Beats Studio³ :: After a few weeks
by Volker Weber
Today was my final test. I had not tried walking with them. Usually I don't run around with headphones. But today I did. While I was walking I got two calls and I also called somebody. From my Apple Watch! And they worked quite well. The other party could hear my steps in the gravel, but they had no trouble understanding me. While I turn off the ANC at home, I found that feature to be benefitial while walking. It takes away the sounds you are making. With ANC off, you hear the headset moving on your face, you hear sound from inside your mouth, and all of that goes away when you have ANC on. Granted, I was in my own world. I would not have heard a bike coming from behind or a car approaching from the side. So I had to be extra careful.
I find the Beats to be very comfortable. I have worn them for hours on end while working, and they do get a bit warm. But they don't make you feel under water or inside an aircraft cabin. I have used them on the train, but not on a plane. Due to the W1 chip they easily switch over to my Apple Watch from my iPhone, when I get out of range. I open the music app on the Watch and it automatically plays on the Beats. Magic.
On my Surface I have always plugged them in. They don't support multipoint Bluetooth. So you cannot be connected to the iPhone and a computer at the same time. They are quite easy to move within the Apple ecosystem, but once you want to take them outside, you have to pair them. Same as with the AirPods. When connected to an Apple thing, they talk over the AAC codec. Fantastic.
One caveat: When you plug the Beats into a 3.5mm jack, they turn on! If you turn them off, you can't hear a thing. I suspect they won't work with dead batteries, at all. Good news: they charger over MicroUSB really fast. 10 minutes give you three hours of play time. I never ever ran out of juice though.
I don't particularly like the looks of them, but you are not making a mistake when you get them for your Apple things. They work best where you cannot use the AirPods. Unlike the equally fantastic AirPods, they are quite powerful and isolate you in noisy environments. Beats have a bad reputation for being too heavy on the bass, and I found that not to be true. For closed ANC headphones they are among the best.
Currently 260 € in matte black >
