So these are the Beats Studio Pro, and apple went over 5 years before upgrading the beats studio 3… now even though there are some minor upgrades on these headphones… the beats studio pro a defeneintly a very hard pair of headphones to justify especially given their premium price point and the rest of the competition out there. Nonetheless, today we’re going to see what the beats studio pro are all about and we’re going to see what’s different from the beats studio 3.
Regarding pricing, the Beats studio pro have a retail price of $350…. And personally I would not pay $350 for these headphones… maybe I’ll recommend that you pick these headphones up if they’re on sale for less than $200… maybe. Nonetheless, if you want to see how the beats studio pro stack up to some of Sony’s headphones or Bose’s headphones… you can always watch those versus videos.
Now first lets talk about the case that comes included with the beats studio pro. Now the studio pro’s come included with a soft shell case… and this is actually a down grade from their predecessor cause the beats studio 3’s come included with a hardshell shell case… and in general, just given the Beats Studio Pro’s premium price point, we expect to see a hard shell case cause most other premium ANC headphones come included with a hardshell case… and now even some mid teir and entry level ANC headphones come with hard cases as well. So the fact that the studio pro’s have a soft case, that’s already a bad first impression. And in general, I dont know why apple is so bad at including cases with their headphones…
But next up there’s the design of these headphones. The Studio Pro’s look identical to the studio 3’s and its using the same materials. We’ve got a mostly new plastic body, we’ve got these metal arms that extend… even though personally I dont like the feel of this… we’ve got very minimally padded silicon underneath the headband… and we’ve got leatherette on the ear cups which I will admit feels nice. Overall, the beats studio pro’s have the same foldable design as the Studio 3’s and the same very limited range of motion ear cups. In general, I feel that the design of these headphones is very out dated from a usability and comfort stand point.
And speaking of comfort, the Studio Pro’s have a lot of clamping force to them so if you have a bigger head or if you like to wear hats, then these might not be for you. So personally, I am going to have to say that these are not big head approved. But clamping for aside, another reason why these headphones aren’t super comfortable is cause of their ear cups and earpads. Now like I mentioned earlier, the ear cups on the Studio Pro’s have very limited range of motion… so I found that these headphones just dont sit as naturally on your head, cause these ear cups apply more pressure on the front of the ear cups than they do on the back. With headphones, we want our ear cups to apply an even amount of pressure all around our ears. But also, there are the earpads… the earpads on the Pro’s does have a larger diameter than the 3’s… which is good… but the earpads on the Pro’s are shallower than the earpads on the 3’s. So even if you have average sized ears like me… these ear pads will press down on your ears, which can get uncomfortable after 30 or 40 minutes. And since these ear pads are so shallow, I defentily wouldn’t recommend them to someone who has larger ears or ears that stick out a lot. So comfort wise, I dont like the beats studio pro, they have a lot of clamping force making them not big head approved. The limited range of motion on these ear cups makes them apply an uneven amount of pressure around your ears, and the shallow ear pads on these headphones are uncomfortable even for people with average sized ears.
But next up lets talk about battery life. The Beats Studio Pro’s have an advertised battery life of 24 hours with their active noise cancellation turned on… and that is a 2 hour upgrade from the 3’s…. Now a 24 hour battery life on your headphones is okay… but right now 30 hours is where its at.
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But if you were to use these headphones with their active noise cancelation turned off, they can go for as long as 40 hours… the same as the Beats Studio 3’s… so technically yes, there has been a battery life improvement on the Pro’s from the 3’s… but two additional hours with ANC turned on isn’t super impressive.
Now in order to charge these headphones, they charge via a USB C port… where as the beats studio 3’s charge via a micro USB port. Now personally I am surprised than they don't charge via a lightning port like AirPods do… so if you have an iPhone you are going to have to use a separate cable to charge these headphones. But its good to at least see USB C on these headphones. And if you were to charge these headphones up for 10 minutes from a dead battery, they are going to get you 4 hours of playback time, which is okay, but it is lagging when compared to the rest of the competition.
Now when it comes to the bluetooth connectivity on these headphones… the Pro’s aren’t using any of apple’s H1 or W1 chips… but you can still easily swap between multiple devices… and in general, these are a good option if you’re a power user that uses devices from different eco systems cause you can easily switch between your devices without having to put these headphones into pairing mode every single time you want to switch.
And when it comes to overall Bluetooth connectivity, there’s zero latency across board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… but when it comes to audio codecs, the beats studio pro’s have support for SBC and AAC which is very standard for apple.
But if you want to, you can always just use a wired connection on these headphones cause they still have a 3.5 millimeter audio jack… and they come included with a 3.5 to 3.5 millimeter audio cable… and this is a very big deal cause personally I was worried that apple was going to remove the audio jack on the Beats Studio pro like how they did with the AirPods Max, and beats solo pro… and they would make you pay extra if you wanted to use your headphones with a wired connection. But thankfully that’s not the case.
The only thing is… even if you want to use these headphones with a wired connection, you’re still going to need a charge, you can’t use them completely passively without turning them on. But, the cool thing about the Beats Studio Pro is that you can use their USB C port as a wired connection… and personally I really didn’t expect this. And the fact that you can use the USB C port on these headphones as a wired connection is still rather rare these days cause you can’t do this with Sony’s or Boses headphones. But you can on lets say the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s or the Bowers And Wilkins PX7 S2’s.
