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It’s something we felt while listening to other workout earbuds, like the Jaybird X4. When we’ve tested some true wireless earbuds in the past we’ve found there’s a slight in-ear pressure when listening to music.
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What we mean by that isn’t just that the design around the ear fit snugly, but the whole experience while listening to music was great too. We also found the Beats Powerbeats Pro to be extremely comfortable during testing. On each, there’s a playback control button located where the Beats logo is, as well as a volume rocker, so you can control music with your hands. Like the AirPods Pro, there’s a control on the Powerbeats Pro themselves. On paper, we much prefer this look, but the one downside over the AirPods Pro is they jut out of the ears more – for some people this won’t be an issue, but it’s worth flagging up, especially if you like to wear earbuds to help you fall to sleep. Of course, this makes sense given they’re marketed towards those who need a good pair of everyday headphones that are just as at home at the gym as they are the office. They have a design that’s become synonymous with sports-focused headphones – with a hook around the back of your ear – that still looks the part outside of the gym too. The Beats Powerbeats Pro look completely different to the AirPods. What this means is that with a shorter stem, activating that sensor is a little more challenging – although we did find it became second nature after a few weeks of testing.
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This is a small ridge on each of the AirPods Pro buds that you can squeeze to activate noise-cancelling / Transparency mode, or skip and pause tracks. That’s down to the fact there’s a ‘capacitive force sensor’ located in the stem. The shorter stem may sound good if you were never keen on them in the original AirPods, but we found during testing it took some getting used to. These stems are considerably smaller than the original AirPods, but they’re still obviously AirPods all the same. This is largely down to the stems, which stick out of your ear and point downwards.
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The Apple AirPods Pro are slim and minimal, but do have a distinct look when you have them in your ears, which has become synonymous with Apple. How you feel about different earbud designs often comes down to personal preference and whether you want a bigger bud that might not be pretty but feels secure, or a minimal design that values style over sports credentials. But as we’ll learn later, what you're getting with the Powerbeats Pro is the significantly improved design, Apple's latest H1 Chip, and advanced sound quality.Īs you can see, there’s no price difference between Apple’s two Pro true wireless earbuds in the US – and a marginal difference elsewhere.ĪirPods Pro vs Beats Powerbeats Pro: design The Powerbeats Pro are significantly more expensive than the previous iteration of these earbuds, the Powerbeats 3, which can usually be found online for under $100 / £100. Unlike the AirPods Pro, you have four different colors to choose from, including Black, Ivory, Moss, and Navy – all of which come with a matching charging case. Similarly, the Beats Powerbeats Pro cost $249 / £219 / AU$349. For many that might justify the big price hike, for others, the advanced performance may still not be enough of a draw for that price. When we compared the Apple AirPods Pro with the Apple AirPods we did find there’s a lot more on offer with the newer Pro model, including noise-cancellation and active EQ. As such, they’re not marketed as a direct replacement for the 2019 AirPods.