The Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless are the next generation of the Beats Studio Buds True Wireless. While they look similar to their predecessor, these sleek buds come in a retro transparent colorway in addition to opaque colors like black and ivory, for an eye-catching look. Their performance has also improved too. Their noise cancelling (ANC) system can block out a lot more background sound while their battery life is longer. Unlike the Beats Fit Pro True Wireless, they don't have an H1 chip for easy pairing with devices in your Apple ecosystem, though.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are fair for neutral sound. They have a somewhat neutral sound profile with a touch of extra treble and adequate bass. However, the overemphasis in the high-mid to treble makes vocals and instruments sound harsh. They don't have any sound customization features to help you adjust their sound to your liking either. Since they're in-ear headphones, they create a passive soundstage that doesn't feel very immersive.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are very good for commute and travel. These noise cancelling buds can block out a good amount of sound around you, from noisy passengers to the low rumbles of bus and plane engines. With their ANC on, they last 7.5 hours continuously, and their carrying case holds an extra three charges if needed. Thanks to their small and lightweight design, they're also easy to take with you on the go.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are good for sports and fitness. These small and lightweight buds have a comfortable fit and are certified IPX4 for resistance against water splashes. They lack stability fins and can fall out of your ear with intense movement, which isn't ideal if you're using them during a tough workout. You may need to readjust their fit during moderate movement to keep them from wiggling out of your ear.
The Beats Studio Buds + are decent for office use. Thanks to their ANC system, these comfortable buds can easily block out chatty coworkers. With their ANC on, they last 7.5 hours continuously, which may not be enough to get you through your whole day, but their carrying case holds an extra three charges if you need it. On the downside, these buds don't support multi-device pairing, so you can't stay connected to your PC and smartphone simultaneously.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are Bluetooth-only headphones, and their latency on PCs is too high for gaming. However, they have lower latency on iOS and Android devices, which is good if you're into mobile gaming. They last over seven hours continuously and have a comfortable fit.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are truly wireless earbuds; you can't use them wired.
The Beats Studio Buds + are acceptable for phone calls. Their integrated mic does a decent job of capturing your voice, but it has difficulty separating speech from noise. That means if you need to take calls from places like a busy office, your voice can compete and even be drowned out by ambient noise. On the upside, these buds are equipped with an ANC system to help cut down a good amount of background sound.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus come in three color variants: 'Black/gold', 'Ivory', and 'Transparent'. We tested the 'Transparent' model; you can see their label here. If you come across another variant of these headphones, please let us know in the forums and we'll update our review.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are the next generation of the Beats Studio Buds True Wireless. These buds significantly improve upon their predecessor's ANC system, and while they don't cut down as much noise as the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) Truly Wireless, they still do a good job in this regard. Battery life also received an upgrade, which is great if you're always on the go and don't want to worry about recharging them often. However, like their predecessor, they still don't have an H1 chip for seamless pairing with Apple devices, and lack sound customization features.
Check out our recommendations for the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds, the best noise cancelling earbuds, and best Beats headphones.
The Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless are the next generation of the Beats Studio Buds True Wireless. The Plus model offer a couple of upgrades over their predecessor, including a significantly better noise isolation performance and a longer-lasting continuous battery life. The Plus model also has air vents, which improve their audio precision.
The Beats Fit Pro True Wireless have a slight edge over the Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless. The Fit Pro have a more stable fit, support Apple's Spatial Audio feature for a more immersive audio experience, and have a better noise isolation performance. They also have an H1 chip for seamless pairing with your Apple devices. However, the Studio Buds + are more comfortable and have a better overall battery performance.
The Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) Truly Wireless are better in-ears than the Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless. While both buds are equally comfortable, Apple's buds are better built, have a more neutral sound profile, which some users may prefer, and their noise isolation performance is significantly better. They also have an H2 chip, so you can easily pair these buds with other devices in your Apple ecosystem.
The Nothing Ear (2) Truly Wireless have the edge over the Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless. While both buds have a comfortable fit, the Nothing are better-built, have a more neutral sound profile, which some users may prefer, and their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets to help you finetune their sound to your liking. They also support multi-device pairing. However, the Beats have a superior noise isolation performance and have a longer continuous battery life.
You may prefer the Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless if you want customizable buds. The Sony are better-built, have a virtual soundstage feature to help immerse you in your audio, and a better overall battery performance. You can also customize their sound to your liking using their companion app's graphic EQ and presets, and they support multi-device pairing. Conversely, if you're looking for buds with minimal fuss, the Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless are more comfortable and have a more neutral sound profile, which some users may prefer.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus are the next generation of the Beats Studio Buds True Wireless noise cancelling earbuds. They have a modest stem design with the manufacturer's logo. Unlike their predecessor, they have three acoustic vents, which help improve their audio precision. They come in several color variants, including a retro transparent design.
These buds have a comfortable fit. They come with four pairs of ear tips to help you get the best fit and don't put much pressure on your ears. Using the controls doesn't push the buds deeper into your ear, either. That said, the buds stick out a bit from your ear.
These buds have easy-to-use physical controls. You can push the manufacturer's logo on the stem of each bud to register commands. The button itself doesn't stick out as much as that of their predecessor, and there's a soft click to let you know when you've registered a command. There are also different tones to let you know when you're switching between ANC on, off, and transparency mode. However, there are no volume controls by default and you have to add this via the companion app. If you do this, you'll lose out on ANC controls.
