- Hey guys, this is Austin.
So these are the brand new BeatsX headphones.
But for $150, are they worth it?
So these showed up this morning straight from Beats,
who sent them out a couple days before they go on sale.
So the idea is that these are wireless headphones
that are meant for working out
and other wireless headphone activities.
So these, being Beats,
are probably going to sound like Beats headphones,
which may or may not be a good thing,
but they do have some cool features,
including the W1 chip from the Apple AirPods
as well as the Beats Solos.
They've got eight hours of battery life,
as well as Fast Fuel, which, supposedly,
will give you about two hours of additional listening
with only a five minute charge.
So not only do we have the headphones themselves,
which are nicely magnetic together,
but we also do have the inline controls,
as well as these two things.
I'm assuming this is where the batteries
and the electronics are.
There's one button here
and what looks like maybe a Lightning port.
We also have all of the interchangeable ear tips.
So like most in-ear headphones,
you have different sizes depending on your ears,
as well as the little ear hook guys.
There's a name for these, right?
Ear clasps?
I feel dumb.
I'm just gonna move on now.
We also have a little carrying case for our earbuds,
as well as a Lightning cable.
So unlike the Beats Solo 3s, which used MicroUSB,
which was weird, this actually does come
with a proper Lightning connector,
which you should be able to just plug in like this
and charge on your non-courage edition Macbook.
Fill your ears with three free months of Apple Music.
Well, if you guys wanna use that, go for it.
So since these do have,
sorry, I can't talk with these in. (laughs)
So since these have the Apple W1 wireless chip,
in theory, if you do have an iPhone,
a Mac, or an Apple Watch, it should be pretty easy to pair.
So if I press the button here,
hey, that was quick!
So if I hit connect, that should pretty much be it.
There we go.
So not only does this now pair with my iPhone,
but it's also now attached to any of my devices on iCloud.
So that would include something
like my watch, my Macbook, whatever it is,
it should pretty much be seamless all the way around.
So, let's give 'em a listen.
There's like not a ton of bass.
Are these actual Beats?
It says Beats there, right?
There's a little bit more bass here,
but it's still more of a balanced sound
than I was expecting.
I really do think I have to compare it
with some other headphones.
So these are the Jaybird Freedoms.
Now, these are another pair
of very, very small Bluetooth headphones.
You can see that while the cable
is a little bit longer on the Beats,
they're pretty comparable.
Now, these are maybe not
the greatest sounding headphones in the world,
but I'm curious to see how they actually compare.
I will say, the bass is less pronounced here.
The Beats are more neutral
than I thought they were going to be,
but there's still definitely more of a kick than these.
All right, I'm gonna go back and forth here a little bit.
These sound...
There's just less of a punch,
which I think was kinda surprising when I first put these on
was that they don't have that real signature,
major, major sort of scoop that most Beats do,
where it's a lot of highs, a lot of lows,
and not a lot in the middle.
This seems to be a little bit more of a flatter curve,
definitely not flat, but compared to other Beats, it is.
However, going back and forth, it's interesting.
It's a really good way of testing headphones
with one in each ear. (laughs)
Expert audio reviews right here on the Austin Evans channel.
So if I untangle my wireless headphone disaster here,
something else I'm interested in comparing these with
are the Apple AirPods.
So while these are about $130 to $150,
these are like $160, so it is in that same price category.
That never gets old.
It's so fast.
Literally, it's closed, I open it up, and boom, I'm done.
Something that makes the AirPods a little bit different
is that they are fully wireless.
So when you pull them out of the case,
you can see that the actual AirPods themselves
are completely independent, so if you want,
you can just put one in or listen to both,
but there are no wires whatsoever going between them.
It shouldn't be a huge surprise,
these are very much EarPods that just happen to be wireless.
They don't sound bad,
but the bass is nowhere near as pronounced,
and it's more of a tinny sound.
So with that W1 chip,
it is easy to pair these with an Apple device,
but they do also work with other Bluetooth devices,
such as Android.
Yeah, that works completely fine.
So not only does it work on Android
pretty much exactly the way it does on iOS,
but also, we have our inline controls,
which work here, too.
So even though this does have the W1 chip
and it works well with Apple devices,
it should work for pretty much anything
that supports Bluetooth.
So one of the big advantages
of using wireless headphones like this
is the ability to go exercise
without having a bunch of cables running all over you.
So they do actually have the option
of dropping on the wings to really lock them in your ear,
but honestly, for me, I can just put them right in,
and they're nice and secure.
This is what nice and secure looks like, by the way.
- Boom, shack-a-lack-a!
(Austin laughs)
- I thought you were absolutely gonna tackle me there.
(laughs) - No.
- So one of the cool things about the Beats X is that
they actually do stay in your ears pretty well,
even when you get surprise tackled.
So you've been using the AirPods for a bit.
- Yes, sir.
- Have you tried the Beats? - Yes, I have.
- What do you think?
- They fit really well.
They don't seem to work very well with front flips.
- These fit better
than any in-ear headphones I've ever tried.
I don't know if it's just 'cause
they're the right size for my ears or what,
but I feel like we should have a little challenge,
AirPods versus Beats.
- Yeah. Are you faster than me?
- I think I am.
- You gotta be.
- Three,
two,
one.
Yours falling out?
- Nope.
- These are pretty secure, man.
- Yeah.
So they both stay in.
- Something that surprises me is the isolation.
I put these in, I can't hear anything.
- That's the one thing I noticed.
They're definitely better at isolating sound.
- So while these might not be
the greatest sounding headphones in the world,
for $150, I think you could do a lot worse.
Speaking of, my buddy Jon did a video
comparing these with the Apple AirPods,
so be sure to go check that out.
And I'm curious.
What do you guys think about the Beats X?
Let me know in the comments below,
and I will catch you on the next one.