Powerbeats Pro 2 vs AirPods Pro 2

Tom's Guide

In Kate’s Powerbeats Pro 2 review, she’ll break down how the Powerbeats Pro vs. AirPods Pro compare in terms of design, fit, performance, battery life and additional features. When it comes to picking the best wireless earbuds to buy between these two Apple devices, you might be surprised by which is the better choice for you.

Transcript

00:00Shake test. Thank you very much. In this video, I'll be giving you my review of the PowerBeats

00:06Pro 2, but more importantly, I'll break down the biggest difference between these new PowerBeats

00:11and the AirPods Pro 2. After all, they both start at $249, and I think you'll catch on to a theme

00:18of Beats beating AirPods in a couple of key ways, but that's not me saying that AirPods aren't the

00:23better choice depending on what you're looking for. Let's break it down. I want to start with the

00:30obvious contrast in design. The PowerBeats Pro, in my personal opinion, can be completely credited

00:36with making this ear hook design mainstream for wireless earbuds. So it's obviously back again,

00:42but the whole profile is just way more slender. It has more of a natural curve to it to almost

00:46resemble the shape of an ear. The ear hooks are noticeably more flexible than before, which for

00:52me, makes them really comfortable for longer periods of time. For background, that was not

00:57the case for me on the original PowerBeats Pro, and that kind of sucked because I wanted something

01:01that would stay really secure, more secure than my AirPods when it came to working out, so I could

01:07only wear them for short periods. I'd easily consider my biggest problem fixed with the PowerBeats Pro 2.

01:13AirPods Pro look a lot different between the singular color option versus the four colors for the

01:17PowerBeats Pro 2 and this very low profile size. I just mean, look, look, look at the size difference

01:23there. If I'm just sitting here right like this, the AirPods are more comfortable, but shake test.

01:34Yeah, if you're running or anything like that, forget about it. Thank you very much. There's no

01:39competition when it comes to a secure fit. And just to make sure the PowerBeats Pro 2 fit totally right,

01:45they come with five total ear tip sizes. That is a first for Apple. The AirPods Pro 2 only have

01:51four, and it was a big deal when they offered that extra small ear tip. The PowerBeats Pro 2 have an

01:56added extra large option, meaning that these should fit properly for a larger population of people.

02:02When it comes to sound quality and audio-specific features for a pair of wireless earbuds, I think

02:07the AirPods Pro 2 are pretty phenomenal, very well-rounded overall. But on the PowerBeats Pro 2,

02:13in typical Beats fashion, the extension of the bass frequencies is so good. I'm talking rumble

02:19from bass guitars and low-end synths, punchy kick drums, and pounding bass beats, especially in the

02:24genres that you might typically associate with working out. I don't know about you, but I've been

02:28totally obsessed with artists like Kendrick and Dochi, so for hip-hop fans, expect sound that has

02:34some weight to it, some bounce. Vocals are also clear, although high-range sounds can come off a little

02:39overly sharp, especially after listening for a while. But I'd say for most ears, there's a lot

02:44here to like. The Beats having some established AirPods Pro 2 features, like spatial audio help,

02:49of course, active noise cancellation coming to the PowerBeats was pretty much non-negotiable for the

02:53price, even if the ANC isn't going to win any awards. That said, there are certain things on the

02:58audio front that are remaining reserved for AirPods Pro 2. The main ones I'd consider when making a buying

03:04decision are adaptive audio, conversation awareness, and all of the hearing aid functionality. When you

03:10consider that for the same price, and if we're actually being honest, a lot less because the

03:14AirPods are almost always on sale, but that is definitely not the case for what I know matters

03:19to a lot of you, battery life. The PowerBeats Pro 2 battery life just about outperforms that which

03:25you'll find not just on AirPods, but also on the Sony and Bose competition. I'm talking 10 hours

03:31without ANC turned on, closer to 8 with ANC, while the charging case has another 35 hours inside,

03:37and there's fast charging. The AirPods Pro tap out at 6 hours of listening and 30 hours total with the

03:43charging case. And a lot of times, my AirPods Pro can't even last a cross-country flight. And while

03:47the PowerBeats Pro 2 probably wouldn't be the first earbuds I reached for while flying, there are plenty

03:51of other situations where the battery life alone would be a good enough reason to pack the Beats

03:56buds. Speaking of Beats buds, I will add that if battery life is a big priority for you, the Beats

04:02Solo buds have 18 hours of battery life. That's a whole eight hours more than the PowerBeats Pro 2.

