- Beats have finally made Powerbeats Pro 2 official
- The earbuds are the first from beats to having heartbeat sensors
- Active noise cancellation, longer battery and wireless charging
It has come for a long time, but Beats has officially announced Powerbeats Pro 2 after countless teasers shared and many rumors. It’s been six years since the original Powerbeats hit the stage, and the sequels aim to jump them in many ways.
The iconic ear hooks remain, although the design is a bit more modern and leaner in general. The most important thing, however, is the upgrades made under the hood. E.g. The Knobs adopt AirPods Pro 2’s H2 chip, and they initiate some new technologies, including a custom double layer driver and a heart rate sensor, a first for any beats product or apple earplugs.
Beats have been working on this feature set for Powerbeats Pro 2 for quite a long time. “When we were as we had a wireless powerbeats during the acquisition process, this is the list of features we wanted,” explained Matthew Costello, Apple’s VP for hardware technique. It took Beats’ own development of features paired with Apple’s technologies to get it across the finish line.
So let’s pack Powerbeats Pro 2 a little more. If you are part of the Beat’s faithful who have been waiting for its next post in ear-hook ear plugs, you should know that the price has not risen from the original. Powerbeats Pro 2 is $ 249.99 in the US, $ 249.99 in the UK and $ 399.95 in Australia. At the launch, the earplugs come in four colors: Jet black, fast sand, hyper purple and electric orange.
What is new with Powerbeats Pro 2
The entire Powerbeats Pro 2 package is slightly slim down, but ear hooks ensure that these do not fall out. Earhooks, the main body and the bridge that connect the two are all thinner and that bridge is more of a sharp angled bar. All this still makes them very comfortable on your ears, but people who hate capacitive buttons on earplugs will be glad that the Beats logo is still physical and that a volume rocker is located on the bridge.
Inside each Powerbeats Pro 2, Apple’s H2 chip, power connection and processing on device, and it’s the first of the best Beats headphones in a while to get a processor from its parent company that is using beats’ chips. It also puts them at a level with AirPods Pro 2, and this is the first Powerbeats Pro with active noise cancellation, a transparency state and adaptive EQ to mix real -time playback.
Turning on sound is a new beats -made and designed 9.5 mm driver set in a double layer design and larger than used in other earplugs in its current lineup. In addition, it is set to exceed the original frequency range of the original, but still be true to the Beats-which means you can expect a rich lower end. It is also paired with redesigned venting on earplugs – there is less visibility on these – and a new acoustic net.
The feature that has helped to make my commuting to the office a little better while I have tested them is support for spatial sound with the main track. This shines with Apple Music – I’m a big fan of having friends first try it with Down on the corner By Creedence Clearwater Revival – as it provides a much more compelling, immersive audio experience and also with movies and TV shows mixed in Dolby Atmos.
Further, if you have an Apple Vision Pro, Powerbeats Pro 2 is the second audio product that supports Ultra-LAV LATENAGE with the $ 3,500 (starting) spatial computer. Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 was the first.
A first to beats and to apple: heart sensors on the earplugs
What is really new is that Powerbeats Pro 2 are the first earplugs from Beats and from Apple-to to send with a heart rate sensor for each ear. I am told that it was made possible thanks to deep cooperation between the two sides of the company, but it is clear that the biometric function will be particularly appealing to a segment of the Powerbeats market: Athletes. Therefore, beats tested these with over 1,000 athletes.
The heart rate sensor for Powerbeats Pro took a while to come to life and was somewhat beats wanted for the original version. It’s derived from Apple Watch, but is actually 1/16. The size of the sensor in the Apple Watch series 10. It’s really small that you can tell from it in the palm of your hand. The sensor contains an LED sensor, a photododium, an optical lens and an accelerometer. When you have both powerbeats in your ears, it will take a reading.
I asked Costello how difficult it was to deliver a heart rate sensor in an earplug and ensure its accuracy. “We utilized much of the work from the clock, but we also developed our own algorithms based on the location in the ear. It was a big challenge, but we came there, ”he told me. The result is that each ear reads in use and the algorithms look at both and deliver a result that will fill as a reading every five seconds.
However, the heart rate sensor is not available anywhere, but at the launch of the US it works with these iOS apps: Peloton, Slopes, Ladder, Open, Runna, Yaoyao and Nike Run Club.
The heart rate readings also appear in the health app on your iPhone, but if you have on Apple Watch, these readings will prioritize and there is no way to disable this. You may also notice that Apple Fitness Plus is not here at the launch. We did not get an accurate answer to why, but Beats noted that it was looking to extend support. Conversely, Powerbeats Pro 2 -Heart Frequency Readings on Android works with any major fitness or workout app.
It is noteworthy that Apple and Beats chose to debut the heart sensor at Powerbeats Pro 2 first, despite rumors that it will also come to AirPods Pro 3 and the team is clearly excited about it. It also feels a lot like a beats movement as so many athletes choose to use beats products.
Costello says, “We are very happy to bring this first health-centered technology to the Powerbeats Pro-Line, and we think it is a real course for future development.”
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Alongside the heart rate tracking, beats finally deliver on two things that were not necessarily perfect from the original Powerbeats Pro. For the second generation, the case finally supports wireless charging, and it’s 33% less, something that Costello described as a “love work.” It still bulges in the pocket, but it fits much better and is more of a rounded rectangle than a proper square. Each earplane is magnetically fastened in the appropriate place and will recharge here.
And while the earplugs find my integration on the iPhone and find my beats on Android via the Companion app, the case does not have U1 -CHIP as AirPods Pro 2 or a speaker in the case as AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation.
As for battery life, beats promise up to 45 hours of playback without a listening mode enabled, including recharges from the case. This means you get 10 hours from the buds on a full charge and three and a half recharge in the case. With ANC or transparency on, you get up to 36 hours of listening and eight hours from the buds alone. It is a significant improvement over the original. They also include IPX4 sweat and water resistance, which is a little less robust than I might have expected sports headphones.
I’ve been testing them for about two weeks and as a Die-Hard fan of the original Powerbeats Pro, I feel beautiful at home here. The sound quality is better and the ANC and transparency are doing quite well to commute into the office and try to block the world around me. I like the beats sticking to its roots with a punchy lower end but as one who swapped the Powerbeats Pro for Beats Fit Pro and AirPods Pro (1 and 2), I found myself take a few days to get used to Ear hook design again.
I think many people who are looking for the best training headphones will be happy with these, especially the ear hook for those who do not like the pinchy feeling of wingtips. We will soon come back with a full review and a deeper dive in the fitness features.
