Following their announcement at the end of April, the new Beats Solo Buds are now available to order ahead of their release later this week. Priced at $79.99, the Solo Buds offer 18 hours of battery life right in the buds themselves and come in Beats’ smallest headphone case.
We had a chance to spend a few days with the Beats Solo Buds and were pretty impressed with what you get for this budget price. These are true wireless earbuds with a similar design and fit like the more expensive Studio Buds +, but without some of the more advanced features like active noise cancellation (ANC), transparency, hands-free “Hey Siri” support, and auto play/pause for opening ears. There’s also no official sweat and water resistance rating, though they should still hold up pretty well to everyday use.
Even without ANC, the in-ear Solo Buds do a pretty good job of blocking out external noise compared to standard AirPods, which don’t close in the ear canal, and the sound quality is surprisingly good, though it’s definitely a notch higher. low end higher end options. Four sizes of ear tips are included, ranging from XS to L, so most users should be able to find the right fit, and we found them to be reasonably comfortable even during extended use sessions. Spatial audio support is included, but head tracking is not.
The small case for the Solo Buds is made possible by the fact that it doesn’t have its own internal battery, meaning it only serves as a storage case and a charging mechanism for the buds themselves when their battery dies. A USB-C port on the back of the case supplies the charge to the headphones, but with 18 hours of battery in the headphones, you should be ready for a few days of listening before you need to plug in the case to charge them again.
Without a battery in the case, the whole package is extremely light, weighing under 35 grams with the buds inside. The case is slightly wider than an AirPods Pro case and about the same thickness, but significantly shorter, making it even more mobile for pockets, and the flat bottom makes it easy to stand the case up for convenience.
The iconic ‘b’ logo button is present on both buds, and default functions include the usual tap to play/pause, double tap to skip forward and triple tap to skip back. For phone calls, a single tap answers a call, while a double tap either ends or rejects a call. A single press and hold of the button activates Siri, but you can customize this gesture in the Settings app so that both earbuds control the volume up and down if you prefer.
Although it doesn’t have an Apple W or H chip built in, the proprietary Beats chip platform supports a number of Apple’s own features, such as one-touch pairing with iCloud, syncing your devices, automatically streaming audio to your Apple Watch when you go out of range of your iPhone , Find My support for last known connected location and audio sharing. Android users get many of the same features, including one-touch pairing with device sync via your Google account, Find My Device support, and audio switching with multi-point pairing.
Overall, the Beats Solo Buds shape up to be a great budget headphone choice if you don’t need the features available in more expensive options. The 18 hour battery life right in the buds is certainly handy and they are extremely portable with their light and small case.
In addition to the more muted Matte Black and Storm Grey, the Solo Buds also come in Arctic Purple, which is exclusive to Apple and Target in the US, plus Transparent Red, which lets you peek inside the box. All four colors are available to order now for $79.99, with a release after this Thursday, June 20th.
