a lot of tech companies do what's called a pre-brief, which is basically where they'll show the new unreleased piece of tech to a bunch of journalists and tech media and explain everything that's new, and with a little bit of marketing flair, too. And I've done my best to never quote these pre-briefings, and I'll do my best with my own testing and observations to make my own video, but I'm gonna break that rule just for this real quick, because I was on the briefing for the new Apple headphones, or new Powerbeats, and they said something that I thought was really interesting. They said that the Powerbeats Pro are the most popular best-selling headphones in the world.

Now, I have not been able to verify this, and I have no way that I have found to confidently check those exact sales numbers, but if I was guessing, I would've thought that either, you know, base AirPods, maybe, or some super cheap, highly ranking buds on Amazon would be the best-selling headphones. So I mean, I guess I could believe it. But the point isn't necessarily if they're the number one headphones or not.

The point that was interesting to me is that these are clearly very successful headphones that were $250 when they came out, so they must be at least pretty good. And so the hype has been real for the sequels, because the originals came out about five years ago. And so now that the 2's came out, and I've been using 'em for about a week now, I gotta say, I think these are going to continue to be some of the best-selling headphones in the world, because they're actually really good.

So, let's just imagine for a second that they're right, and these are actually the number one best-selling headphones in the world. That means that Beats took the best-selling headphones in the world and added active noise cancellation and transparency mode and heart rate tracking, and made them smaller and lighter with better battery life, with better sound, made them more comfortable, and put them all in a smaller case that also has more battery and USB Type-C and wireless charging, and all for the same price. That's a hell of a refresh to me.

I feel like Apple should be taking notes. To me, this is more clearly than ever better than AirPods Pro at more things than ever. So, easily my favorite part of the Powerbeats Pro 2 is just how they're built and how they stay in my ears.

So, this was also true about the last ones, and it's true again. The rubber tips actually come in one extra size now, too, so there's extra small through extra large. And then the new ear hook is nice and snug, but not too snug.

It just, it really feels natural and comfortable, holding everything in place. Plus, they are 20% lighter than the last generation. I think if we're being honest, these became so popular because they are basically the defacto premium workout headphones.

And so depending on your workout, you're gonna be moving your head around a lot or a little bit, and it's gonna be important for these to stay in your ear. And yeah, these stay in my ears so well. And this is generally gonna be true about anything with the hooks over the ears versus anything without the hooks over the ears.

I know wingtips are decent for some people. But AirPods Pro kind of fit in my ear well. These are a lock.

And then what's different about the Beats headphones with hooks is, well, Apple owns Beats, so they've put the H2 chip in here and they do all the Appley things. It still does the instant pairing thing on any iPhone. Still very easy to pair with any Android phone, too.

But, you know, instantly showing up on every device in your iCloud account is very convenient for a lot of people. Adding noise cancellation is huge though. Now, I don't think you can sell a $250 pair of wireless premium earbuds and not have noise cancellation in 2025, so maybe they felt forced to add it, but either way, they've done a really good job with these.

It's sampling the outside world 200 times per second and does a really good job canceling white noise, the sort of basic steady state stuff. I think some stuff like keyboard typing and basic dialogue or other random sounds still get through, but once you have music playing, basically everything that's not the music fades completely away, which is the goal. Transparency mode is also really good.

Not quite as good as AirPods Pro, which I think are the industry best, but this is closer than anything else has gotten for me. In fact, overall assessment would be that noise cancellation is really good, but a smidge below AirPods Pro, and transparency mode is also really good, but a smidge below AirPods Pro, so that makes sense 'cause they all have the H2 chip in them. But then the sound character, just the way they sound, it's just overall exactly what you're looking for from workout headphones.

I mean, take the Beats logo off of these and listen to 'em, and you'd find that they're objectively pretty good sounding. They're like an eight outta 10 for sound quality. They're like AirPods plus a bit more bass and a little more volume and energy.

On a technical level, they are upgraded amplifiers. There is new acoustically transparent mesh and a slight change to the alignment of the drivers to better point directly into your ears. Plus there's a new venting channel straight through the buds to relieve pressure and improve bass response.

