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Beats Studio Pro review: Outdated design, updated sound

The new headphones from Apple aren’t just £200 cheaper than the AirPods Max, they’re better than them too

Alex Lee
Tuesday 15 August 2023 13:19 BST
There’s lossless audio, head-tracking spatial audio support and a new transparency mode
There’s lossless audio, head-tracking spatial audio support and a new transparency mode (The Independent )

It’s been almost six years since Apple launched the Beats Studio3 over-ear wireless headphones – basically a decade in the fast-paced world of audio gadgetry. Things have moved on a lot since then, and the new Beats Studio Pro are here to set things right.

The Beats Studio Pro are a significant upgrade over its six-year-old predecessor, offering up a new transparency mode, much better adaptive active noise cancellation, spatial audio and lossless playback via USB-C and better call quality. Design-wise, they’re unabashedly Beats, and they continue to work as well with Apple devices as they do Android.

And while we’re still quietly mourning the loss of the Beats Solo Pro on-ears, which were released in 2019 and discontinued two years later, the Studio Pros are a good step-up for those after an over-ear pair to replace their Studio3s – though you’ll have to cough up a chunk more.

But better than the AirPods Max or Sony WH-1000XM5? With a few notable omissions in the feature-set, not quite.

How we tested

We’ve been putting the Beats Studio Pro to the test for almost a month, using them to listen to music across genres, podcasts, Dolby Atmos films, as well as taking calls. We paid particular attention to the strength of the active noise cancellation and transparency modes – was it as good as the AirPods Max? And how was the lossless audio via USB-C?

We also looked at the design, comfort level, features, such as EQ profiles, and controls. Battery life was also important, as well as latency and charging times and Bluetooth connectivity on various devices. This is what we thought.

(Alex Lee/The Independent)

Beats Studio Pro

Beats Studio Pro, best wireless headphones
  • Type: Over-ear
  • Noise cancellation: Yes, adaptive
  • Weight: 260g
  • Battery life: 24 hours NC on, 40 hours NC off
  • Connection type: Class 1 Bluetooth (Bluetooth 5.3), USB-C audio, 3.5mm jack,
  • Bluetooth codecs: SBC, AAC
  • Voice control: : Yes, integrated Siri and Google Assistant
  • Why we love it
    • Splendid sound
    • Features lossless audio over USB-C
    • Works great with Android
    • ANC and transparency modes are very good
  • Take note
    • No equaliser over Bluetooth
    • No auto-pausing features or multipoint on iPhones
    • Average battery life
    • Outdated design and clunky controls

Take the Beats Studio Pro out of its case and you’ll notice, well, honestly you won’t notice very much at all. The new headphones, while reengineered on the inside, look practically the same as the older Beats Studio3. They even weigh the same. It’s classic Beats.

Yes, they’re classically plasticky, but with a touch of sophistication thanks to the colourways. We’ve been testing the dark brown variety, but you can also get the headphones in navy, black and sandstone. There’s also a new side-zip opening soft shell travel case. It feels hardy and protective, though it’s a little bit finicky to slide the Studio Pros inside.

To be frank, they don’t look like they should cost as much as they do, given the creaky construction and the pretty forceful clamp on the head. The ear cushions themselves are made from a new softer memory foam, featuring synthetic leather, and zero seams or stitching on the outside for more durability. While we found them to be very comfortable, our ears did get warm after a couple of hours of use in the sun.

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The Studio Pros are unapologetically Beats in their design, and that well-oiled identity trickles down to the controls. The left ear cup retains that “b” button, which is used to control playback, volume and your voice assistant. There’s a tiny little power button on the right ear cup, which is used to switch between active noise cancellation and the new transparency modes. Holding down the power button for three seconds turns it on, while a double click cycles through the different cancellation modes.

Part of us wishes that Beats would shed some of its branding because it all feels a little outdated. The loud, clanky Beats physical controls are so 2010, and many have moved on to touch buttons, dials and fully-aluminium constructions (not just the sliders, which are now metal), and that power button is way too small for comfortable double clicks.

The feature set, too, is a little lacking. Frustratingly, there’s no on-ear detection sensor in the Beats Studio Pro, so they won’t pause or resume automatically when you take them off your head. It’s a big omission given that practically every other headphone at this price point includes the feature, which is a massive quality of life upgrade and helps preserve battery.

Read more: Best wireless headphones 2023

Again, Apple has opted for a Beats-designed processor, making it work better with both Android and Apple devices. Oddly, Apple users also miss out on multipoint switching – a feature that Android users are able to take advantage of. For those not in the know, multipoint connectivity lets you switch between devices automatically, meaning that when you’re listening to music on your laptop and get a call on your Google Pixel, your audio will be re-routed to the Beats Studio Pro, so you’ll never have to take off your headphones to chat. While you get automatic device switching between your iPhone and Apple Watch, it won’t automatically switch between your iPad, iPhone and Mac.

Apple has also included one-touch pairing for iPhone users and Google Fast Pair for Android users. It works with Find My on Apple and Find My Device. The only real difference in experience between the two is that Apple users get access to “Hey Siri”, receive over the air updates and access spatial audio. Android users need to download the Beats app to fully customise the headphones or update the firmware. They won’t get head-tracking audio either, but do get spatial audio via Dolby Atmos.

