Key Points
- The Beats Studio Buds offer great value for the price, with features comparable to more expensive earbuds like the Sony WF-1000XM4.
- The comfortable design of the Beats Studio Buds, along with their lightweight construction, makes them a pleasure to wear for extended periods of time.
- With a long-lasting battery life of up to 24 hours and USB-C charging, the Beats Studio Buds are convenient for on-the-go use and compatible with Android devices.
When it comes to headphones that sync with the iPhone, Apple has a super strong lineup thanks to its selection of various AirPods. However, Apple’s earbud selection isn’t just limited to the AirPods Pro, as the Beats Studio Buds are also available and they are one of the best earbud values around today.
With a fun design, active noise cancellation, and a price tag that’s half the cost of the AirPods Pro, the Beats Studio Buds may very well be the new earbuds you didn’t know you needed.
Let’s take a look at the 9 reasons why you should pick up a pair of Beats Studio Buds today.
Beats Studio Buds History
- Noise cancellation
- Compatible with Apple and Android
- Built-in microphone
- IPX4 rating
- Sweat-resistant
- Class 1
- Pink
First announced to the world on June 14, 2021, Apple’s introduction of the Beats Studio Buds has provided the company with another opportunity to show why the Beats acquisition was such a smart move.
The Beats line was purchased by Apple in 2014 for $3 billion, and, consequently, the Beats Studio Buds continue to enjoy the benefits of more expensive earbuds all while having come down in price over the last 2 years. These truly wireless noise-canceling earbuds also come in fun colors to help match your own style.
9 Reasons to Buy the Beats Studio Buds Today
#1: Great Value for the Price
There is little question the Beats Studio Buds are a great value for what they offer today and an even better value for the price. Often on sale via Amazon, you have recently been able to pick up the Studio Buds for as little as $99.99, which is a steal for all of the features you get. Similarly priced to rivals like the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds, it’s almost immediate how quickly you can see the value of the Studio Buds.
Better yet, you can get this outstanding price across any of the 6 colors available, which include black, red, white, moon gray, ocean blue, and sunset pink. No matter which color you choose, you get both the earbuds and case in the same color, which only increases the argument that the Beats Studio Buds are an incredibly attractive earbud choice for most people.
#2: Comfortable Design
As fun as the colors are in the overall design of the Beats Studio Buds, they are far more than their color set. When it comes to comfort, the design really stands out as each earpiece is only 0.9 x 0.8 x 0.6 inches in size. Along with 3 different earbud tips to find the right fit, the design of the Buds is very form-fitting and is almost imperceivable to see in someone’s ear if you are looking at them straight on.
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest reasons for the Beat Studio Buds’ success has been their comfort level. With battery life that can last the better part of a workday and into the evening, you may not take these out for hours on end. The lightweight design won’t induce fatigue as you might find with over-ear headphones.
At only 5 grams in weight, there is even more of an argument to talk about how great the Beats Studio Buds can be while resting in your ear for listening to music or chatting away on a phone call.
#3: Long Lasting Battery
Keeping pace with its biggest competitors like the Sony earbuds, the battery life of the Beats Studio Buds is one more reason why they are well worth a purchase. Offering 8 hours of battery life on a single charge, the pocket-sized charging case can give you two additional charges in total before they need to be recharged.
This equates to 24 hours of total battery life before you need to consider charging, which could mean you can go an entire week’s worth of commuting without worrying about a charger.
Plus, if you need some extra juice on the go, a 5-minute “Fast Fuel” charge with the Buds will give you an extra hour’s worth of playback. Online reviews note the battery life is spot on with some users even going over the 8 hours of battery life when just listening to music.
#4: USB-C for the Win
In light of the Apple iPhone 15 launch switching the iPhone over to USB-C for the first time, it feels just right to mention this as another big feature for the Beats Studio buds. As the charging case utilizes USB-C charging, you can rest assured that you now need to carry one less cable if you are an iPhone 15 or recent Android smartphone owner. It’s a small but important factor that helps make sure there is plenty of support for Android devices, many of which have been using USB-C connectivity for years.
#5: Android Support
Arguably one of the most important reasons to really consider the Beats Studio Buds as your next earbud pair is support not just for iPhone, but for Android as well. As the Buds do not have an H1 or W1 chip as is present across the AirPods lineup, the Beats Studio Bud works almost the exact same way on the iPhone as they do on Android.
This means you have full support for the entire range of features available on the Buds, including active noise cancellation, on-device controls for voice assistance, one-touch pairing, and spatial audio that works with any supported device. Additionally, all 6 of the available colors are compatible with Android, so you have the exact same choices as iPhone owners when it comes to choosing whatever color speaks loudest to you.
Syncing to Android and the iPhone is super easy as you open the case, press the button on the case, and then wait for the headphones to appear in your Bluetooth directory. The one difference between the platforms is that to make adjustments as to which voice assistant you use on Android, you need to use the downloadable Beats app. For iPhone owners, making the same setting adjustments can be done right in the default settings menu.