But now lets talk about sound, plainly said, the Beats Studio Pro’s sound very different from the Beats Studio 3’s. Plainly said, the beats studio pro’s are great pair of headphones for someone that like a very bass heavy sound signature. The bass on the Studio Pro’s both resonates very cleanly and it will also rattle your head a decent amount. Where as with the beats studio 3’s… they have a bass heavy sound signature… but the bass isn’t as impressive cause it doesn’t resonate and it doesn’t rattle your head. Also, the instrument separation on the beats studio 3’s isn’t great… but there’s an emphasis on the vocals… so vocals are pushed forward but they don't sound as clear, and there’s very little detail in the instrumentals in the back. Where as with the Beats Studio Pro… even though they have a bass heavy sound signature… the bass on these headphones doesn’t over power the rest of the music. There’s still a good amount of detail in the instrumentals… and the vocals sound a lot more realistic cause that aren’t artificially brought to the front like with the beats studio 3. Overall I enjoy how the beats studio pro sound… but these are specifically for people who want a lot of bass in their music. And I feel that the bass on these headphones will satiate most people.
But the really interesting thing about these the Beats Studio pro is that you can’t go in and directly adjust their EQ like you can with a lot of other headphones out there… you’re stuck with their stock bass heavy EQ… but if you were to used these headphones with a wired connection through their USB C port… you’ll be able to cycle between different EQ settings. I just don't understand why apple wont let you adjust their EQ if you’re using them wirelessly.
But another upgrade that is found on these headphones over the Studio 3’s is that the Pro’s now have spatial audio. Now I like spatial audio cause it really helps with instrument separation… but I set it to fixed. I think the whole head tracking thing is a gimmick.
But when it comes to controlling your media, the beats studio pro’s have the same physical buttons as the beats studio 3’s. Now some people just like having physical buttons on their headphones… that’s fine, but personally I would have like to have seen apple change the layout of these buttons cause I dont like that you have to press their ear cups up against your head. With most other headphones out there, the buttons are on the side of the ear cups which makes pressing your buttons feel a lot more comfortable.
But something to keep in mind here is that the Studio Pro’s dont have wear sensors on them like the AirPods Max or like with some premium ANC headphones other there. Now I dont really care for wear sensors… but I think I should point it out cause this is another feature that’s becoming more and more common on premium ANC headphones. But something that the studio pro do have is they still have Hey Siri support… which is good given that they aren’t using apple’s H1 or W1 chip.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these headphones. Technically yes, the ANC on the Beats Studio Pro has been improved from the ANC found on the Studio 3’s… but the performance difference isn’t huge and the ANC on the Beats Studio Pro preforms more in line like with a pair of mid tier ANC headphones. But so that you can see for yourself, we’re going to jump into the ANC Test.
So like you may have just seen, the ANC on the Beats Studio Pro blocks out a little more road noise and a little more chatter than the Beats Studio 3… ANC headphones from 5 years ago… but the Studio Pro’s dont block out anywhere as much noise as the Sony 1000XM5’s which are a pair of current gen premium ANC headphones… and these are now a year old now. Plainly said, if active noise cancellation is very important you because you plan on flying a lot with your headphones… then you shouldn’t consider the beats studio pro cause these premium ANC headphones are giving you ANC performance that you’ll find on a pair of mid teir or entry level headphones.
Now, another new feature that’s found on the Beats Studio Pro that isn’t found on the Beats Studio 3 is that the Pro’s now have an ambient mode… now this ambient mode sounds good enough to get the job done, but it doesn’t sound as natural as the ambient mode that you’ll find on the AirPods Max… and you can’t adjust the ambient mode on either the Pro’s or AirPods Max to your liking, like you can with the ambient mode on a lot of other headphones out there. So overall, the active noise cancellation on the Beats Studio Pro is a big disappointment specifically for a pair of premium ANC headphones… and even though its great and all that the Beats Studio Pro have an ambient mode now… its almost as if apple just added it so that they can say that the Beats Studio pro’s have an ambient mode cause if these headphones didn’t have it, that would have been a very big knock on them… but apple half hazardly added the ambient mode on these headphones cause we know that it can be a lot better.
But finally here’s the microphone test, and this is an area where the Beats Studio Pro’s are a lot better than the Studio 3’s… cause with the Studio 3’s, even in a quite room my voice sounds a little muffled.
Where as with the new Beats Studio Pro, my voice sounds a lot better here. And peronsally I am not surprised to see that these headphones have a good sounding microphone on them, cause apple has been doing their microphones very well on all of their AirPods.
But the really impressive thing about this microphone is how it deals with noise pollution, cause right now this microphone is doing a really good job of blocking out this road noise, cause for comparisons sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clearly hear this road noise, but if we were to switch back over to the beats studio pro, it is severely reduced.
Where as with the beats studio 3… you can still hear my voice, but you can also still hear a lot of road noise in the background.
But when it comes to blocking out chatter, this microphone really struggles and my voice starts to sound very muffled.
Where as the beats studio pro’s do a much better job of dealing with this chatter. You can still hear some chatter in the background, but more importantly you can understand my voice. So overall, the Beats Studio Pro’s have a really good sounding microphone on them for phone calls.
So with all of that being said, I will admit that I like the microphone that’s found on the beats studio pro for phone calls, and I actually enjoy its bass heavy sound signature… but besides that, for me it is very hard to recommend the beats studio pro and I feel that all of the praise that these headphones have gotten is unjustified. First off there’s the comfort on these headphones. The Beats Studio pro have a lot of clamping force to them making them not big head approved. Their ear cups have limited range of motion, so these ear cups dont sit as naturally on your head, and their ear pads are very shallow, so even if you have average sized ears, they will press down on your cartilage. But then there’s the active noise cancelation on these headphones… the ANC on the Beats Studio Pro performs more similarly to a pair of mid teir or entry level ANC headphones and not Premium ANC headphones. And even though its great and all that they now have an ambient mode… we know that apple could have done better. And finally there’s their case, these are a pair of premium ANC headphones that dont come included with a hard shell case, which is expected on a pair of headphones of this price point.