On either bud:
The Beats Studio Buds Plus have good build quality. They're made of plastic, and the color variant we tested is transparent, which allows you to see the inner circuitry. They're also certified IPX4 for resistance against splashes of water. However, the case lacks an IP rating and may get damaged if exposed to any amount of water.
These buds have a decently stable fit. They lack stability fins, so as soon as you start to move, the buds can begin popping out of your ear. While they won't completely fall out if you're just moving your head side to side, you'll have to constantly readjust them to get a good fit. They'll fall out if you wear them during a tough workout.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus have a somewhat neutral sound profile. They deliver adequate bass, so mixes have thump, rumble, and boom, but a peak in the high-mid makes vocals and instruments sound harsh. On the downside, they don't have any sound customization features to help you adjust them to suit your preferences.
We had some trouble getting the right bud to stay in place and form a good seal in our test rig's ear. The movement of the bud shifting out of place causes the right driver to have a different measured response in the bass range than the left. However, this issue is unique to our test rig; in daily life, both drivers will match.
Although we had trouble getting the right bud to form a good seal in our test rig's ears, causing deviations in the bass range, we don't expect you to encounter this issue. As a result, with human ears, you'll get consistent bass and treble delivery once you take the time to get a good fit.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus's mid accuracy is decent. The low-mid is fairly flat, so vocals and instruments are present in mixes. However, there's a peak in the response from the mid-mid onwards, which pushes vocals and instruments forward, making them harsh. In songs like Africa by TOTO, vocals in the final chorus sound a little boxy and honky, especially compared to the guitar, which sounds further back in the mix.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus have good treble accuracy. There's some overemphasis coming from the mid range into the treble range. As a result, vocals and instruments sound harsh, while sibilants like cymbals are bright. In songs with a lot of hi-hat action, like Roxanne by The Police, sibilants sound present throughout the track but aren't piercing.
The peaks and dips performance is good. There are a couple of large peaks, but the rest of the response is fairly flat. A peak in the low-bass adds intense thump and boom, while a peak in the high-mid makes vocals and instruments sound harsh. A couple of small dips in the low-treble veil the detail of vocals and instruments. A peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.
Beats generally have good quality control and ergonomics, which helps ensure that their products have well-matched drivers. This, in turn, is crucial for good imaging, as headphones can accurately place objects like instruments in the stereo image. However, imaging varies between units. Our unit's L/R drivers display some mismatch in group delay, phase, amplitude, and frequency response. While the peaks in the bass range are less audible than our graphs show due to the right bud popping out of our test rig's ear over time, they're still present, and audio skews towards the right. However, this can be hard to hear with real-life content. There's also a peak in the phase response's mic range, which is audible with real-life content and makes voices in songs sound improperly located within the stereo image.
The passive soundstage performance is bad, but that's to be expected by their design. They bypass your outer ear, which must be activated to create a more immersive sound. As a result, their soundstage seems small, closed-off, and as if audio is coming from inside your head, rather than as if sound is coming from speakers placed in the room around you.
These headphones support Apple's Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos via Apple Music, which can help create a more immersive audio experience. However, unlike the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) Truly Wireless, you can't access these features via the iOS interface. You can only use it with apps that provide compatible media, like Apple Music, but you may need to purchase a separate subscription to access these services.
These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.
The Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless' noise isolation performance is good. Like their predecessor, they have noise cancelling (ANC). Still, they do a significantly better job of blocking out background noise than the Beats Studio Buds True Wireless. They can cut down the low rumble of bus engines, ambient chatter, and the hum of AC units.
The mic's noise handling performance is disappointing. If you're taking a call in a noisy environment, the background noise will be present and distracting when you're talking. Loud noises like a train passing will also overpower your voice, making it more difficult to understand what you're saying.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus' battery performance is okay. The manufacturer advertises them to last six hours continuously with ANC on and volume at 50%. We measured well over seven hours with ANC on, but battery life varies depending on use and volume. If you turn the ANC off, the manufacturer advertises them to last up to nine hours, which is handy if you're trying to save every last drop of battery life. Their carrying case has three extra charges if you need it. You can also use one bud while the other charges.
The Beats app is passable. You can see a video of how it works on Android and iOS. It's a fairly limited app and doesn't have sound customization features like an EQ. That said, you can remap controls to change the ANC, transparency mode (which allows you to hear your surroundings without pausing your audio or taking the buds out of your ears), and normal mode to activate voice assistant. Keep in mind that you can't have both kinds of commands active at the same time. You can also rename your buds and register your buds for updates.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus have decent Bluetooth connectivity. Like their predecessor, they don't have an H1 chip for seamless, quick pairing with iOS devices, which is disappointing if you want to simultaneously keep your buds connected to your iPad and iPhone. While they have an audio switch feature, which allows you to transition from one audio source to another, it isn't multi-device pairing as you won't stay connected to multiple devices at a time. Switching between devices is also very disruptive.
These buds have high latency on PCs, but their latency is much lower on Android and iOS devices, which ensures that your audio and visuals stay in sync while streaming video. Some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, though.
You can connect these headphones to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility, but that's it.