Beats Studio Buds + True Wireless Headphones Review

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:

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Double press: Skips the track forward.
• Triple press: Skips the track backward.
• Press and hold: By default, cycles between ANC, 'Transparency mode', which is intended to let you hear ambient sound while listening to audio, and both modes off. You can change this command via the companion app to activate voice assistant or volume controls.

These buds are very portable. They have a small and lightweight design that makes it easy to fit them into most pockets or bags without an issue.

The carrying case is similar to their predecessor in design. There's a small light at the front of the case to let you know when it's charging and there's a pairing button inside the case.

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.

• Beats Studio Buds Plus headphones
• 4x tip options
• Carrying case
• USB-C to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals
• Beats sticker

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.

These buds have outstanding bass accuracy. Their response is fairly flat and neutral, ensuring mixes have solid thump, punch, and boom without overwhelming vocals and instruments.

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.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. The response falls within good limits, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

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 leakage performance is excellent. Leakage is mostly concentrated in the treble range and sounds thin. If you listen to your favorite tunes at high volumes, others around you won't be bothered by it.

The integrated mic's recording quality is decent. Speech is clear but sounds dark and lacking in body.

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.

These buds come with a USB-C to USB-C cable for charging the carrying case.

You can connect these headphones to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility, but that's it.

These headphones come with a carrying case that holds three charges. It has a USB-C port for charging up the case but lacks wireless charging support.