Apple’s Newest Powerbeats Glow in the Dark

Beats Powerbeats Ambush Credit: Beats
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We’re still eagerly awaiting the debut of Apple’s “AirPods Studio” on-ear headphones, and we almost certainly won’t see any other AirPods until early next year, but for now at least it seems that the company’s Beats division hasn’t been sitting still.

Last month, Apple unveiled the amazingly ultra-affordable Beats Flex headphones, making cool iPhone features like Audio Sharing much more accessible by packing in Apple’s W1 chip. This made Beats Flex the most affordable headphones to ever do so, coming in at half the price of the BeatsX which they effectively replaced — and actually a third of the price at which BeatsX first launched almost four years ago.

Now Apple is dressing up the Powerbeats earphones that launched earlier this year with a unique new version that it’s putting out in collaboration with design label Ambush.

A Glowingly Special Edition

The new special edition Powerbeats, which are fundamentally just a design change from the versions that are already available in white, red, and black, now feature a cool yet eerie glow-in-the-dark design that may particularly appeal to those who like to work out at night.

They’re actually the first glow-in-the-dark product that Beats has ever made, and since they’re being released in collaboration with Ambush, they also feature that company’s logo emblazoned alongside the Beats branding on the outside of each earbud.

Under normal lighting conditions, the Powerbeats appear in a light pastel green colour, but once you turn off the lights, both the actual headphone bodies and even the cable in between them will glow green.

According to Yoon Ahn, co-founder and creative director of Ambush, the design was inspired by Tokyo’s energetic and glowing nightlife, and envisions the new Powerbeats as “capturing that same city energy” for users who are out listening to music late at night.

Beyond the physical design, however, these are the exact same Powerbeats that Apple’s Beats division released in March, although they command a higher asking price — $50 more — due to their special edition status.

Unlike the much less expensive Beats Flex, however the Powerbeats actually feature Apple’s newest H1 chip — the exact same chip that’s found in the second-generation AirPods and AirPods Pro, as well as Beats’ fully wireless Powerbeats Pro and Beats Solo Pro — the only full-sized headphones to feature the chip (at least until Apple’s own long-awaited AirPods Studio arrive).

While all Beats Wireless headphones support Audio Sharing, a feature that debuted last year in iOS 13, since that one feature only requires the W1 chip, almost all of the other more advanced audio features require Apple’s newest H1 chip, including “Hey Siri” and Announce Messages with Siri, as well as newer iOS 14 features like Headphone Accommodations and automatic switching between devices. The H1 chip also reportedly offers better Bluetooth performance.

As with other Powerbeats models, the new Ambush Special Edition Powerbeats provide up to 15 hours of battery life on a single charge, Fast Fuel charging that offers up another hour of playback after only five minutes of charging, and the same sound profile as the more expensive, fully wireless Powerbeats Pro. Unlike the new Beats Flex, these still charge over Lightning as well, and include a short USB-A to Lightning cable for charging. Unique to the Ambush version is a co-branded rip stop pouch for storing and carrying the earphones.

The new Ambush Special Edition Powerbeats will be available starting tomorrow at Apple and several other retailers.

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