- The all-new Beats Studio Buds have arrived
and they are breathing new life
into the mid-range earbud market.
Unlike the Beats Earbuds of the past,
these are bringing excellent sound quality,
strong noise cancellation and solid compatibility
for both Android and iOS devices.
In this video,
I'll be giving you my complete review along with
quick comparisons against both the Apple AirPods Pro
and the Sony WF-1000XM4.
Now for both transparency and disclosure,
I went ahead and purchased the Beats Studio Buds,
Apple AirPods Pro, and the Sony WF-1000XM4
with my own money for testing and review purposes.
The means by which I received any of the earbuds
in this video does not color my review in any way.
There was no compensation involved
from Beats, Apple, or Sony,
and none of these brands were able to see this video
prior to it being published.
In other words, all the brands will be seeing this video
at the same time that you are.
So now let's not waste any more time.
So first up the connection.
So these are featuring Bluetooth 5.0,
along with SBC and AAC as their connection codecs,
making them perfectly compatible
with either iOS or Android devices.
They both feature that fast pair process
where you get a pop-up prompt for a quick pairing.
So very, very good,
it worked perfectly on both my iPhone 12 Pro,
and my Galaxy s21.
Now when it comes to Bluetooth range,
I managed to get 12 meters or just about 39 feet.
Now that's obviously gonna vary depending on
how many walls you put in between
your earbuds and the device that they're connected to.
Now, these are also featuring dual connect,
which means that you can use each earbud individually,
while the other one is charging in the case.
So I know some people like to use one earbud at a time,
and then swap them out at some point during the day,
if that's you, then they got you covered.
Now, when it comes to watching videos on YouTube, Hulu,
Netflix, Disney Plus, whatever it might be,
there is little to no latency to be had
on both Android or iOS devices.
The only latency that I experienced was when I was playing
first-person shooter games, like Call of Duty.
Now the latency is minimal, but it is noticeable,
but I will say this.
It was not distracting in any way.
I still managed to get in there and handle my business
with no problems.
So unless you're really a stickler for that stuff,
it's not really an issue.
So now let's move over to the battery and the case.
So Beats was claiming eight hours plus 16 on the case
for a total of 24 hours,
and that's basically eight hours on the buds
with two additional chargers built into the case.
Now in my actual testing,
I managed to pull five hours and 17 minutes
with noise cancellation turned on,
and then eight hours and 26 minutes
with noise cancellation turned off.
So overall the battery life of these
is actually pretty good.
Now, if you do manage to run these down all the way,
they do feature what they call a fast fuel,
which is basically just a fast charging feature.
You can throw these earbuds back into their case
for five minutes,
and that's gonna give you an additional one hour
worth of playback time.
And then when it comes to charging the case itself,
they do feature USB type C.
Unfortunately there is no wireless charging
on the Beats Studio Buds.
So when it comes to the buds themselves,
they do feature a compact dot design,
fit into my ears very well with no discomfort,
no ear fatigue after two to three hour long
listening sessions, so very comfortable
for somebody like me with large ears.
Now these are available in three different colors,
you've got them in black,
you've got them in white and you've got them in red.
That red does look pretty dope,
but it's just not my cup of tea.
And thankfully these are using a standard stem
for the ear tips, they come with some decent ear tips,
but if you do wanna swap them out
with something like SpinFit or Comply,
there are options for you available on the market.
But as I said before, overall comfort is very, very good.
The only thing I would be careful with is if you want to use
them for sleeping, if you are a side sleeper,
these do feature button controls,
and when I laid my head down in order to test this,
I kept pressing the play and pause button on it.
So that's something that you do wanna be careful with.
If you're a side sleeper,
this might not be a good option for you.
Now, speaking of the button controls
and hitting that button,
they do feature a button control on both sides.
They are ambidextrous, so the same controls all apply
on either side of the earbuds.
The good thing about this button control is that
it is very light press, so it is very responsive,
you don't have to really like jam it into your ear
to make it happen, it's just a quick touch.
So overall, very, very good.
You do have a single press, double press, and triple press,
and you can customize the long press,
or what they call the press and hold.
That can be either your active noise cancellation
or your voice assistant, whichever you wanna do.
Now, the biggest omission when it comes to the controls
is the lack of volume control,
which is just like a head-scratcher for me,
you can easily put this in there, or if anything,
with a firmware update,
they can add that as an option for the long press.
But I won't be holding my breath.
I don't know if there'll be doing that or not,
but that's just something that I wanted to make sure
you were aware of.
And then last but not least on the build quality,
these do feature a IPX4 sweat and water resistance rating,
so they will have you covered
if you wanna work out in these earbuds,
but I would avoid swimming,
taking showers, or anything of that nature.
Definitely don't wanna submerge these earbuds.
So now let's move over to the app.