04:08The trade-off is no ANC, and the Solo buds don't get more battery from the case. But for $80 before

04:13sales, don't sleep on these. I'll link a great deal I found to them in the description.

04:17Back to the PowerBeats Pro 2. One last really positive thing I want to mention as a reason to buy

04:21these is the fact that the Beats brand has really committed to devices being as practical for Android

04:26users as they are for Apple customers. That's like so outside Apple stereotypes. But I think that

04:32earbuds and headphones should really be ecosystem agnostic always. AirPods Pro 2 can technically

04:39pair to an Android device, but you can't alter any of the controls. There's no like AirPods app for

04:44Android like there is a Beats app. I'm pretty sure I showed you guys some of the features of the

04:48Android Beats app in my Beats pill review. So side note, thanks for coming back to this channel

04:53if you watched that video. But quickly, I'll go over it again. You get Find My, you can set up heart

04:58rate monitoring, change the ANC mode, and assign functions to the physical control buttons on each

05:03of the buds. Probably the biggest thing missing from the experience on Android is the ability to

05:07customize your EQ, but let's be real, a lot of people don't take advantage of that anyway. I think

05:12everything I've talked about so far establishes that the PowerBeats Pro are a really solid pair of

05:16earbuds and have a lot of unique advantages over the AirPods Pro 2. I'm curious to know what matters

05:22most to you when buying a pair of new earbuds. Is it comfort, sound quality, battery life? Sound off

05:27in the comments. So PowerBeats Pro, I've neglected to mention up to this point, one of the sort of

05:32biggest features here, the heart rate monitor. This is far from a first in the earbuds market. But

05:38what you're seeing right here is a first for an Apple made pair of earbuds. And the best way I can

05:43describe it as it's been made for the PowerBeats Pro 2 is a work in progress. For one, from experience,

05:50the heart rate readings seem to spike a little bit in certain situations, meaning that the readings are

05:54higher than you'll see on a fitness tracking watch. It's a bit of a hit or miss depending on the type of

05:59workout you're doing. Still, look, it is pretty cool. You can basically use these as a heart rate

06:04sensor for certain third-party apps. Seven, in fact, I'll throw them all up here on the screen. And

06:08this is okay for launch, I guess. I'm sure more apps will gain integration with future updates,

06:14but it's really important to differentiate that you can't use the PowerBeats Pro 2 to get an instant

06:19heart rate reading the same way you can for your Apple Watch. In fact, you can't even use them as

06:23your heart rate monitor for Apple Fitness Plus, which includes audio and treadmill running workouts.

06:28I'm predicting right now that the next gen of AirPods Pro will get the heart rate monitor,

06:33and they're probably saving some of these applications to then generate hype around

06:37that launch. Note that down. Another downside to the PowerBeats Pro 2 is something that I

06:42actually didn't expect to dislike, and that's the size of the charging case. Similar to the side-by-side

06:48I did earlier with the buds, look at that case difference. If you're concerned with pocketability,

06:53which I think you might be if you're heading out on a run or something, this is very bulky,

06:57even though it's actually 33% smaller than the previous generation PowerBeats Pro case. I'm no engineer,

07:02I can't say it would have been possible to make this smaller without sacrificing features,

07:07but there's no denying that this isn't super convenient. At least Beats added wireless charging,

07:12so that's nice. Although this video is a review for the PowerBeats Pro 2, I know when two products

07:17from two well-known brands are the same price, people care a lot more about making the right

07:21shopping decision. In this case, compared to the AirPods Pro 2, there are a lot of instances where I

07:27definitely go with the PowerBeats. Despite my disappointment with the heart rate monitor,

07:30the secure fit and long battery life make these super practical for workouts, while the solid

07:35sound quality and compatibility with Android help justify the price. I still think the AirPods Pro 2

07:40are incredible, especially if you're talking about smarts, you know, things like those hearing aid

07:44features paired with the caliber of ANC in this super small package. Based on this breakdown, which

07:51earbuds would you go with? And just as a reminder, we have a lot of other headphone and earbuds videos

07:55on this channel, so why not subscribe if you enjoyed this one? Would love to see you back here soon.

08:00Otherwise, that's it from me. Thanks for watching. I'll catch you next time.

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