Head-tracked spatial audio is a really fantastic feature, which we loved on the AirPods Max, and love just as much on the Beats Studio Pro. They make you feel like you’re in your own little three-dimensional soundscape, with music enveloping you. We loved how this worked on immersive audio dramas and podcasts from QCode.

Read more: Are Apple’s new headphones worth the £549 price tag?

Despite the slim feature set and the outdated design, when Beats gets something right, it gets it really right. Active noise cancellation (ANC) and transparency mode is a particular highlight.

ANC is adaptive, which means it adapts to the sounds in your environment to control the sound. And it’s impeccable. Just as good as the AirPods Max, and very nearly as good as the Sony WH-1000XM5. It killed most of the low-frequency sounds in our environment, from passing trains to the typing on our keyboard writing this article. Weirdly, the ANC and transparency modes don’t work when you’re plugged into your computer using USB-C, however, so you lose a pretty critical feature if you want lossless audio.

Transparency mode is decent. We could hear most environmental sounds, albeit with a slightly muffled reproduction. It’s still a lot better on the second-generation AirPods Pro, but there are zero hissing sounds in the background – common on many headphones with an ambient mode – and we could hear enough outside sound that we felt safe walking down the street as our tunes bopped softly in the background.

Read more: The best noise-cancelling headphones, tried and tested

Something that Beats has done very well is outgrow its style over substance image. It’s now less style, more substance. The sound on Beats’ headphones just keep getting better with every iteration, and the Beats Studio Pro are impressive-sounding headphones indeed.

They feature a new integrated digital processor and a whole new audio architecture in the form of its 40mm custom dynamic drivers. Apple says that this new architecture reduces distortion by up to 80 per cent compared to the Studio3, while the digital audio processor helps with balance and detail. We did notice this when listening to our music.

At once overly-processed, the Beats Studio Pro offer crisp and detailed sound over Bluetooth. Vocals on Lorde’s Mood Ring were crisp and clear, while the guitar plucks were detailed in amongst the mix. Although the bass didn’t jolt us like it used to on older Beats headphones, it’s more controlled and you still feel the heavy pulse in your bones on tracks like DVRST’s Dream Space.

These headphones sounded just as good when listening to podcasts and watching films on our iPad. Action films with explosive sound design was phenomenal and voices came across clear. These are superb-sounding headphones, adequately putting to rest the idea that Beats are purely a fashion statement.

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And it’s a good thing they’re so perfectly tuned. You can’t really mess with the sound at all – there’s simply no equaliser settings available when used wirelessly over Bluetooth 5.3 (AAC or SBC). The only way to adjust the sound is to plug it in via USB-C.

Doing so steps the sound up to another level because you not only get access to lossless, hi-res audio, but you can also play with the equaliser settings and pick between different sound profiles. There’s Beats Signature, which is best for all sound types; Entertainment mode, which boosts certain frequencies for movies and games; and Conversation mode, which is good for boosting vocal clarity on calls and dialogue.

It’s a shame that you can’t use these features wirelessly, but it’s no big deal if you need to plug in and have an Android device. There’s one annoying quirk to these sound profiles – you only know what profile you’re using by looking at the LED lights on the right ear cup. That’s unsurprisingly quite tricky to do when you’ve got them on your head. We just ended up learning the rotation of each profile as we cycled through them by double clicking the power button.

Read more: Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 wireless earbuds review

Now, there’s something interesting about the USB-C cable, and it has nothing to do with the sound. Apple hasn’t included a USB-C to lightning adapter in the box, so you can’t actually use it with an iPhone unless you have an adapter already. This kind of hints that the rumour that the iPhone 15 will be ditching lightning in favour of USB-C from September is true.

Call quality has also been improved massively on the Beats Studio Pro. Our voices always came across clearly in both quiet and noisy environments, and the other person never heard sirens or the barking dog in the background.

Battery is a little less impressive. It still only lasts 40 hours on a single charge, though you now get an extra two hours of battery life with ANC turned on, so that’s around 24 hours of battery life with ANC instead of 22 hours on the Studio3. That’s good, but not great. Plenty of wireless headphones can last 50 to 60 hours these days. The Fast Fuel feature is nice, however. It gives you an extra four hours of listening time with a 10-minute charge.

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The verdict: Beats Studio Pro

The Beats Studio Pro are a familiar looking pair of headphones. While they miss out on a few modern features, such as auto-pausing and multipoint connectivity on Apple devices, we love how these sound, and the active noise cancellation is very, very good. That said, they feel a bit outdated when it comes to the design and the controls, with a price tag that’s a little steep for something that doesn’t feel very premium when worn.

If you enjoy what Beats has to offer, we’d recommend these for the sheer audio prowess alone, and if you’re an Apple user, these are £200 cheaper than the AirPods Max. So, while there’s no auto-pausing sensors, they’re just about better in terms of sound. Android users, however, might want to look at the Sony WH-1000XM5, which are cheaper and better.

Finally, a word to the wise, the Beats Studio3 will continue to be sold until stock sells out. After that, the Beats Studio Pro will replace them pretty much everywhere.

Looking for more top-rated audio gear? Check out our round-up of the best wireless headphones

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