They will certainly be one of the flagship products of this audio year. The Powerbeats Pro 2 are now the top of the range of Beats headphones (300 euros). At this very high price, they respond by integrating an active noise reduction system and above all an innovation that is still very rare in the field: an on-board heart rate monitor. Bose had tried the experiment between 2016 and 2019 with its SoundSport Pulse, but they were not true wireless. Today, it is Sennheiser who offers such a process on its Momentum Sport (330 euros). But above all, this heart rate sensor certainly foreshadows the future of the AirPods Pro (Beats belongs to Apple), of which the most reliable rumors indicate an equivalent capacity in the third generation coming this year as well.
But let's get back to these Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 for now. Our test version lent by the brand shows the color directly: its "electric orange" is eye-catching and shows the sporty orientation given to this model (also available in "obsidian", "sand" and "ultraviolet" versions). Beats has completely revised the design of the previous generation to make this one more compact and 20% lighter (8.7 g). The case is also much smaller by 33% (75 x 66 x 34 mm for 69 g). It also gains a Qi wireless charging system in addition to the classic USB-C port (cable not supplied).
Some adjustment problems
Dedicated to sports use, the Powerbeats Pro 2 use a design with a hook surrounding the ear. As is often the case, this is a memory foam thanks to the use of notinol (an alloy of nickel and titanium). First disappointment, despite Beats' efforts in this area, we found their adjustment complicated and their comfort limited. It is indeed difficult to ensure that the semi-in-ear tips fit perfectly in the ear canal because of the rigidity of the hooks. The latter are very stiff and can force somewhat behind the ear and cause pain when worn for a long time. An inevitable corollary of this defect is that passive isolation and quality can suffer.
However, Beats has done things well by providing no less than 5 sizes of silicone tips: XS, S, M, L, XL. But glasses wearers (including us) will certainly have to choose between using these Powerbeats Pro 2 and their glasses (contact lenses are recommended). But the headphones are thus perfectly anchored to the ears and do not move at all during sports exercises. They are also IP X4 certified, water and sweat resistant.
Very reliable heart rate sensor
As a cousin of Apple, it is an H2 chip from the brand with the apple that powers these Powerbeats Pro. Pairing (Bluetooth 5.3) with an iOS device (but also iPadOS, tvOS and macOS) is made easy. The different functions can thus be found directly in the system settings. You can change the behavior of pressing the main button on each earphone (at the Beats logo).
Two additional toggle buttons allow you to adjust the volume. In these same settings, you can navigate between noise reduction and transparency or deactivate them. You can also activate automatic ear detection (to pause playback when you remove the headphones) or the heart rate sensor.
The latter is clearly the big new feature of these Powerbeats Pro 2. Directly inherited from Apple's expertise in the field thanks to ten generations of Watch, it integrates perfectly with iOS (Android is also supported). In practice, however, you need to use a compatible application such as Open, Runna, Slopes, YaoYao or Nike Run Club (it’s a shame that Strava is not supported, even though Apple is a partner). We chose the latter to test the process. We first made sure to remove our Apple Watch, whose heart rate sensor would take precedence over that of the headphones. Once in the ears and the application launched, we saw the live measurement of our heart rate.
The information collected by the Powerbeats Pro 2 is in fact sent directly to the iOS Health application where we were able to consult it, alongside that of our various other devices. The applications in question therefore come here to draw their data that we can manage in complete transparency. The measurements seemed quite relevant to us, in any case, always in agreement with those of our Apple Watch (disconnected) tested in parallel. As you can see, the system is reliable, but clearly duplicates if you already have a connected watch. Only those without such a device will really benefit from this new capability of Beats headphones.
Our opinion on noise reduction: efficient, but…
Still on the subject of additional functions, note that some offered by the AirPods Pro are not available on the Powerbeats Pro 2. We are thinking in particular of adaptive noise reduction or even conversation detection which pauses the music and switches to transparent mode as soon as we speak.
A real shame given the proximity of the two brands, but it surely responds to a certain logic of range. They are nevertheless sensitive to Siri triggers by voice, without having to take your iPhone out of your pocket ("Siri" or "Hey Siri").
We also expected a lot from the active noise reduction, so effective on the AirPods Pro (one of the market benchmarks with the high-end models from Sony and Bose). The Powerbeats Pro 2 unfortunately fall slightly below, but offer very similar performances. It is especially on the side of the highest frequencies that they are the least effective and let them pass more easily. This is certainly due to the adjustment difficulties that we encountered. But even by manually holding the tips in our ears, we noticed a less good efficiency than with the Apple models. The transparency mode also logically suffers from this difference by appearing a little less natural. Be careful though, it all comes down to details and Beats headphones are certainly among the best on the market in this field.
When using a hands-free kit, the use of 5 microphones (out of 6 in total) does not allow you to get exactly close to the performance of the AirPods Pro, not the best in the genre, but nevertheless very effective. The Powerbeats obviously do very well in quiet environments, but the voice is quickly affected by various artifacts as soon as noise is heard. However, these unwanted sounds are very well eliminated for the caller and despite its flaws the voice remains intelligible. It's not perfect, but it's completely functional, which is the main thing in this area that is so complicated to manage.
Unbeatable autonomy
We were also eager to test their audio quality. We know that Apple does very good work in this area, but we were disappointed by the Solo Buds, certainly entry-level, but far too far below what a brand like Beats must offer. To achieve quality sound, the brand designed a double-layer transducer, one of which is made of rigid polymer acting as a central piston. The bass reproduction is affected, they are powerful and precise, their impacts are lively and dynamic. The highs are not left out with many details, as well as a nice separation of the instruments. It is rather on the side of the mids that there would be something to complain about, especially concerning the low mids; a little too withdrawn for our taste. The voices suffer from it and are not as warm as what one could expect. But all this is once again played on details and the overall audio quality is quite successful, as evidenced in particular by the spatialization, whether stereo or managed thanks to Dolby Atmos compatibility (with head movement tracking).
The cherry on the cake is that the battery life of the Powerbeats Pro 2 is simply excellent. Announced at 8 hours with noise reduction activated (10 hours without), it reached 8 hours 15 during our test in real use where we juggled between connections with our iPhone, our MacBook Air and our Apple TV. Thanks to the case, Beats announces a total use of 36 hours with ANC and 45 hours without. Finally, 5 minutes of charging is enough to enjoy 90 minutes of use in the event of total discharge.
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