- Beats headphones are everywhere.
You see them on your commute, at the gym,
on the heads of celebrities and star athletes.
Beats have sold over 30 million units
of its Solo line of headphones
and now, there's a brand new version.
These are the $300 Solo Pros
and they add a long-awaited feature, noise cancellation.
(laid back rhythmic music)
These are the second release in what Beat says
is a new generation of products
that began with the fantastic Powerbeats Pro.
They come in the soft case
which is made from a lot of recycled materials
and when you take them out,
they definitely look like Beats,
but they're somehow more refined.
All that glossy, greasy plastic is gone now
and the Solo Pros only come in matte finishes.
And these exposed aluminum sliders
make them feel just a little bit more classy
than previous Beats headphones did.
So there's no power button on these headphones.
To turn them on you just unfold them and they power on.
If you wanna shut them off,
just fold them back up and they turn off.
Now some people like me like to wear
their headphones around their neck sometimes
so as long as no music is playing,
these enter a low power state
and save battery life automatically.
Beats has made other improvements
that you might not notice just by looking at the Solo Pros.
The surface area of the cushions has increased by 70%
and your ears will appreciate that added foam padding
and since Solo headphones are so popular at the gym,
Beats also changed things internally
to make them more sweat and rain resistant.
Now, inside the Solo Pros is Apple's H1 chip
so these can instantly pair
to any nearby iPhone or iPad
and they have hands-free "Hey Siri" voice commands
and a new iOS 13 feature called audio sharing
so you and a friend who has AirPods
can listen to the same song
or watch a video together at the same time.
Don't worry Android people.
These headphones work perfectly fine with your phones too.
They charge with a lightening connector, not USBC,
I know, I know,
but there is a cable in the box.
What you won't find on these headphones
is a 3.5 millimeter input.
Apple is determined to kill the headphone jack
and Beats has not been spared,
so if you wanna use these headphones wired,
you've gotta pay $35 for a cable from Apple.
Otherwise, it's all wireless, all Bluetooth, all the time.
I think that might frustrate some frequent flyers.
Put the Solo Pros onto your dome and well,
here's the thing, they don't fit me so great.
Now, I've got an enormous head.
Back in little league,
I had to us this special batter's helmet
which was one size bigger than the biggest size
for people with normal sized heads so I am an exception.
Don't focus on that.
I wanted more input, so I gave the Solo Pros
to the folks around the office and had them wear them around
but that same theme kept coming up.
People said they felt tight,
a lot of pressure on their ears,
and for folks who have also big heads
they feel a little small sometimes.
But there's a reason why these
clamp down on your ears so hard.
See, for noise cancellation to work well,
there has to be a good seal,
so the ear pads need a lot of pressure up against your ears
to cut off outside noise.
Makes sense, I get that,
but I also think some people might find these fatiguing
or just straight up uncomfortable after a few hours,
say if you're on a long fight somewhere.
Okay, so Beats' noise cancellation is pretty good.
I don't think it's quite at the level of
Bose's noise canceling headphones 700 or Sony's 1000XM3s.
(sighs) Those names.
But it does a pretty good job
of cutting out the rumble of the subways
or the clamor of city streets.
Now, unlike the noise canceling headphones
from Bose or Microsoft and some others,
Beats does not allow you
to adjust the level of noise cancellation.
It's all automatic and it adjusts automatically
based on your environment.
So in a quiet room, it'll ratchet down
and if you step onto a plane, it'll crank right back up,
but if you have to hear what's going on around you
for safety reasons or to pay for a coffee or whatever,
you can press this button to enter transparency mode.
And on that note,
the Solo Pros have one of the most natural sounding
passive modes I've ever heard.
Conversations sound natural,
not overly processed or digital.
Battery life is 22 hours
of noise cancellation mode or transparency mode
but you can turn all of that off
and get up to 40 hours of good old music listening,
but if you somehow do manage to run out of battery,
you can charge them up for 10 minutes
and get three hours of listening time.
So, let's do it.
Sound quality.
You know the reputation that Beats has and so do I.
For years, it was about head rattling, thumping bass
at the expense of everything else,
but that's not true anymore
and it hasn't been true for a while now.
Things started turning around with Solo3s a few years ago
and then got really good with the Powerbeats Pro.
For the Solo Pros, the bass is still pronounced
but it's not too boomy or overwhelming.
It feels restrained compared to older Beats headphones,
even those Solo3s.
One word I would associate these headphones is clarity.
They don't have the widest sound stage in the world
but they're balanced and pretty enjoyable.
Now, do they sound as good
as Sennheiser's $400 noise canceling headphones?
No, but there's also nothing wrong with them either.
Now, Beats doesn't offer any kind of EQ customization
so definitely put these on in a store, try them
and make sure you're in to that sound.
The bottom line is that these are not audiophile headphones
but they fill the role of every day,
take everywhere headphones pretty well,
so long as your head isn't quite as big as mine.
And then there's the nitpicky stuff.
I wish these paused music automatically
when you take them off your head and they don't do that,
plus these controls on the right ear cup
could be a lot better.
You press up or down to adjust volume
and you press the center area to pause or play music.
Pressing twice skips a track and three times goes back
but I keep trying to press left or right
for those same functions
just like the iPod click wheel back in the day.
I wish that was the case here, but it's not.
And then there's that $35 cable if you want wired audio.
Come on Apple.
But with all of that said, if you find these comfortable
and you're okay with that $300 price,
I think the Solo Pros are pretty much
the best Beat headphones ever.
No, the noise cancellation isn't best in class.
If you care about that most or you travel a bunch,
stick with Sony or Bose,
but I suspect, just like their predecessors,
these are the new headphones
you're gonna start seeing pop up
pretty much everywhere very soon.
Hey everybody, thanks so much for watching.
It seems like new headphones and earbuds just keep coming
so we've got more tech reviews on the way
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