Beats has announced its cheapest pair of wireless earbuds to date in an eye-catching transparent red colour, but the £79.95 Solo Buds are missing something most other rivals have. Their carry case does not have a battery in it so the buds don’t recharge when you pop them back in the case – you have to put them in and connect the case to a charger.
This is of course how you would charge the case and buds back up normally, but without a battery in the case, you must always plug into USB-C power if you want to top the buds up at all, unlike virtually all other Bluetooth buds which have a battery in the case for on-the-go top ups. Beats seems to have made this decision for two reasons: to make the buds and case as small as possible, and because the Apple-owned company claims the Solo Buds have 18 hours of battery life when fully juiced up.
That’s double the battery life of the very cool fully transparent Beats Studio Buds Plus that came out last year. If you didn’t like the £179 price tag, the transparent red Solo Buds are your route into the see-through Beats life for £100 less – though here only the case is transparent, not the solid red buds themselves. You can also opt for (fully opaque) black, grey or purple.
Beats says it has improved audio performance thanks to “[e]rgonomically designed acoustic nozzles and laser-cut vents,” so there you go. The buds, which are the first ever in the company’s Solo range, come with four tip sizes to hopefully suit most ears, but lack any sort of active noise cancellation (ANC) tech. That’s a shame despite the price, as the Nothing Ear (a) have decent ANC for £99. The Beats Solo Buds go on sale in June for £79.95.
Beats also announced the Beats Solo 4, the long-awaited sequel to the firm’s wildly popular Solo 3 Wireless that came out all the way back in 2016. That’s a long time to wait for a new pair – Beats had to put ‘Wireless’ in the product name eight years ago because Bluetooth headphones were not yet mainstream.
With the Beats Solo 4 that’s not the case. The over-ear cans come in black, blue or pink and are notably lightweight at just 217 grams. Beats has added Personalised Spatial Audio, just like on 2023’s pricier Beats Studio Pro headphones and the latest AirPods Pro, as well as dynamic head tracking to centre the music in front of you if you wish.
The Solo 4 charge via USB-C and, like the Studio Pro, can play lossless quality hi-res audio over the cable connection. They also have a 3.5mm headphone jack and come with the cord so you can plug in and use them even if they have run out of battery. There’s no noise cancellation though – that’s a shame for the £199.95 asking price, but also the design is on-ear, not over-ear, so ANC was never really on the cards as the ear cups don’t cover your whole ear. They are available to order today.
The Solo Buds and Solo 4 can fast pair to both iOS and Android devices, continuing Beats’s tactic of catering to both smartphone camps despite being owned by Apple. They can also be added to Apple Find My or Google Find My Device networks if you lose or misplace them.
