Beats Solo Pro  Headphones Review

The Beats Solo Pro are very stylish headphones. They have a premium look thanks to the wide metallic band which follows the 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 fairly comfortable, but some people may find them too tight. The padding on the cups is thicker than on the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless, but they don't feel plushier against your ears when you put them on. They aren't that heavy, and the headband does a good job of redistributing the weight of the headphones. The size of the headband can be adjusted, but the extension is quite limited, so these may not fit people with bigger heads.

The Beats Solo Pro have a good control scheme. There's a small, very clicky ANC/talk-through button on the bottom of the right cup, and the rest of the controls are on the left cup. You can easily control the volume, play/pause, manage calls, and skip tracks by pushing the top, bottom, or center of the cup. It's easy to use but can be a bit confusing at first because it feels intuitive to use the left and right sides for track skipping, but they aren't actually buttons. You need to fold the headphones to turn them off, as there's no power button.

The Beats Solo Pro are impressively breathable. Due to their on-ear design, not much heat stays trapped under the ear cups. There's some decent airflow, allowing your ears to breathe more than with over-ear headphones. However, these aren't as ideal as in-ears for sports or working out, as you may sweat more than usual.

The Beats Solo Pro have sub-par portability. They're quite bulky for on-ears. On the upside, they fold into a more compact format, but the cups don't swivel to lay flat. If you're looking for more portable Beats headphones, check out the Beats Studio Buds True Wireless.

The Beats Solo Pro's case isn't bad. It's soft and should slightly protect the headphones against scratches, but that's about it. The case isn't very sturdy and doesn'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 Solo3 2019 Wireless thanks to the metal-alloy headband. The control scheme on the left ear cup seems to be the weak link since even though the buttons are only located in the center (where the Beats logo is) and above and below, the left and right sides wobble and feel like buttons if accidentally pushed, which is a little confusing.

These headphones are decently stable but aren't the ideal choice for runners. You can easily keep them on your head during a casual listening session, but more intense head movements can 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-A to Lightning charging cable
• Carrying soft case
• Manuals

The Beats Solo Pro have a pretty neutral sound profile suitable for a wide variety of music genres. That said, these headphones also pack a bit of extra bass and treble, which may sound a bit too excited for fans of neutral sound.

The frequency response consistency is good. Treble delivery is slightly inconsistent and depends on the fit and positioning. You may need to readjust them on your head each time you wear them to get the same listening experience.

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

These headphones have excellent mid-range accuracy. Vocals and lead instruments sound present, detailed, and accurate.

The Beats Solo Pro have decent treble accuracy. It's fairly well-balanced, but vocals and lead instruments are very detailed and slightly harsh, while sibilants like S and T sounds may be a bit piercing.

The Beats Solo Pro have very good peaks and dips performance. There aren't many audible peaks and dips, except a few narrow dips in the treble, which affect the brightness and detail of instruments and lead vocals. However, that shouldn't be too audible for most people.

The Beats Solo Pro have amazing imaging. 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 are well-matched amplitude, frequency, and phase response. However, please note that these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The Beats Solo Pro have an awful passive soundstage. They don't interact much with your outer ear, so sound seems to come from inside your head instead of from all around you. Because of the closed-back design, the soundstage also seems small and closed off. 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. Most frequencies fall within good limits, which should result in a clear and pure audio reproduction. There is very slight distortion at normal listening volumes in the treble range, but it shouldn't be audible for most listeners.

These are the settings we used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Beats Solo Pro have a very good noise isolation performance. Unlike the newer Beats Solo 4 Wireless, they have active noise cancelling (ANC) and can block out some of the sounds you'll encounter day-to-day. While their ANC feature isn't very good at blocking out lower-frequency sounds like the rumbling of bus and plane engines, it blocks out an impressive amount of office-type noise, like background conversations and humming A/C units.

The Beats Solo Pro have an impressive leakage performance. They don't leak much noise even at high volumes, so you can crank up your music in a moderately quiet environment without bothering people around you. Most of the leakage is higher-frequency noise, so it sounds thin. However, you probably shouldn't blast your music in a very quiet environment like a library.

The microphone's recording quality is disappointing. Recorded speech sounds muffled and lacks a lot of detail. You should be understandable in very quiet environments, but these aren't 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.

Update 11/19/2021: These headphones have been updated to test bench 1.5. In this update, we made changes to the way we test noise handling. We now use a subjective evaluation of our audio clips. This new method has resulted in different results than what we had reported in our previous test bench. As a result, the scoring of this box has changed, and we have updated our results.

The Beats Solo Pro's integrated microphone has decent noise handling. Although moderate noise is still loud and present when you speak, your voice is understandable. If you're taking a call from a busy street, whoever's on the other end of the line should still be able to hear you well.

The Beats Solo Pro have a decent battery performance. They provide roughly 24 hours of continuous use on a single charge, which should be more than enough for most. They recharge in less than an hour and a half, which is quick. However, they don't have a power-saving feature, so be sure to fold them to power them off, or else the battery could drain while you're not using them. On the upside, if you disable the ANC, you get up to 40 hours of continuous playback time, according to the manufacturer. Please note that battery performance can vary with real-life use, so you may have a different experience.

The headphones can also 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.

The Beats Solo Pro have poor app support. There is an app available on both iOS and Android, but it barely does anything. It only allows you to turn the ANC on and off and control talk-through mode (which is called Transparency).

These headphones have decent Bluetooth compatibility. They're compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 but don't support multi-device or NFC pairing. They don't have much latency with iOS or Android devices, but you may notice audio lag on PC. However, some apps also seem to compensate for latency, so your experience may vary. Also, unfortunately, our dongle doesn't take advantage of the H1 chip, so if you're using an iOS device, you may get lower latency and a more stable connection.

These headphones come with a USB-A to Lightning cable that you can only use for charging the headphones. They don't come with an audio cable. However, you can use them wired if you purchase a Lightning to 1/8" TRRS cable separately. Keep in mind that this cable is unique and sold only by Apple as it's bi-directional. To use the headphones wired, they still need to have some battery left. You can use the ANC on/off while wired, but you'll lose access to the built-in mic.