So whether you like it of not, the Beats Fit Pro are the successors to the Powerbeats Pro. Now over all the Beats Fit Pro are a great pair of work out earbuds… but they fit very differently from the Powerbeats Pro. And for someone people that could be a big deal. Cause the ear hooks on the Powerbeats can be a real selling point. Nonetheless, if you already have the Powerbeats Pro, lets see if it worth upgrading to the Beats Fit Pro.
Now regarding pricing, the Beats Fit Pro have a retail price of $200, not bad if you ask me. Where as the Powerbeats Pro used to have retail price of $250… but you can now find them on sale for $200 while supplies last. Cause once they are gone, they’re gone. Nonetheless, if you want to pick the Beats Fit Pro up they’ll be linked down below. And if you want to see how the Beats Fit Pro stack up to the AirPods Pro, AirPods 3 or Studio Buds… you can watch their full review which I will leave linked down in the description.
Now first we have to talk about these cases… the Powerbeats Pros have a huge case and that’s because this case has to accommodate their built in ear hooks. This case has a huge foot print and its super thick as well. Now for a pair of workout earbuds that you’ll mainly be using at the gym… I don’t think case size is super important. But you’re definitely not going to be able to uses these earbuds as a pair of daily driver earbuds. Where as with the Beats Fit Pro… you could you them as a pair of daily driver earbuds if you really wanted to. This is case has a significantly smaller foot print and its significantly thinner as well. So youre going to have a much easier time throwing it in you pocket. Now this case is still larger than your AirPods Pro’s case, AirPods 3’s case, or entry-level AirPods case… but it is doable. So thanks to the Beats Fit Pro’s new case you can use these earbuds at the gym, but you can also use them outside of the gym fairly easily… where as with the Powerbeats Pro… I say these are strictly meant for the gym cause of this large case.
Now when it comes to battery life, both of these earbuds have an advertised combined battery life of 24 hours. Which is very standard for apple earbuds. With the Powerbeats Pro, the earbuds themselves can go for as long as 9 hours, and the case can supply a full charge and a half. And having a 9 hour battery life on the earbuds themselves could be really good for lets say a marathon runner.
Where as with the Beats Fit Pro… they also have a combined battery life of 24 hours and that’s with their active noise cancelation turned on. The earbuds themselves can go for 6 straight hours, and the case can supply 3 charges. And with their active noise cancelation turned off these earbuds have a combined battery life of 28 hours. The earbuds themselves can go for as long as 7 hours. Which is also good… but they do have slightly less stamina than the Powerbeats Pro. Which could be important for a very small group of people.
However, when it comes to charging these cases… this is going to affect all iPhone users. Unlike the Powerbeats Pro which charge via a lighting port… the Beats Fit Pro charge via a USB C port. And this could be inconvenient if you’re an iPhone user cause you won’t be able to charge your phone and earbuds with the same cable like you can with the Powerbeats Pro. However, if you’re an android user… USB C on the Beats Fit Pro is great.
But unfortunately the Beats Fit Pro still don’t have wireless charging… which admitly is a rather standard feature on earbuds once we get to this price range… and you would think the Beats Fit Pro would have wireless charging cause their case is pretty big. And if these earbuds had wireless charging, I think it would have made life a little easier for iPhone users. So what I am trying to say is that charging these earbuds isn’t going to be as convenient as charging the Powerbeats Pro if you’re an iPhone user.
But now let talk about fit cause these earbuds fit very differently from one another. Now the most obvious fit difference here between these two earbuds is that the Powerbeats Pro have ear hooks were as the Beats Fit Pro have wing tips. Now overall, both of these earbuds offer great lock down and they’re both great options for working out or running. However the earbuds hooks on the Powerbeats Pro are more secure than the wing tips on the Beats Fit Pro. Now there are plenty of other workout earbuds out there that have wing tips… but the wing tips on the Beats Fit Pro are a little different. Instead of most other wing tips which make a lot of contact with the bowl of your ear… the tip of the wing tips on the beats fit pro really like to attach themselves to a very specific ridge to your ear. Almost latching themselves to your ears. Personally I don’t mind it, and it does work… but keep in mind that you can’t customize these wing tips like you can with a lot of other earbuds that have wing tips. These are one size fits all. And I have a feeling that if you have really small ears… then these will might be too big for you. So overall, the wing tips on the Beats Fit Pro definitely work… but they aren’t as secure as the ear hooks found on the Powerbeats Pro, they aren’t as adjustable, and they aren’t as universal.
