Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones Review

The Beats Studio3 Wireless, like many other headphones from Beats' lineup such as the Beats Solo3 2019 Wireless, have a sleek look that's available in several understated or flashy colors to suit your preferences.

The Beats Studio3 are very comfortable. The ear cups are well-padded and the pressure is distributed well around your ears. While the headband isn't as cushioned as the ear cups and can feel rigid, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. You should be able to wear them for long listening sessions without feeling too much fatigue.

The Beats Studio3 have decent controls. They're slightly improved from the previous model and now allow you to switch noise cancelling by double-tapping the power button. The rest of the control scheme 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 have good tactile feedback, although they're completely flat on the ear cup, which may be a bit difficult to distinguish at first.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless have mediocre breathability. They're closed-back over-ears with a decent seal, so they trap a lot of heat which can 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, though. They won't be ideal for more intense workout routines, although if you want over-ear headphones for the gym, they're a decent option.

These headphones have mediocre portability. They fold into a more compact format that's easier to transport with the provided hard case. While they won't fit in a pocket, they can be placed in most small bags, but they're still quite bulky.

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

The Beats Studio3 Wireless are well-built and sturdy-looking headphones. Their ear cups are made from dense plastic that feels sturdy while their headband has a tough yet flexible metal frame. 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.

These headphones have good stability. 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-ears and can slide a bit depending on the intensity of your workout routine.

• Beats Studio3 Wireless headphones
• Carrying case
• Audio cable
• USB cable
• Manual

The Beats Studio3 have a slightly dark sound profile. While they auto-calibrate to the user and their environment, sound isn't always consistent; bass is slightly boomy while treble is weak, resulting in some audio sounding muddy or lacking detail. They can also perform inconsistently across users due to fit. However, they'll be alright for most audio genres, especially if you like more bass-driven music.

The Beats Studio3 have a mediocre frequency response consistency. Despite their noise cancelling and self-calibrating systems, they perform less consistently than other noise cancelling headphones such as the Sony MDR-1000X and the Sony WH-1000XM2 Wireless. Their bass and treble delivery can vary based on fit, seal, and positioning. It can also be a bit difficult to achieve a consistent listening experience, especially if the user has thick hair or glasses.

The Beats Studio3's bass accuracy is great. While their low-bass struggles to produce thump and rumble, the rest of the bass-response is slightly over-emphasized, which adds punch and boom. However, they may sound a little muddy. Unfortunately, their bass delivery can vary noticeably across users: the quality of fit, seal, and whether you wear glasses all affect how the bass sounds to you. Our response represents the average bass response and your experience may vary.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless have good mid accuracy. The low-mid is overemphasized, resulting in a slightly muddy mix. The rest of the range is well-balanced, although there's a little dip in the high-mids that slightly reduces the intensity and clarity of vocals and lead instruments.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless' treble accuracy is okay. The treble is underemphasized across the range, which results in dark and veiled vocals and lead instruments. Sibilants like S and Ts are also dull and lispy.

The Beats Studio3 have a good peak and dips performance. The peaks in the mid-bass and low-mid may give a bit more kick to your audio, although the dip in the mid-mid nudges vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix. There's also a peak as well as a dip in the low-treble which makes the detail and presence of these lead instruments and vocals sound uneven.

The Beats Studio3's stereo imaging is okay. The group delay has spikes in the low-bass range which may make the bass a bit loose. There's also a noticeable phase and frequency mismatch between the L/R drivers of our unit, which could have a small negative effect on the stereo image and the accurate placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo image. These results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless' passive soundstage is poor. Even though they're over-ear headphones, they don't really activate the outer ear with resonances, which results in a small soundstage that seems like it's coming from inside your head. Their closed-back design also makes their soundstage seem less spacious, especially when compared to open-back models.

These passive headphones don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The Beats Studio3's weighted harmonic distortion performance is decent. At average listening volumes, they generally fall within good limits, although a spike between the low and mid-treble may produce minor distortion. At higher volumes, this frequency is within acceptable limits, which should result in a clear and pure audio reproduction.

Our Beats Studio3 Wireless results are only valid for these test settings.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless have good isolation. However, they don't perform as well as competing models like the Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless, Bose QuietComfort 35 II/QC35 II Wireless 2018, or the Microsoft Surface Wireless Headphones. While they barely reduce bass-range noise like bus or plane engines in the bass range, they do a better job of cutting down mid-range sounds like ambient chatter. They also do an outstanding job at blocking high-pitched noise like the hum of an AC unit. However, they produce a lot of self-noise with the ANC on, which can be distracting if there's no audio playing.

The Beats Studio3's leakage performance is great. Most of the leakage is found in the high-mid to mid-treble range, which results in a thin sound. In a noisy environment, people shouldn't be able to hear it if you have your audio turned to a high volume.

The Beats Studio3 have an integrated microphone. If you prefer to use these headphones wired, the cable also has an in-line microphone.

The integrated mic has a just okay recording quality. Your voice sounds slightly thin and lacking in detail and presence. There's also a bit of distortion present.

Update 10/21/2021: 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 microphone has disappointing noise handling. It struggles to separate your voice from ambient noise, even in moderately loud environments.

The Beats Studio3's battery performance is good and it's much better than that of the Beats 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. They're also advertised to have a quick charge feature which gives you about 2.5 hours of playback from 10 minutes of charging. Unfortunately, they don't have passive playback, so if the battery is completely dead, you won't be able to use the headphones.

The Beats companion app is disappointing. Like the Beats Solo3 Wireless and the Apple AirPods (1st generation) Truly Wireless, the Beats Studio3 have a few features available on iOS that aren't as well-implemented on Android. On iOS, they connect with a pop-up that displays basic battery information. You can also disable the ANC in the Bluetooth settings. However, this setting isn't available on Android, which is a little disappointing. However, you can always manually switch off noise cancelling by pressing the power button twice.

Update 10/21/2021: 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 200 ms, 'iOS latency' at 159 ms, and 'Android Latency' at 167 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in different values. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.

The Beats Studio3 have decent Bluetooth compatibility. Unfortunately, they don't support multi-device or NFC pairing. However, they're easier to pair than the original Beats Studio Wireless. They also have low latency on iOS and Android devices, which is nice if you stream video. However, their latency on PCs is much higher, which could cause issues with audio and video syncing. That said, some apps and devices tend to compensate for latency differently, and your mileage may vary.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless are Bluetooth-only headphones.

These headphones come with an iOS-specific cable with an in-line remote microphone.

These Bluetooth-only headphones aren't compatible with the Xbox One. However, if you use the provided audio cable, you can plug them into your controller for audio. However, the microphone won't work on this console.

They don't 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 Wireless 2017.