The Powerbeats Pro 2 Have Arrived to Take On the AirPods Pro
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After nearly a six-year hiatus, Beats has just unveiled the next-generation Powerbeats Pro 2, and the most surprising thing about these new headphones is how much of a worthy challenger they are to Apple’s AirPods Pro.
Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising, considering what the Beats Studio Pro did to the AirPods Max two years ago, but there’s a pretty big gulf between the relatively niche AirPods Max and the more mainstream AirPods Pro. Apple’s luxury on-ear cans have plenty of lower-priced rivals, so it wasn’t all that unreasonable for Apple to try and cash in by offering a viable alternative through its Beats brand.
However, the Powerbeats Pro 2 go a significant step further. Not only do these new earbuds pack in all the same technology as the AirPods Pro, but they’ve actually beat Apple’s flagship earbuds to the punch by becoming the first to gain heart rate monitoring.
Apple has been working on this for years — reports go back to at least 2018 — but most folks expected we’d see them come to the AirPods first. We’d be shocked if they weren’t a feature of the AirPods Pro 3 later this year, but Apple made the interesting choice to debut it on the Powerbeats Pro 2.
It’s not an unreasonable move. Like their 2019 predecessors, these are a set of workout earbuds, through and through. The original Powerbeats Pro came out on the heels of Apple’s second-generation AirPods, and were an obvious choice for fitness enthusiasts. Beats is clearly sticking with this motif for the sequel, which pack in a ton of new technology and shrinking things down.
Powerbeats Pro 2 is the most impressive product in Beats’ history — developed to withstand intense training sessions and equipped with our most innovative technology and powerful sound. Now with Heart Rate Monitoring for workouts, Active Noise Cancellation, and Transparency mode, Powerbeats Pro 2 sets a new standard in audio for fitness.
Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Music, Sports, and Beats
The Powerbeats Pro 2 definitely make up for the six-year wait. The originals lacked even active noise cancellation (ANC), which didn’t exist in Apple’s world until the original AirPods Pro arrived later that same year. They were also clunkier affairs in both the headphones and the case, and they lacked wireless charging.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 correct all those deficiencies, and pack in another big surprise: Beats has returned to using an AirPods chip — the H2 in this case.
That’s something we didn’t see coming. While the 2019 Powerbeats Pro were the first set of Beats-branded earbuds to gain Apple’s H1 chip, they were one of the few modern sets of Beats products to do so, joined only by the short-lived Solo Pro on-ear headphones released later that year (and summarily discontinued in 2021), the 2020 Powerbeats and early 2021 Beats Fit Pro.
By the end of 2021, the era of H-series chips in Beats headphones seemed over. The company instead began using a custom unnamed in-house chip that provided similar features to the H1 but played more nicely with Android features like Google’s Fast Pairing and Find My. This was true even for the 2023 Beats Studio Pro, which featured the same Personalized Spatial Audio as the AirPods Max.
This makes the Powerbeats Pro 2 the first set of Beats-branded earbuds to use an H-series chip in nearly four years. However, it also means that the new earbuds should be able to take advantage of the same tight iPhone integration that the AirPods Pro offer, from the basics like seamless pairing and switching and Audio Sharing to Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking and Adaptive EQ.
Android users aren’t left out here, though. Unlike AirPods, a Beats app on the Play Store will unlock one-touch pairing, Heart Rate Monitoring features, and let users customize the controls and locate their Beats.
The heart rate monitoring will probably be redundant for Apple Watch users, but it’s great for those who want to take a run unencumbered. LED optical sensors pulse over 100 times per second to measure blood flow, which can be relayed to compatible fitness apps in real time via Apple’s Health app. That list of apps currently includes Open, Peloton, Runna, Slopes, Ladder, Nike Run Club, and YaoYao.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 push the battery envelope as well, promising a staggering 10 hours of battery life on their own, plus an extra 35 hours from the case. Beats’ Fast Fuel is here to give you 90 minutes of playback after a five-minute charge, and despite a 33% reduction in size, the charging case now features wireless charging.
Like their 2019 predecessors, the Powerbeats Pro 2 sound like the earbuds to buy if you’re a workout enthusiast and want something you know will stay in your ears. You can expect the same great sound, ANC, and Transparency modes in a design that features redesigned ear hooks reinforced with a nickel-titanium alloy to ensure they fit snugly with minimal added weight and bulk. An IPX4 rating also ensures that they’ll have no problem handling rain, snow, and heat, and upgraded venting and a fifth ear tip size promises a comfortable fit.
Powerbeats Pro 2 are priced at the same $250 as their predecessors and available in Jet Black, Quick Sand, Hyper Purple, and Electric Orange. They can be ordered from Apple’s online store now and should land on shelves later this week.