And as far as app,
I'm talking about the app that's available for Android.
There no app for Apple,
because it's built in directly into iOS,
so you don't have to download anything additional.
Now, the only difference between the iOS and the Android app
is on the Android app, it shows you the battery levels,
like right when you open up the app,
so it shows you the battery levers of the case,
of the earbuds themselves,
but that's also shown in your iOS menu,
so it's kind of not necessary on the iOS side,
but it's something that you can see here on Android.
And inside the app,
you're gonna get the ability to adjust the noise control,
so you can switch it between off transparency,
and noise cancellation turned on.
Then you also have a toggles for the customization
of the long press and hold.
You see the serial number,
you get your firmware status,
if you need to do any firmware updates,
I assume this is where it will happen.
And I've had these for almost a week and I have not seen
any firmware updates so far,
at least none that I'm aware of,
might have updated on their own, who knows?
So now let's move over to some performance.
So first up, let's talk about that transparency mode.
So the transparency mode on these is pretty good,
but it is slightly processed and nowhere near as natural
or clear sounding as the AirPods Pro, unfortunately.
One way that they could improve it is give us the ability
to adjust the strength or adjust the volume
of that ambient sound, similar to what they did
with the Galaxy Buds Pro.
That'd be something kind of cool see here,
but overall it does work,
you can hear people, you can talk to them, things like that,
but obviously there is better transparency modes
on the market at this time.
Now, when it comes to active noise cancellation,
this is actually pretty good,
it's stronger than I expected,
it does very good at blocking out
low- and mid-frequency sounds.
Definitely right in the mid-range of the market,
as far as noise cancellation strength is concerned.
Overall, it's got a comfortable pressure,
it isn't giving you a lot of that cabin pressure feeling,
at least not for me, and on top of that,
there is little to no EQ shift when you are switching
between modes while listening to music,
that is something that I was expecting to see,
but at least on the copy of the Beats Studio Buds
that I have here, I'm not noticing much of an EQ shift
when I'm going from off to noise cancellation
or to ambient sound, no problems there.
So now let's move over to the volume.
Now these are quite loud, solid 9.5 out of 10.
So what I refer to as loud AF,
so way louder than I need any earbuds to be,
for me, comfortable listening comes in
anywhere from about 60% to like 75% with plenty of overhead,
for quiet dialogue in videos or audio books
or anything like that.
Now, moving over to the sound quality,
this is what I'm referring to as the new Beats sound,
because it's bouncy and fun still,
you're still getting that excellent sub-bass,
but you have in more open and a bit more clarity
in the sound.
So first let's talk about the bass.
So you're getting that strong, punchy bass impact
with good sub-bass rumble,
no surprises there, but it's not boom-y and it's not muddy,
and it doesn't mess with the other frequencies.
It's actually surprisingly composed
and well-controlled here.
Now, if you wanna test this out for yourself,
you can like me, take it to the Bay area.
E-40, a song called Sideways from the In a Major Way album.
So my old school Bay area cats are gonna know
what I'm talking about.
That song, it has some bass to it.
So this is an excellent track to test out that sub-bass
with these or if you just wanna
rattle the hell out of your truck in your subs,
good song for that too.
Now moving over to the mid-range,
it is neutral, but it is smooth.
So it isn't like super recessed or super V-shaped,
it's actually surprisingly good here.
It's got a bit of a warmer tone to it,
and overall it's kind of got a decently wide stage.
I expected it to be very closed in,
and that's really not the case here.
Now, if you wanna test this for yourself,
one of the songs that I used was Love by Musiq Soulchild.
Now you've got the excellent music behind him,
that excellent production, and then his smooth, rich voice.
It is beautiful to listen to.
You definitely wanna check that out.
And then moving over to the treble,
these have clear treble, but it's not sibilant.
So it's not piercing or hurting to your ears,
it's actually a lot better than I had expected
from a set of Beats,
which have that negative reputation
of just being bass cannons.
This is not the case here.
This is a new Beats, decently detailed,
and they truly shine when you're using
high-quality source audio,
so if you're gonna be listening to Apple Music lossless,
or Amazon Ultra HD flac files,
it really, really shines here.
And these are also compatible with the Dolby Atmos
or spatial audio tracks from Apple Music.
But when you listen to those high-quality tracks,
you're actually getting good detail.
You're getting space in the sound.
It's like, it's all up in your ears.
You actually have a bit of width.
Like almost like you're in a room with these people.
So it's excellent overall.
Now, if you wanna see one of the tracks
that I used to test this out, I was listening to Nora Jones,
a song called Don't Know Why, pretty famous track,
but something you definitely wanna check out,
because the production work
and the way that it was recorded,
it works really, really well in these ultra HD
or Apple Music lossless environments.
Now, if I had to give them any drawbacks to these earbuds,
number one is gonna be the lack of volume control.