©TongRoRo/Shutterstock.com
#6: Active Noise Cancellation
With both sweat and water resistance on the Beats Studio Buds, it’s fair to say that you may want to use them while working out. When you are in the midst of an exercise, you’ll quickly come to support active noise cancellation just as much as a commuter will while on a bus or train. Active noise cancellation is built right into the Buds and works to continuously block noise while in use.
Alternatively, you can swap to transparency mode which continues to block out a high level of ambient noise, while still allowing you to hear the world around you. The one downside to noise cancellation with any earbud or headphones is that it will reduce your battery life down to 5 hours on a single charge and 15 hours with the case, but it’s a worthwhile tradeoff to have some alone time from the world.
#7: Find My Compatibility
Everyone has been there at one point or another where they are searching all over for a lost pair of headphones.
Well, the good news is the Beats Studio Buds support not just Apple’s Find My service in the same way as AirPods, but there is also support for Google’s Find My Device network for Android users. This is a welcome feature addition as it means full compatibility to help find a lost pair of Beats Studio Buds and doesn’t limit the best features to just iPhone owners.
#8: Enjoyable Sound
For a small, lightweight earbud, the sound on the Beats Studio Buds is pretty impressive for their price point. The Buds have no problem finding the right balance between highs, mediums, and lows, and no matter what your music preference, you should find something to like here.
As one might expect from a pair of Beats headphones, there’s an emphasis on bass and this is going to be okay for many people. Activate active noise cancellation and the bass levels get even stronger, though at the cost of battery life.
When combined with the solid in-ear fit, music sounds great overall but phone calls sound just as good. Beam-forming microphones built into the earbuds themselves will help ensure that you will sound great to anyone on the other end of a call and you can hear everyone just as well.
#9: Control Center Support
Understandably a minor thing in the big picture, but having the option to control many of the built-in features of the Beats Studio Buds directly in the iPhone control center is hard to ignore. This positioning, or shortcut if you will, makes it very easy to adjust the volume or switch sound modes. You can also easily adjust between active noise cancellation and transparency mode, which is nice to have in the event someone bumps into you and you want to be able to quickly chat with them.
In the grand scheme, ease of use can definitely make a big difference, so having immediate access to control center support is a big win for the Buds and iPhone owners.
Best Alternatives to Beats Studio Buds
#1 Best Overall: AirPods Pro
- Apple-designed H2 chip
- Low-distortion, custom-built driver
- Up to 2x more Active Noise Cancellation than the previous AirPods Pro
- Personalized spatial audio
- Up to 6 hours of battery life or 30 hours with the charging case
Surprising absolutely no one, the AirPods Pro from Apple (2nd generation) are the number 1 best overall alternative to the Beats Studio Buds.
There is just so much to like about the AirPods Pro that it’s hard to find just one reason to single out. Everything from having the H2 chip for quick connections to any other Apple product, or improved active noise cancellation makes the AirPods Pro such an easy recommendation.
With the 2nd generation, Apple has improved adaptive transparency and improved spatial audio to take an already great experience and make it better. Additionally, Apple has improved the Pro battery life over the 1st generation by over 33% for a total of 6 hours of battery life plus the charging case for a grand total of 30 hours overall.
Available with four different tips to help fit a range of ears plus voice assistance with Siri, automatic device switching, and a deeper bass, the AirPods Pro are the earbuds to beat.
You can check out the AirPods Pro from Apple (2nd generation) on Amazon.
Best Runner-Up: Sony WF-1000XM4
- IPX4 water- and sweat-resistance
- Up to 8 hours of battery life on a single charge
- Crystal-clear call quality with four built-in microphones
- Pair with two Bluetooth devices at the same time
If you’re on the Android side of things, the very best alternatives to the Beats Studio Pro are the Sony WF-1000XM4 headphones.
Everything around the Sony WF-1000XM4 headphones begins with the Integrated Processor V1, which adds Sony’s class-leading noise cancellation technology. When combined with crystal-clear beamforming microphones, Android users on the Sony earbuds will find taking a call sounds fantastic. Better yet, speak-to-chat technology will automatically reduce the volume of music or a podcast if it detects you have started to speak.
With over 8 hours of battery life, IPX4 water resistance, and the ability to connect to 2 devices at once, the Sony’s make a very good use case for Android users at the same price point as the Beats Studio Buds. The Sony’s even match the Beats by enabling a full 24 hours of listening time with the included charging case.
Last but not least, the 6mm drivers have been specially designed for the Sony WF-1000XM4 headphones to create one of the richest bass ranges at this price point.
You can take a look at the Sony WF-1000XM4 headphones on Amazon.
Wrapping Up
When it comes to Beats headphones, the Studio Buds have a long and proud history and, fortunately, they are more than good enough to wear the Beats name.
For anyone who doesn’t want to spend the additional money for AirPods or more expensive headphones like the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, the Beats Studio Buds deliver great value, excellent sound, and a strong feature set to make them well worth a look.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Marykor/Shutterstock.com.
