Beats Studio3 Wireless
HEADPHONES REVIEW

The Studio3 Wireless, like most of the Beats lineup, have a slick look that doesn't feel cluttered. The buttons are discrete and seamlessly blend with the design of the ear cups. They also don't feel bulky despite being a full-sized over-ear headphone. They're an eye-catching pair of headphones that also come in a variety of color schemes to better match your tastes and preferences.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless are comfortable and lightweight over-ear headphones. The ear cups are very well-padded and large enough to fit comfortably around most ears. This makes their slightly tight fit a bit better as the pressure is evenly distributed around your ears. The headband is not as well-cushioned as the ear cups and feels slightly rigid but shouldn't be much of an issue. You can easily wear these headphones for hours at a time and not feel any fatigue.

The Studio3 Wireless have a slightly improved control scheme compared to the previous model. You can now switch off the noise cancellation by double tapping the Power button. The rest of the control scheme, however, is pretty much the same. They have an identical button layout that's simple and efficient to use. They provide call/music, track skipping, and volume controls. The buttons deliver good tactile feedback although they're completely flat on the ear cup which might be a bit difficult to distinguish at first.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless will make your ears fairly warm during exercise. They are closed back over-ears with a decent seal, so they trap a lot of heat which will make you sweat after 30 to 40 minutes of vigorous exercise. They should be okay if you're just using them casually to listen to music but they won't be the ideal headphones for more intense work-out routines.

These headphones have a mid-sized, over-ear design that's somewhat portable. They fold into a more compact format that's easier to transport with the provided hard case. They will fit into purses and smaller bags or can be hooked on your person provided they're in the case. However, they're still a bit too cumbersome.

These headphones come with a sturdy and compact hard case that will protect the headphones against scratches, mild water damage and falls.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless, like the previous model, are well-built sturdy-looking headphones. The plastic used for the ear cups feels dense and won't get damaged from a few falls. The headband has a metal frame that's tough yet flexible. They're a bit thinner and less robust than the Beats Executive and the plastic coating on the headband is prone to scratches and scuffs, but their overall build quality feels high-end and well made.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless have a comfortable and tight fit that makes them stable enough for working out and exercising. They don't move much when running and since they're wireless, they won't accidentally fall off your head because the audio cable got hooked on something. However, they're still somewhat big over-ear headphones so they will slide a bit depending on the intensity of your work out routine. Lying down, for example, may cause the headband to tilt a bit.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless come with a 1/8" TRRS audio cable with an inline remote and USB charging cable.

The bass performance of the Beats Studio3 Wireless is very good. Sub-ass (low-frequency extension) is extended down to 19Hz, which is good. This indicates that these headphones can produce a good amount of thump and punch. Mid-bass is over our target by about 2.7dB, adding a bit of excess punch to bass and kicks. The 3dB bump in high-bass makes the sound of these headphones slightly boomy.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless have a good mid-range. Mid-mid and high-mid of virtually flat and within 1dB of our target. However, the 5dB bump in low-mid makes the mid-range cluttered and muddy. Overall, the mid-range is quite well-balanced in the mid and upper regions, but because of the low-mid bump, vocals and lead instruments tend to sound a bit thick on them.

The treble of the Beats Studio3 Wireless is quite good. The overall response is well-balanced but slightly inconsistent. Also the dip around 5KHz will have a small but noticeable negative effect on detail and presence of vocals and lead instruments. Overall, the treble sounds good but slightly veiled.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless have a mediocre frequency response consistency. Despite their noise canceling and self-calibrating systems, the Studio3 perform less consistent than other noise canceling headphones such as the MDR-1000X, WH-1000XM2, and the QuietComfort 35. They show about 6dB of deviation both in the bass and treble ranges and are somewhat prone to a drop in bass if the user is wearing glasses.