However, the ear hooks and ear fins on these earbuds aren’t the only fit difference here. Even though both of these earbuds are in ear earbuds… they fit in your ear canals a little differently as well. The Powerbeats Pro fit like a standard pair of in ear earbuds, as in they go into your ear canals a decent amount like lets say either the Galaxy Buds 7, Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s or Sennheiser CX Plus. So the Powerbeats Pro do feel rather intrusive, but their fit also helps with lock down. But then there are the Beats Fit Pro which are a pair of shallow fitting in ear earbuds like both the Beats Studio Buds and AirPods Pro. So the Beats Fit Pro are a little more comfortable to wear than the Powerbeats… but they might not be as secure. Overall, the Beats Fit Pro make for a great pair of workout earbuds and you can go one running with them and not have to worry about them falling out like either the Beats Studio Buds or AirPods Pro… However the Powerbeats Pro do offer a more secure fit, but they do have a bulkier design to them and a much larger case.
But now lets talk about connectivity… Now with all of these earbuds, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use on earbud at a time you can use either one. It doesn’t matter. And this is the connection set up that we expect to see from our earbuds nowadays. And in general, apple has gotten this right since day one.
Now both of these earbuds are using Apple’s H1 chip which means 2 things. With both of these earbuds you can easily hot swap between all of your apple devices associated to your iCloud account. So if you have an iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook, this is super convenient. But the H1 chip also allows for always listening siri which can come in handy if you have your hands full or if you want to ask siri to do something while you’re out in the middle of a run.
Now the H1 chip also allows for audio sharing on both of these earbuds which is super cool if you want to listen to music with friends… But the H1 chip also allows for spatial audio on the Beats Fit Pro. Where as the Powerbeats Pro don’t have spatial audio. Now personally I don’t really use spatial audio on my earbuds… But at least with the Beats Fit Pro, its there is you want it.
But when it comes to overall performance, just as you’d expect these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… and when it comes to audio codecs these earbuds have your standard apple stack of SBC and AAC.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these earbuds. The Powerbeats Pro have your typical bass heavy sound signature that you would expect from a pair of beats headphones a few years ago. Overall the Powerbeats pro sound fine… but their bass can over power the vocals from time to time and they can sound rather narrow. But for a pair of workout earbuds, these earbuds more than get the job done. But then there are the Beats Fit Pro… and these earbuds sound identical to the Beats Studio Buds and that’s a really good thing. These newer Beats sound much more open, with better instrument separation and these earbuds still have a ton of resonating bass just like you’d expect from a pair of Beat’s earbuds… but it is much cleaner, and tighter than the bass found on the Powerbeats Pro. And unlike the Powerbeats Pro, the Vocals on the Beats Fit Pro don’t get over powered because the vocals on the Beats Fit Pro are fairly prominent as well. So overall, the Beats Fit Pro have a much more dynamic sound signature to them which features strong vocals and very punch bass that comes in hard when it has to. And like I mentioned in the full, I really do enjoy listening to music with both the Beats Studio Buds and Fit Pro, which is something that I can’t say about the AirPods Pro because these earbuds have a much brighter sound signature to them and their bass is basically nonexistent.
Now when it comes to controlling your media… this could actually be considered a downgrade for some people. But I think it is. With the Beats Pro Fit you’ve got these physical buttons on either side. And you can tap if you want to skip through your music or cycle between your ANC settings. But if you want to adjust your volume, you either gotta take your phone out or ask Siri to do it. Where as with the Powerbeats Pro… you can also cycle between your music by pressing on the Beats logo… but the really cool thing about the Powerbeats Pro is that they have built in volume rockers on each earbud. So you can very easily and very accurately adjust the volume of your music directly from the earbuds themselves. And I truly think this is a feature that is going to be sorely missed if you plan on running or working out with the Beats Fit Pro.
