With the PowerBeats 3 we have a pair of dedicated fitness headphones from Beats, now owned by Apple – and they come fitted with the W1 chip, giving them even greater power within the Apple ecosystem.
What this further Apple tie-in means is that once connected to an iPhone, they’ll be recognized by an iPad, MacBook or Apple Watch linked to your iCloud account – so you can say goodbye to lengthy pairing sessions... at least in theory.
There's no news yet on any PowerBeats 4, but Apple has been adding new colors to the range since these headphones launched, including POP Violet, POP Indigo, POP Magenta and POP Blue.
The latest W1 chip also brings with it a more robust and longer-reaching connection, meaning you can wander much further from your music without experiencing any jumping or cutting out.
As anyone into fitness will tell you, headphones that you plan on running or working out with need to fit well. The ear-hook design of the PowerBeats 3 is designed to stop them from falling out at all, with a range of tips to ensure a snug fit – though it wasn't always perfect in our experience.
If you’re in the market for a set of Beats buds that won’t fall out, then it’s going to cost you a little more than others on the market. Where you can get some Bluetooth headphones for as little as $20 / £15, the PowerBeats 3 were priced at a steeper $199.95 (£169.95/AU$259.95) at launch – but for that you do get some considerable upgrades.
Beats PowerBeats 3: Design
The design of the PowerBeats 3 doesn’t really deviate too much from the previous iterations, with the buds housed on long plastic oblongs, connecting to your ears with rubberiszd hooks – and of course, the obvious Beats logo on the side for the cachet owning such a brand confers for some.
There are a variety of tips in the box, with flanged buds among our favourites. However, while the hook design does stop the headphones falling off your head completely, it means that the seal in the ear isn’t always total – the hook pressing against the outside of one’s ear can prise the buds out slightly, so noise isolation ends up not being perfect.
Initially the hooks were far too wide, and the PowerBeats 3 fell out the ear and dangled around too often. However, the hooks will bend slightly, and if you narrow the angle you’ll get a pretty comfortable They did start to come loose once during a 5K race, where there was no time to stop and refit them properly (and thus were just left to flap about a bit), but otherwise we had no issue with fit during testing.
Initially the hooks were far too wide, and the PowerBeats 3 fell out the ear and dangled around too often. However, the hooks will bend slightly, and if you narrow the angle you’ll get a pretty comfortable fit.They did start to come loose once during a 5K race, where there was no time to stop and refit them properly (and thus were just left to flap about a bit), but otherwise we had no issue with fit during testing.
Good build quality is something we expect from Apple products, and the PowerBeats 3 offer just that – everything from the logo to the attached toggle (to let you customize the length of the cord dangling around your neck) feels premium, and helps make the higher cost more palatable.
Where many fitness headphones err on the tinny side when it comes to sound quality, preferring to pump up the volume so your music can be heard when pounding the streets or grunting through weight-lifting, the PowerBeats 3 do have a richer sound to them.
It's the level of bass that makes the headphones feel like a pair of sports earbuds. Bass response is tight rather than booming, but we'd be lying if we said it didn't overwhelm on occasion. Perfect for when your on a workout, but less good when you want a more laid-back, relaxed listen.
The volume is actually a touch lower than it could be, as the fact they don’t always fit snugly meaning that you’re not always able to hear the action in noisy environments – but then again, that might be a helpful thing for saving your eardrums later in life.
Post a Comment