Beats by Dre Powerbeats Pro Review

The Powerbeats Pro struggled during some of our testing, providing lackluster noise-cancelling performance and good but not great sound quality. However, they shined above their competitors in a few metrics like comfort and battery life and are often on sale for a lot less than their premium counterparts.

Performance Comparison

Sound Quality

Our expert listening panel found the Powerbeats Pro lacks clarity at lower volumes. At high volumes, it sounds muddy and blown out, with vocals losing their crispness. Middle-high volumes are the sweet spot, providing the clearest and punchiest soundscape.

These earbuds are bass-forward, followed by mids, then treble, making them a solid choice for your EDM or hip-hop lovers. If you enjoy punchy music and don't mind a somewhat unbalanced equalization (EQ), these are a good option.

Songs like “I'd Rather Go Blind” by Etta James and “Lay Low” by Snoop Dog shine at 1:32 and 1:15, respectively, with the volume turned up just past the mid-mark.

Soundstage

The soundstage of an earbud describes where the music seems to be coming from around you. Because earbuds are so small they often struggle to replicate a natural, live music experience. But with advancements in technology, some earbuds are building more expansive and immersive stages.

While they don't offer the crispest vocal clarity, they do a good job of creating a vast, immersive arena when they fit well and a mid-frequency song is playing. Songs like “Feels Like Rain” by Buddy Guy and Bonnie Raitt and “Tomorrow” by Shakey Graves sound great.

It is worth noting that their sound quality scores seem to correlate strongly with how well these earbuds fit in our testers' ears. When they are seated well, they are much more immersive and warm.

The frequency response of the Powerbeats Pro follows our GearLab House Curve pretty closely, deviating more widely in the treble bands. All in all, these earbuds will make your average pop song sound fun and punchy, but if you prefer softer music like classical, folk, etc., these probably aren't the best option.

User Experience

The Powerbeats Pro proved to be exceptionally stable and comfortable across all ear shapes that we tested.

Comfort

Our testers found that these buds sit quite deep in the ear canal, which provides a tight seal and good sound immersion, though it has the potential to bother some users.

Stability

Users can use a bendable arm that wraps around the ear for ultimate stability during high-intensity activity. These buds would be great for cyclists, runners, and gym-goers who want easy-to-use, secure earbuds with an immersive, punchy sound.

Customization

The app is quite simple and easy to use. Though, the Powerbeats Pro lost a lot of points when it came to sound customizability. There is no option to adjust EQ or test your ear seal. Because of the lack of EQ customizability, if you like softer music, these might not be for you.

Connectivity

The Powerbeats Pro earbuds are satisfactory when it comes to quality of connection, with one tester noting that pairing them to an iPad was quite easy and another singling out this pair of Beats as notably lacking in issues during our in-house listening sessions. To get a broader picture of connectivity, we crowdsource information through a survey of 1-star Amazon User Reviews. We take note each time a user cites a connectivity issue and calculate the frequency of these mentions relative to the total number of reviews. The Powerbeats has a 0.96% rate of reported issues, which puts it on the better side of average for the group.

Noise Cancellation

The Powerbeats Pro are not noise-cancelling earbuds and thus we could only test them on their passive ability to seal out background noise. We used our testing rig to measure how much sound could bleed through the ear seal with these buds in place. They performed just okay—because they have silicon tips and fit in your ear canal, they block out some background noise (as opposed to something like the basic AirPods, which have no ear tips). However, you are going to hear high-volume background noise while wearing these.

Though the Powerbeats Pro don't come with noise cancelling, they do have a passive seal that works much like an earplug. As you can see in the graph below, these are best at passively blocking out higher frequencies.

We wouldn't recommend these buds if your primary use is commuting or travel, as you will likely be fighting the whir, hum, and chatter around you. You can increase volume to help block out the background, but these buds suit themselves better for more isolated use or environments like a gym where you're going to want your music at louder volumes.

Battery Life

We tested the PowerBeats Pro battery performance by playing sound at a set volume until they died, and they knocked it out of the park. These earbuds can last a whopping 9 hours and 20 minutes (20 minutes longer than the manufacturer claims) before they need recharging. In a pinch, you can also squeeze out another 1.5 hours of playback time with just 5 minutes in their charging case. The case will net you another 18 hours of playback via two charges before it also needs recharging.


It is worth noting that these do not have wireless charging, and the longer battery life when scored against its active noise cancelling (ANC) rivals is a bit misleading as these buds do not need to spend energy powering a processor and microphones. However, if ANC is not important to you and you don't like having to worry about charging your earbuds frequently, the PowerBeats Pro are a great option.

Call Quality

We tested the PowerBeats Pro call quality by playing spoken phrases out of our testing rig's mouth which were then captured by the earbud's mic. Playing varying levels of background noise allowed us to capture exactly what others would hear when on a call with you in different environments.

During the subway noise stress test, these earbuds struggled to keep up, particularly distorting high-frequency voices and allowing a lot of background noise through. Down below, you can listen to how these earbuds sounded during our stress tests.

In an office setting, we could begin to hear some background noise bleed through, which slightly distorted the microphone.

Without any background noise, the PowerBeats Pro sound great, providing very clear call quality.

Overall, the Powerbeats Pro performed well for being one of the less tech-infused buds in our lineup, but they aren't the best option if you plan on taking calls in loud environments.

Should You Buy the Beats By Dre PowerBeats Pro?

The PowerBeats Pro performed decently throughout our testing but struggled in a few key areas—namely the lack of customizable EQ and noise isolation—making them hard to recommend to all audiences. If you're an avid adventurer and like high-octane activity, like contemporary pop music, and don't care about premium features like ANC and customizability, these are a solid option. However, it is worth noting that at this price point, other earbuds do offer those premium features, though maybe they aren't quite as stable and comfortable across ear shapes during high activity.

What Other Earbuds Should You Consider?

If you're in the market for new earbuds, you have a lot of great options at this price point. Apple users whose highest priority isn't physical activity can score stellar ANC, some sound customizability, and better call quality with the Apple AirPods Pro 2. Android users might look to the Jabra Elite 10 for a better user experience and more premium features at a similar price point.