But thankfully the Beats Fit Pro do have proximity sensors just like the Powerbeats Pro. So they will automatically play or pause your music if you take them out or put them back into your ears. Now I know that this sounds very basic but I do want to point this out because the Beats Studio Buds don’t have proximity sensors.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these earbuds. Now unfortunately the Powerbeats Pro don’t have active noise cancelation or more importantly an ambient mode. And quite frankly I really feel that the Powerbeats Pro should have had ANC and an ambient mode from the get go. But thankfully the Beats Fit Pro do have ANC and ambient mode.
And overall, the ANC on the Beats Fit Pro is pretty good. But just as you’d expect, the AirPods Pro still block out more noise than the Beats Fit Pro… and the Beats Fit Pro block out more noise than the Beats Studio Buds. And this makes perfect sense… apple isn’t going to let a beats product dethrone their AirPods Pro when it comes to active noise cancelation.
Now when it comes to overall ANC ranking… the Sony WF-1000XM4’s still block out the most amount of noise here albeit they do have an advantage because of their itchy foam ear tips. Right below them are the Jabra Elite 85T’s which also block out a ton of noise… and personally I do prefer them because they're more comfortable. Below them are the AirPods Pro and Sennheiser Momentum 2’s which I feel are neck and neck… below them are the Beats Fit Pro. And below them are the Galaxy Buds Pro.
Now below the Galaxy Buds Pro are the Beats Studio Buds. Below them are the Galaxy Buds 2. And below them are the Sennheiser CX Plus. So overall, the Beats Fit Pro place very well here… and personally this does have me excited for the AirPods Pro 2 as well.
And like I mentioned earlier, the Beats Fit Pro have an ambient mode. Which I feel is even more important for a pair of workout earbuds that you’ll might use to run outdoors with. And the ambient mode on these earbuds is very good. It sounds very natural with zero hissing in the back ground… and it sounds a little better than the ambient mode on the Studio Buds as well. But again when compared to the AirPods Pro, the ambient mode on the AirPods Pro sounds more natural specifically its a little louder, and the AirPods Pro do a better job of rejecting wind noise when walking outdoors.
However, just like the ambient mode on the AirPods Pro, the Ambient Mode on the Beats Fit Pro is the active kind. Meaning that they will automatically turn off their ambient if there’s a sudden loud sound. Saving your ears from just getting blasted. And I think this is great especially for the Beats Fit Pro… cause lets say you’re out on a run and a siren rolls by, the Beats Fit Pro will turn off their ambient mode. Where as with the ambient mode on the Studio buds and a lot of other earbuds out there, they just let in everything.
But finally here’s the microphone test, and over all I would say that both of these earbuds have good sounding microphones on them for phone calls and I would say that they are both in the same wheel house.
However I can’t help but feel that the Powerbeats Pro sound a little more natural while in a quiet room than the Beats Fit Pro
But AirPods still have a better sounding microphone than Beats. Especially the AirPods 3 cause their Microphone sounds even better than the microphone found on the AirPods Pro.
With the AirPods 3, not only do that haver the best clarity, they also do the best job of blocking out ambient noise.
Cause with both beats earbuds… they lets in noticeably more road noise. But I can’t help but feel that the Powerbeats Pro let in less noise than the Beats Fit Pro.
Cause even though the microphone on the beats fit pro is definitely still usable here… it is letting in more road noise than the Powerbeats Pro.
And the same thing can be said about blocking chatter. This microphone is still usable… but they are letting in the most noise here.
Where as the Powerbeats Pro are letting in less noise.
And then there are the AirPods 3 which let in the least amount of chatter. So over all, both beats earbuds have decent sounding microphones… but apple is still showing some favoritism towards their AirPods.
But with all being said, the Beats Fit Pro definitely are an upgrade over the Powerbeats Pro. Most notably the Beats Fit Pro now have Active Noise Cancelation and even more importantly an ambient mode… which I feel are two features the Powerbeats Pro should have had from the beginning. At the very least an ambient mode. And the Beats Fit Pro sound way better than the Powerbeats Pro. However the Beats Fit Pro’s new design does have their draw backs. The wing tips on the Beats Fit Pro aren’t as secure or as universal as the all out ear hooks on the Powerbeats Pro. And I really think some people are really going to miss the built in volume rockers. But over all, the Beats Fit Pro are a solid pair of workout earbuds that you could also daily drive if you really wanted to thanks to their much smaller case, more inconspicuous design, and they even have spatial audio just like the AirPods Pro and AirPods 3.