Beats

About Beats

Apple bought Beats in 2014 and then did something it rarely does: it left the name on the door. More than a decade later the range still has its own designers, its own look, and its own products that overlap awkwardly with Apple's.

That overlap is the thing worth explaining, because it looks like an accident and is not. Every Beats product has an AirPods sibling, and a buyer standing in front of both reasonably asks why one company sells two answers to the same question.

The answer is that they are not answers to the same question. Beats is where Apple sells to people who are not entirely inside Apple: households with Android phones in them, people whose ears do not hold ordinary earbuds, and people who want hardware AirPods do not have.

Beats or AirPods?

Three things decide it, and price is not usually the first.

Android is the structural one. Beats ships a proper Android app with full settings and firmware updates, plus Google Fast Pair and Find My Device. AirPods on an Android phone work as ordinary Bluetooth headphones and lose most of what makes them pleasant to own. If there is an Android phone in your household, or if you might switch, this alone decides it.

Fit is the second and the most underrated. AirPods stay in by seal. That is excellent when it works and useless when it does not, and no feature list compensates for earbuds that fall out. Beats offers a wingtip line and an ear-hook line specifically for people that seal does not serve, which is a real physical solution rather than a preference.

Hardware is the third. The current ear-hook earbuds carry a built-in heart rate sensor, which no AirPods model has. That is Beats doing something Apple's own range does not do at all, rather than doing it more cheaply.

What AirPods keep is the tighter behaviour inside Apple's own ecosystem: instant pairing, automatic switching between Apple devices, and new features arriving there first.

What is in the range, and how do you choose?

Five lines, and the choice is almost entirely about how and where you will wear them.

Studio Pro is the over-ear line: the most isolation, the most comfort over long sessions, and it folds into a compact case, which its Apple sibling notably does not.

Solo is on-ear: lighter, cooler, the longest battery in the range, and less isolation because the pads sit on your ears rather than around them. Choose between the two on how long you wear headphones at a stretch rather than on price. Under an hour, on-ear. Over two, over-ear.

Fit Pro is the wingtip earbud, which holds through most exercise and stays unobtrusive enough for all-day use. It is the best default of the earbuds for most people.

The ear-hook line is for the hardest movement and for anyone who wants heart rate from the earbuds. It is more secure and less convenient: a bigger case, slower to put in, and it competes with spectacle arms for the space behind your ear.

Pill is the portable speaker, and the only product here that is not worn. Its comparison is with the HomePod rather than with an AirPod, and the question is simply whether the speaker needs to move.

Who is better served elsewhere?

Anyone whose priority is noise cancelling. Sony and Bose have led that category for years and still do. Beats is competitive rather than leading, and if silence is the thing you are buying, shop there first.

Anyone living entirely on Apple devices whose ears hold ordinary earbuds. You are the customer AirPods were designed for, and the small daily conveniences of first-party integration are worth having. The main reasons to cross to Beats do not apply to you.

Anyone buying purely on sound quality per pound. This range is priced as a premium brand and competes on fit, compatibility and design rather than on winning measurement comparisons. Several specialist manufacturers will give you more sound for the money.

Anyone who wants a speaker that stays in one room. Portability costs sound quality and money, and a mains-powered home speaker beats a portable one for the same outlay.

Who the range genuinely suits: mixed-device households, people who exercise in their headphones, and anybody who has ever had an earbud fall out and decided never again.