The stereo imaging is about average. Their weighted group delay is at 0.53, which is below average. In the graph, most of the spikes in group delay, which are caused by the auto-calibrating system, are mostly below 20Hz, which shouldn't affect the sound significantly. However, some of the spikes happen in the audible range which could make the bass of the Studio3 a bit loose, at least when auto-calibration is happening. We also measured some phase mismatch between the L/R drivers, which could have a small negative effect on the coherency of their stereo image.

The soundstage is sub-par. Based on our PRTF test results, the Beats Studio3 Wireless don't seem to be activating the resonances of the pinna (outer ear) significantly, which results in a small and inside-the-head soundstage. Also, since they are closed-back, their soundstage will be perceived as less open, compared to open-back headphones.

The harmonic distortion performance of the Beats Studio3 Wireless is average. The overall amount of harmonic distortion is slightly elevated, especially in the sub-bass range. This could be partially caused by the Studio 3's self-calibrating system. On the upside, there's not a big rise in THD at 100dB SPL compared to 90dB SPL.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless have an average isolation. The active noise cancellation of the Studio3 achieves a mediocre 8dB of isolation in the bass range, which is important for cancelling out airplane and bus engine rumbles. However, they achieve 22dB and 36dB of isolation in the mid and treble ranges respectively, both values being quite good. This indicates performance good isolation for speech and sharp sounds such as S and Ts. However, they also produce a relatively high amount of self-noise which could be distracting when no audio is being played through the headphones.

The leakage performance of the Beats Studio3 Wireless is very good. The significant portion of leakage sits between 2KHz and 5KHz which is quite a narrow range. The overall level of leakage is also low, making these headphones suitable for most situations unless the music is turned up very loud in a quiet environment, like an elevator.

The Beats Studio3's mic has a mediocre recording quality. With the LFE at 281Hz and HFE at 3.5KHz speech recorded with this headphone will sound slightly thin and lacking in presence and detail. However, the area between LFE and HFE is relatively flat.

The microphone is sub-par at noise handling. The microphone on the Beats Studio3 Wireless achieves a SpNR of only 10dB, which is sub-par. This makes them unsuitable for use in moderately loud environments.

The battery performance of the Beats Studio3 is much better than that of the studio wireless. They have almost twice the battery life at 23 hours of continuous playback on a single charge. They also only take about 30 mins more than the previous model to fully charge. That plus their quick charge feature which gives you about 2.5 hours of playback from a 10 mins charge means you will likely have enough battery to last you all day even if you're a heavy user, and in the worst case scenario, you can always charge them quickly before leaving your house or work. Unfortunately, they do not have any passive playback so if the battery is completely dead you won't be able to use the headphones, which makes sense since their audio reproduction is adaptive.

Like the Beats Solo3 Wireless and the AirPpods, the Studio 3 have a few features available on iOS that aren't as well implemented on Android. They connect with a pop-up that displays basic battery information and you can also disable the noise cancellation if you go to the Bluetooth settings of the headphones. This setting isn't available on Android so Android users may feel a bit limited but you can always manually switch of noise canceling by pressing the power button twice.

Disable ANC

The Beats Studio3 Wireless connect wirelessly via Bluetooth but cannot pair simultaneously with multiple devices. They also do not have NFC support. On the upside, they are much easier to pair than the Original Studio Wireless.

These headphones come with an iOS-specific cable with an in-line remote microphone that's compatible with the PS4 but not the Xbox One. This gives them a secondary connection option, which is better for watching videos due to the almost negligible latency when using an audio cable.

They do not have a base/dock. If you want a versatile headset with a base that you can also use wired check out the SteelSeries Arctis 7.

They have a phenomenal wireless range. They will easily maintain a stable and reliable connection up to 50ft when indoors and the source is obstructed and do even better even better in direct line of sight reaching up to 297ft which is more than enough for most outdoor activities. It is of the best wireless ranges we've measured for any Bluetooth headphones.

The latency is a bit worse than the Studio Wireless. Both headphones have enough latency that videos are a bit out of sync but this will be a bit more noticeable on the Studio 3s. They perform a bit better on iOS devices but won't be the ideal headphones for gaming or home theater. On the upside, they should be fine for most music and streaming applications.