All of this stuff adds up to a really lively and fun and just good sounding pair of headphones. I'm not interested in a flat sound signature here. If I wanted that, I would get, you know, an Audio-Technica set or something like that.

This is just, I'm guessing if you're working out, you're listening to some energetic music, some hip hop, some pop, some electro, whatever you're into, and these sound great with all of that stuff. Now, another valid question, if these are your only headphones, is would you fly with these? And yeah, I think you could.

Again, it's gonna be best with that solid-state, steady noise. So, an airplane sound, you put them in, you turn ANC on, and it immediately drops it a lot. You could get better noise canceling out of certain other earbuds, but I find, like, having a hook on it and making sure it stays in my ear is even more important on a plane, 'cause when they fall out, it's a huge pain in the ass.

So, yeah, I like these for flying. Oh, and also, the H2 chip means personalized spatial audio as well, if you're into that. But these, these also have another feature that I haven't seen in any other earbuds before, and that is heart rate tracking.

Now, again, these are workout headphones, so that makes sense. I've just never seen that before. But the Powerbeats Pro 2 will do heart rate measuring through this little sensor right here.

They will update heart rate every five seconds with technology borrowed from the Apple Watch, parsing data from each earbud at once. And you can even pair the earbuds to gym equipment so that if you have, like, a treadmill that has a Bluetooth connection, you can have your heart rate from your earbuds show up there, just like you could with an Apple Watch. I think that is a really cool, convenient thing to add for headphones that you know that people mostly work out in.

I wasn't really sure exactly what to make of how accurate exactly the data's gonna be from them. I mean, it's still an optical sensor after all. I think what said the most to me is that if you also have an Apple Watch, the apps you use will default to the data from the Apple Watch.

But if you don't, this is pretty cool. Now, the improvement with the buds is great, but that's only half the story. The other half is definitely the case.

And, you know, all you can really ask for with a nice case is good battery life, charges easily, and pretty small. Check, check, and kind of check. This case is not as small as AirPods or a lot of other really small earbuds that don't have ear hooks, but this case is about 33% smaller than the last generation, and it also fits more battery inside, about three full charges worth.

It also added USB Type-C now. Believe it or not, the last one was Lightning. And they also added wireless charging.

You know, it's a nice case, satisfying magnetic shutting mechanism. You can track it if you lose it with Find My. I think this is a great case for a gym bag, even if it's not tiny.

Speaking of battery though, the battery life just of the buds plus the case is really good. So, I basically work out every day, and using these headphones every single time I work out, I went a week without really thinking about battery life. Now, I did find it interesting that they seem to not quite drain at the exact same rate.

It's not enough of a difference to raise alarm bells, but I found that curious. But here's some sick math on how this could work out. So, 10 hour battery life on the buds without ANC on.

Closer to six to eight with ANC, but let's just go 10. I wouldn't wanna wear these for 10 hours straight anyway. But, every time you put them back in the case, they charge back up to 100%.

And the case can fully charge the buds zero to 100 three times. So, if you do a two hour workout every single day with these buds on, you can go basically a month without thinking about battery. So that is sick.

The fast charging also I think is my favorite bit. So, if you somehow forget to charge the buds and leave them out of the case and they die, okay, you can drop them in the case for literally five minutes and get over an hour of listening time just like that. So, hey, here we are in 2025, and I'm out here basically recommending Beats.

I'm recommending Beats that are expensive, because they're not actually overpriced compared to what they get you versus the competition. It's crazy. You know the memes with, like, comment sections that are like, "The downfall of X needs to be studied"?

Whatever Beats is doing is basically the opposite of a downfall. You've heard me talk about Beats in the past. This should be studied too.

These might be the best available earbuds for most people. I went back and looked at the last gen Powerbeats Pro, and the price has gone way down, they're around 150 bucks now, and according to my Amazon Price Tracker plugin, they've been around here for about the past month. Sounds like a good deal.

But I'll remind you, these charge via Lightning and they do not have wireless charging, and this case feels ridiculous now. I actually can't recommend these anymore. You know, there's always gonna be cheaper alternatives, so I'll leave some of those down below, but the moral of the story here is these Beats are good.

These Beats are really good. Well played, Dr. Thanks for watching.

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