The Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless are the next generation of the Beats Solo3 2018 Wireless. These colorful headphones have kept the well-built and sleek design as well as the bass-heavy sound profile of their predecessor. However, this generation comes in more colors, and their companion app is now compatible with Android devices, although it still doesn't offer much functionality. Unfortunately, while they have an AUX port, they don't come with a 1/8" TRS cable. Still, these on-ears are a suitable option if you prefer a stylish and simple-to-use design.
The Beats Solo 3 are satisfactory for neutral sound. They have a bass-heavy sound profile, which can muddy vocals and lead instruments. Their companion app also doesn't allow you to customize their sound profile to better suit your needs. That said, their treble range is better-balanced than their predecessor. They're also consistent in their audio delivery, so long as you adjust their fit, positioning, and seal on your head.
The Beats Solo3 Wireless are okay for commute and travel. While they're comfortable, some may find they have a tight fit, which can be fatiguing when worn for several hours at a time. They barely block out bass-range noise like bus or plane engines, and their bulky design can be a bit difficult to take with you on the go. On the upside, they offer over 38 hours of continuous playback time, which should last through long-distance plane trips.
The Beats Solo3 Wireless are decent for sports and fitness. They have a stable fit, and their wireless design makes it more difficult for something to snag them and pull them off your head. However, they're a bit bulky, and some users may find the on-ear fit uncomfortable for long runs in the park.
The Beats Solo 3 are passable for office use. They're comfortable, but some users may not like their tight on-ear fit. They also leak some audio, which could annoy your coworkers if you're listening to audio at a high volume. That said, they have a continuous battery life of over 38 hours, so you don't need to worry about charging them so often.
The Beats Solo 3 aren't recommended for wireless gaming. While you can connect them to a Bluetooth-enabled PC, the latency is likely to be too high for gaming. They also aren't compatible with Xbox or PlayStation consoles.
The Beats Solo3 Wireless are Bluetooth-only headphones. While they can be used with a wired connection, Beats doesn't include a TRS cable in the box.
The Beats Solo3 Wireless are mediocre for phone calls. Their integrated mic has an alright recording quality, and your voice sounds natural, although slightly thin and muffled. However, it struggles to separate your voice from even moderately noisy environments, so you may need to take calls in quieter spaces. These headphones also struggle to reduce noise around you, which can make it hard for you to hear whoever's on the other line.
The Beats Solo 3 are on-ear headphones that look identical to the Beats Solo3 2018 Wireless. They have a sleek and curved look with no sharp edges. While they offer quite a few single-color variants such as 'Rose Gold' and 'Matte Black', Beats also offers the 'Club Collection', which are four headphones that have different accent color detailing: 'Club Navy', 'Club White', 'Club Yellow', and 'Club Red'.
These headphones have reasonable controls. Most of their physical controls are on the left ear cup, and are really clicky. However, the headphones lack a visual cue to tell you which ear cup is the left one, which can be frustrating.
The inner 'b' button:
On the outer circle button:
Power button on the right ear cup:
The Beats Solo 3 have a good soft case. It has a zipper to keep your headphones fully enclosed, and the material feels thick. It should protect your headphones from dust, scratches, and the occasional drop, but it won't shield them from water damage. It's also pretty bulky, which can make it hard to take with you on the go.
These headphones have a stable fit. They clamp well on your ears, so they don't move too much while on your head. They also don't have any cables to catch on something and pull them off your head. However, they're not the best choice for high-intensity workouts as they may fall off with large head movements.
The Beats Solo 3 have a bass-heavy sound profile that delivers intense thump and boom, which is well-suited for genres like EDM and hip-hop. However, some users may find it muddies and clutters vocals and lead instruments. Unfortunately, their companion app doesn't offer any way to customize their sound.
These headphones have a good frequency response consistency. Bass delivery is fairly consistent, although if you have thick hair or wear glasses, you may experience a drop in bass. Treble delivery is also a bit inconsistent, and it depends on the fit and positioning of these headphones. However, once you get a good fit, you should achieve a more consistent sound.
These headphones have passable bass accuracy. It's overemphasized across the range, resulting in intense thump, rumble, and boom. While fans of EDM and hip-hop can enjoy this sound, some users may find this sound overly muddy and cluttered.
The Beats Solo 3 have good mid accuracy. There's a bit of overemphasis continuing from the bass range into the low-mids, making your mixes sound muddy and cluttered. A dip in the mid-mids nudges also vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix. However, the high-mid is very neutral, resulting in clear and present vocals and instruments.
The treble accuracy of the Beats Solo 3 is excellent. Although a little uneven, vocals and lead instruments sound detailed and present, while sibilants are slightly dull.
Note: Treble delivery can vary noticeably across users. The results here represent the average treble response, and your experience may differ.
These headphones have satisfactory peaks and dip performance. The left and right drivers are mismatched in the low-bass, which means that the left driver produces more thump and rumble than the right driver. There's a big peak between the high-bass to the low-mid, resulting in a boomy, muddy sound. The dip in the mid-mids pushes vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix, while a couple of peaks in the low-treble add a bit of harshness. Another peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants piercing.
The Beats Solo 3 have great imaging. Their weighted group delay is below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. Also, the L/R drivers of our unit were exceptionally matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response. This ensures an accurate placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, footsteps) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.
The passive soundstage is poor. Due to their on-ear design, they have limited interaction with your outer ear, which is one of the factors in creating a large and out-of-head soundstage. As a result, sound seems like it's coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you. These headphones also have a closed-back design, so their soundstage is perceived as less open and spacious than open-back headphones.
These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid for these test settings.
The Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless' noise isolation performance is poor. These headphones block out almost no bass-range noise like bus engines, which could be frustrating if you commute to work. They also struggle to cut down ambient chatter, which sits in the mid-range. They do a bit better with higher-pitched noise like the hum of an AC unit, though.
These headphones have a mediocre leakage performance. Like the Beats Solo3 2018 Wireless, a significant portion of their leakage is concentrated in the treble range, and escaping audio sounds thin. If you like to listen to your audio at a high volume, people around you are likely to hear it.
The mic's noise handling is sub-par. It struggles to separate your voice from ambient noise, even in moderately loud environments. If you take a call from a busy street, your voice is drowned out.
These headphones have impressive battery life. They're advertised to have 40 hours of continuous playback, and we measured just under 39 hours, so they should last through a few shifts at work without needing to be recharged. However, battery life can vary depending on use, and your experience may vary. That said, they have a 'Fast Fuel' quick-charge feature, which is advertised to deliver three hours of continuous battery life after being charged for five minutes. On the downside, although they have an AUX port like the Beats Solo3 2018 Wireless and support passive playback, a 1/8" TRS cable isn't included in the box, which is disappointing.
These headphones have a disappointing companion app. The Beats app is a pop-up on iOS devices that displays basic battery information when you first connect with your device, but it doesn't offer much more. You can also download this app for Android, but it offers the same functionality.
Update 10/29/2021: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. Our previous Test Bench 1.4 measurements reported 'PC Latency' at 175 ms, 'iOS Latency' at 36 ms, and 'Android Latency' at 86 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in 173 ms of latency on PC, 81 ms on iOS, and 120 ms on Android. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.
These headphones have satisfactory Bluetooth connectivity. While they don't have multi-device or NFC pairing, they have a W1 chip, making it easy to seamlessly pair with other Apple products. Their latency is somewhat high on PC, so they may not be ideal for streaming video. While their latency on iOS and Android is lower, some devices and apps seem to compensate for latency differently, so your mileage may vary.
The Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless are fully compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. You can also use a 1/8" TRS cable to connect them via analog, but this cable isn't included in the box, and you can only receive audio.
You can connect the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless to PS4 and PS5 consoles via an analog connection. However, you can only receive audio, and you need to purchase this cable separately.
You can only use these headphones wired with Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. You can only receive audio, and the cable itself isn't included in the box.
The Beats Solo 3 come in several color variants: 'Matte Black', '(PRODUCT)RED Citrus Red', 'Rose Gold', 'Satin Gold' and 'Satin Silver'. There are a few Club Collection variants as well that have a multi-colored design: 'Club Navy', 'Club Red', 'Club White', 'Club Yellow'. We tested the 'Club Red' variant. These headphones are also the 2019 generation of the Beats Solo3 2018 Wireless, which we tested. While they look and perform similarly to their predecessor, they don't come with a 1/8" TRS cable in the box.
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the discussions and we'll update our review.
The Beats Solo3 Wireless are the next generation of the Beats Solo3 2018 Wireless. While not much has changed in this update as they perform very similarly to their predecessor in terms of battery life, design, and sound profile, they now come in a variety of new colors that style-savvy users may enjoy. Just like the 2018 model, they have a W1 chip, which makes it easy to seamlessly pair with Apple devices. However, Beats doesn't include a TRS audio cable in the box anymore, meaning if you want to listen to audio passively, you need to supply the cable yourself.
Check out our recommendations for the best Beats headphones, the best wireless Bluetooth headphones, and the best bass headphones.
The Beats Studio3 Wireless are better headphones than the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless. The Studio3 are over-ear headphones that are more comfortable and have a good-performing ANC feature. However, the Solo3 2019 deliver audio more consistently and have a better battery performance. Some users may also prefer their more bass-heavy sound profile.
The Beats Solo Pro Wireless and the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless are headphones with different strengths and depending on your usages, you may prefer one over the other. The Solo Pro are more suitable for casual and office use. They feel better built, their sound profile is more neutral, and they have a great ANC to help cut down ambient noise around you. However, the Solo3 2019 have a better battery performance and a bass-heavy sound profile, which some users may like. They're better-suited for sports too as their fit is more stable.
The JBL Live 400BT Wireless are better on-ear headphones than the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless. The JBL have a better-balanced sound profile and can passively isolate more sound. Their leakage performance is significantly better too and while their battery doesn't last as long as the Beats, there's an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life. They also come with a companion app that has a parametric EQ plus presets so you can tweak its sound to your liking. However, the Beats are more comfortable, feel better built, and come with a carrying case.
The Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless are the next generation of the Beats Solo3 2018 Wireless. They're almost identical in design and are very similarly performing. However, the 2019 comes in more color variants. This model also has a companion app that can be used on Android in addition to iOS. That said, the 2018 model includes an audio cable so that you can listen to audio passively. You need to buy this cable separately if you want to use your 2019 model wired.
The Jabra Evolve2 85 Wireless are better on-ear headphones for most uses than the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless. The Jabra are more comfortable and have a more neutral sound profile as well as an ANC feature that helps reduce ambient noise. Their mic performs better, and their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets so that you can customize their sound profile. However, the Beats have a more stable fit and a longer continuous battery life.
The Astro A40 TR Headset + MixAmp Pro 2017 are better for wired gaming and neutral sound than the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless. The Astro are more comfortable, better-built, and have a better-performing boom microphone. They have a wired design and can be used with Astro companion software, which offers a graphic EQ plus presets. However, the Beats are better for casual use as they have a wireless design, a more stable fit, and their sound profile is more neutral out-of-the-box.