Beats Solo Pro Wireless Headphones Review

The Beats Solo Pro are very stylish headphones. They have a premium look thanks to the wide metallic band and follow a traditional Beats design. These on-ears are fairly big and almost look like over-ears, especially on smaller heads. They come in multiple different color schemes, making it easier for you to match your preferred style.

The Beats Solo Pro are decently comfortable, but some people might feel like they're too tight. The padding of the cup is thicker than the Solo 3, but doesn't feel plushier once on the head. They aren't that heavy and the headband does a good job at redistributing the weight of the headphones. However, the size adjustment range is fairly limited and isn't great for people with larger heads, as these won't fit.

The Beats Solo Pro's control scheme is great. You get easy to use controls on the left cup and an ANC/talk-through button on the bottom side of the right cup. You can easily control the volume, play/pause, manage calls, and skip tracks. However, everything is done on the up, bottom, and center button, since the left and right sides aren't buttons, which is unsettling at first. It feels intuitive to use the left and right for track skipping, so you have to get used to not using these, as the buttons feel fairly flimsy. Note that to turn off the headphones, you have to fold them.

Due to their on-ear design, there's not much heat that stays trapped under an ear cup. There's some decent airflow, allowing your ears to breathe more than with over-ear headphones. However, these won't be as ideal as in-ears for sports, as you might sweat more than usual.

These headphones are quite bulky for on-ears. On the upside, they fold into a more compact format, but the cups don't swivel to lay flat.

The Beats Solo Pro come with a soft case that slightly protects the headphones against scratches, but that's about it. The case isn't very sturdy and won't absorb shocks or protect the headphones against water exposure.

The Beats Solo Pro have a great build quality and feel like high-end headphones. The materials used feel solid and sturdy. They have a more premium look than the Beats Solo 3 thanks to the full metal-alloy headband. These headphones feel durable, but the control scheme button on the right ear cup seems to be the weak link as the side buttons wobble a lot and aren't actual buttons; you can press them thinking it would skip tracks, but you'd only be applying pressure on it for nothing.

These headphones are decently stable, but won't be the ideal choice for runners. You can easily keep them on your head during a casual listening session, but heavy head movement will make them sway off your head easily. On the upside, they're wireless and fairly tight, so they might not feel loose to everybody.

• Beats Solo Pro headphones
• USB to Lightning charging cable
• Carrying soft case
• Manuals

The Beats Solo Pro have a pretty neutral sound profile which is suitable for a wide variety of music genres. These headphones also pack a bit of extra bass and treble, which may sound a bit too excited for some critical listeners.

The frequency response consistency of these headphones is good. There are very few variations when listening to the Solo Pro and most people should hear the same thing every time they put on the headphones. There's a bit more variation in the treble range, but this won't be too audible in most cases.

The bass accuracy of the Beats Solo Pro is excellent. There's a bit of extra thump in the low-bass, which should satisfy bass fans, but the overall response is pretty neutral.

These headphones' mid-range accuracy is also excellent and neutral. Vocals and lead instruments are reproduced accurately.

The treble accuracy of the Beats Solo Pro Wireless is great. It is fairly well-balanced, although you might lose some detail on some frequencies, while sharper S and T sounds, like cymbals, may feel a bit piercing.

The response of the Beats Solo Pro is very well-balanced and there aren't many audible peaks and dips. There's a few narrow dips in the treble, which can affect the brightness and detail of those frequencies, but these won't be too audible for most people.

The headphones' stereo imaging is great. The GD graph shows the group delay is below the audibility threshold, which results in tight and accurate bass and treble ranges. Also, the L/R drivers of our unit were well-matched, but note that these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The on-ear design doesn't interact much with the pinna, therefore these headphones won't have a speaker-like soundstage. There's not much pinna activation, and the closed-back design won't sound as open as open-back headphones. The soundstage should sound fairly small and unnatural, on top of being inside the listener's head rather than in front. If you're looking for a pair of on-ear headphones with a better passive soundstage, check out the Grado The Hemp Headphone.

The Beats Solo Pro's weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. It's within very good limits throughout the range, although there's a small bump in treble, but this won't be audible to most people. This will result in a clear and pure audio reproduction.

The Solo Pro's ANC feature is great and blocks a lot of ambient noise. They're a decent option to bring on the bus or on a flight as they reduce a decent amount of engine rumbles and deep bass sounds. They'll also be suitable for an office setting to block out ambient chatter and the noise coming from the A/C unit.

These headphones don't leak that much for on-ears, which is great. You'll be able to raise your listening volume without bothering surrounding people. Most of the leakage will be thin sounding as it consists of higher frequencies. You still shouldn't blast your music in very quiet environments like a library.

The microphone's recording quality is pretty bad. Recorded speech is muffled and lacks a lot of detail. The speech is still understandable in very quiet environments, but won't be the best option for important phone calls. If you want superior recording quality from a pair of wireless on-ear headphones, consider the Jabra Evolve2 65 Wireless, which have a boom microphone.

The Beats Solo Pro's integrated microphone has mediocre noise handling. It struggles to separate background noise from actual speech. This microphone is better suited for very quiet environments.

The Beats Solo Pro's battery life performance is decent. It has a good 24-hour battery life on a single charge, which should be more than enough for most and won't require daily charging. They also don't take too long to charge, which is great. However, they don't have any power-saving feature, so be sure to fold them to power them off, or else they will drain out. On the upside, if you disable the ANC, you can get up to 40 hours of continuous playback time according to the manufacturer. The headphones can be used wired with a lightning cable, but you'll need to purchase one separately as no audio cable is included in the box. If you want a pair of on-ear headphones with a much longer lasting battery, check out the similarly-performing JBL CLUB 700BT Wireless.

There's a Beats app that is available on both iOS and Android, but it barely does anything. All you get is an interface to control between ANC off, ANC on, and the talk-through mode.

These headphones are Bluetooth compatible and might even have better performance with H1 chip compatible devices. Unfortunately, our dongle doesn't take advantage of the chip, so if you do have an iOS device, you might get lower latency and a more stable connection. If you're looking for a pair of premium on-ear wireless headphones with superior Bluetooth connectivity, take a look at the Bowers & Wilkins PX5 Wireless, which support multi-device pairing, not to mention the aptX and aptX HD wireless codecs.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only and don't have a secondary wireless connection.

Update 15/05/2019: After receiving feedback from a user, we acknowledge the fact that the Beats Solo Pro can be used wired with a Lightning to 3.5mm cable. However, the headphones don't come with one, which is disappointing. The text previously stated that it was impossible to use them wired. The review has been updated. These headphones come with a USB to Lightning charging cable, and that's it. They don't have any included audio cable.

These headphones can't be used on PC or PS4 wirelessly other than with Bluetooth on PC.

The Beats Solo Pro aren't compatible with an Xbox One.

These headphones don't have a base or a dock.