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.