Like come on, man.
Like really?
Come on, man.
It'd be nice to see some sort of customization in the future
where you can add volume control to the long press.
That'd be kind of cool.
The ambient sound could also use a bit of work.
So hopefully that's something
that they actually do address in a firmware update.
I think a bit of a volume improvement in there
and maybe some less processing to make it sound
a bit more natural would be great.
I would love to see it, if it's not possible,
it is what it is, but it'd be something nice to see.
Also the built-in app, both on iOS and the Android app
I would love to see some EQ,
whether it's some presets or like a five band
or a 10 band EQ, it'd be awesome to see
so that we can get in there,
and mess around with it if we want to.
Now, it'd be kind of cool to see a lot of these things
come via firmware updates, but me personally,
I won't be holding my breath.
Now, rule number one, in buying any sort of tech,
don't buy these in the hopes of future updates or upgrades,
if it happens awesome, if it doesn't, it is what it is.
This is why you should always buy your tech
for what it can do for you now,
and not for the promise of future updates.
I know I've said this in videos before,
but this is words to live by when it comes to technology.
Live in the world of what it does,
not in the world of what it can do.
So let's move over to the comparison section.
So for the comparison we're gonna be doing the AirPods Pro
and the Sony WF-1000XM4.
So really quick,
just let's do a quick breakdown here.
The AirPods Pro have stronger noise cancellation
than the Beats Studio Buds, just is what it is.
The AirPods Pro also have stronger ambient sound,
but where the Beats Studio Buds win
is that they have higher volume,
the Beats Studio Buds have more bass and a warmer sound,
versus the more neutral and flatter tone
of the Apple AirPods Pro.
Now, when it comes to the Sony WF-1000XM4,
Sony easily wins with stronger noise cancellation,
Sony has a much more clear and fully adjustable
ambient sound, so they went for that, as well.
Now this is one of the things that caught me off guard.
The Beats Studio Buds have slightly higher volume
than the XM4s, I was kind of tripped out by that
maybe by about one click of volume, but it is there.
And the last but not least,
the Sonys overall have better sound tuning,
while they still bring bass,
the mid-range on them is a little bit better,
and overall more clarity in the sound.
So pretty surprising, but not totally unexpected.
So now let's do a quick ranking here,
for noise cancellation, number one, you've got Sony.
Number two, you've got the Apple AirPods Pro,
number three, you've got the Beats Studio Buds.
For ambient sound,
you've got the Apple AirPods Pro number one,
number two, you've got the Sony WF-1000XM4,
number three, the Beats Studio Buds.
When it comes to volume,
number one, you've got the Beats Studio Buds.
Number two, the Sony WF-1000XM4,
number three, the Apple AirPods Pro.
And then for overall sound quality,
number one, the Sony WF-1000XM4,
number two, the Beats Studio Buds,
number three, the Apple AirPods Pro.
So overall, those are my rankings between those three.
So now let's move over to some call quality samples.
I'm actually gonna do call quality samples
for all three of these earbuds back to back,
and this way you can hear
what the differences are between them,
and see which one is gonna work for you.
All right, so here we have the call quality testing
for the all-new Beats Studio Buds,
so testing, testing 1, 2, 3,
this is the kind of call quality you can expect
from the Beats Studio Buds
in a semi-quiet indoor environment.
All right, so here we have the call quality test
on the Sony WF-1000XM4.
So testing testing 1, 2, 3.
This is the kind of call quality you can expect
from these Sonys in a semi-quiet indoor environment.
All right, so here we have the call quality test
for the Apple AirPods Pro.
So testing testing 1, 2, 3.
This is the kind of call quality you can expect
from the Apple AirPods Pro
in a semi-quiet indoor environment.
So testing testing 1, 2, 3.
All right, and here we have the Beats Studio Buds
in a simulated crowd noise environment.
So testing, testing 1, 2, 3.
Similar to a cafe, cafeteria,
or maybe a crowded train station.
So, testing, testing, one, two, three.
All right, so here we have the Sony WF-1000XM4
in a simulated crowd noise environment,
similar to a cafe, cafeteria,
or maybe a crowded train station.
So testing, testing 1, 2, 3.
All right, so here we have the AirPods Pro once again,
in a simulated crowd noise environment,
similar to a crowded cafe, train station, cafeteria,
something along those lines.
So testing, testing 1, 2, 3.
As always, you're gonna have to be
the judge of the call quality down in the comment section.
Now with all of that out of the way,
if you're interested in checking out my full review
of the Sony WF-1000XM4,
and it's comparisons to the Bose
or to the Bowers and Wilkins,
I'm gonna leave that playlist for you right up here.
If you wanna check out my full review
of the Apple AirPods Pro, I'll leave that one right up here.
With all of that said, I'm out of here.
Peace.