Okay, so it's time to give these earbuds the review. As it turned out, I made a bit of a career change, so I had some time on my hands to do some more walking around lately and a chance to really see how these work.
You can see the Powerbeats Pro 2 unboxing video here if you missed it, but now I want to talk about how they perform.
So, first up, for these $350CAD set of earbuds, I am going to expect a lot out of them. And it isn't great that they do talk up how the device is really meant for Apple devices... so I was trying to temper my expectations, but let me tell you now the earbuds do not disappoint.
The short review is "these things are loud", and if you're going for the loudest set of earbuds I've used, then these are them.
Okay, let's start off with using them. First up, the container is big. Bigger than I'm used to - so it doesn't fit in a pocket as readily. But the bright orange really makes it easy to see.
The case has some magnets and it can stick to any magsafe type chargers and charge it up, because yes, as I think is a must in these days is to have wireless charging. Finding a cable to charge anything is kind of a pain.
Opening up the big case, you see why, as the Buds have ear loops. Full ear loops to help hold them on your ears. This is great for those folks who can't stand having things plunked into their ears or fear that it isn't as 'secure' in there. My son doesn't like earbuds as he wears them for so long that it can be uncomfortable, well having some pressure held by the ear loops can relieve some of that pressure.
Neat.
Putting them on takes some finesse. In a couple weeks of using them, I still haven't quite got the deftness to plop them on without some level of fumbling to get in place.
But once on, they're on. They're not going anywhere.
Now to set them up, it's best to download the Beats app... well you don't need to, you could just do it as a Bluetooth, but if you want some of the options you'll want the app.
Download the app and you can connect to the earbuds right away.
Now, they do warn you that you're not going to get the full experience on Android.
But more on that in a bit, in the app, the simple option you have are the ability to switch between different noise cancelling (on, off, transparency).
Simple enough. Nothing we haven't seen before.
What is new is a feature that lets the earbuds read your heart rate. Okay, that's a new kinda feature to have in a set of earbuds. But they don't quite work like you think they'd work, unfortunately. Instead of the app just telling you what the earbuds are reading you have to connect the earbuds to a workout device that will read it (like a smart treadmill) or another app.
It didn't work in Fitbit or Google Fit app... I downloaded Strava and in the Strava app there was a spot to say "grab my heart rate data from something".
So when you do your run it'll be communicating with your earbuds for the data. But, I don't have an exercise device, and I don't use Strava... so unfortunately, that feature will go unused by me.
Outside of that... let's use it to listen to some music!
And, as I started off saying it's loud. I went on a walk with one half listening to my Pixel Buds Pro 2, and then the other half the Powerbeats Pro 2 and there's a remarkable difference.
These are definitely louder than my Pixel Buds.
Now, quality wise of the sound it was crystal clear. The highs are separate enough from the lows are thumping enough. I think my Pixel Buds are a little better for that I feel, but this definitely puts out way more volume.
You can hear the wide range of the instruments in what I'm listening to; not sure any spectacularly different from the Pixel Buds... but again... it's louder.
Louder can be better, coupled with noise cancelling you can have a real immersive experience listening to music or podcasts while you're out on a walk or bike ride.
And for battery sake, I tend to notice on average that an hour of use is about 10% of the battery; which oddly almost perfectly aligns with their claim of 10 hours of charge time. The case can be used for about 4 cycles, giving you a total amount of like 45 hours of use before you'd to charge the case (which, remember, is Qi, which is good, because there's no USB-C cable in the box). Charging the buds in the case is pretty good. I didn't really time it, but the claim is 5 minutes in the box is another hour of use (so about that 10%, so it'd be about 30 minutes for a full charge from 0, which feels about right).
Now, if I had an Apple device, I could also get it to interact with Siri and others.
But, aside from that you can still use it, and for me the interesting thing about using these I found was that I was so used to other sets where you tap the buds, or swipe them, these have actual buttons
Yeah, actual buttons. The main play/pause you can see has that little separation from the end where you actually 'ca-click' it. And there is a volume rocker too... no swipe gestures to use.
I'm torn on it. I am SO used to swiping and tapping, that it feels somewhat foreign to me. Not wrong... and I can see the opportunity for it... not accidentally tapping or swiping the wrong way. But, physically double clicking to skip feels much slower. I guess I could get used to it, but just not my preferred method.
Overall, this is some awesome tech, it feels solid and sounds great. Obviously, for $350 to not get all the features - i.e. if you're not an iUser - feels like a bit much to try to swallow. But if you've got one of those this might just be for you.
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