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Beats Solo Buds Available at Select Apple Stores Starting Today

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The new Beats Solo Buds wireless earbuds are available to purchase at select Apple retail stores and authorized resellers around the world starting today.

beats-solo-buds-video-2.jpg

Beats Solo Buds feature a more affordable $79.99 price in the U.S., up to 18 hours of battery life, and a compact USB-C carrying case. However, they lack active noise cancellation, and the carrying case does not have a built-in battery. As a result, the earbuds can only be charged when the case is connected to an external power source.

Beats Solo Buds pre-orders began on Tuesday, ahead of today's launch. The earbuds can be purchased on Apple's online store for delivery, or in-store pickup where available. More details can be found in our coverage from a few months ago.

Beats Solo 4 on-ear headphones also launched this year, and a new version of the discontinued Beats Pill wireless speaker is expected to be announced next week.

Article Link: Beats Solo Buds Available at Select Apple Stores Starting Today
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/20/beats-solo-buds-available-at-apple-stores-today/
Spock said:
Who thought this was a good idea to cut the cost?
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I guess whoever’s in charge of the Beats brand at Apple was targeting a price point (specifically, probably that of the entry level Ray-Cons).

The translucent case looks pretty cool, but the lack of charging in the case makes them a complete non-starter to me. I’d much rather step up to the AirPods (or to the AirPods Pro, for the active noise canceling, so useful for commuting on public transit). Plus, the AirPods look easier to use, just stick the AirPod into the nook of your ear, while these look like using the AirPods Pro (which are in-ear earbuds) but without the benefits of the ANC.
 
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I can live without the ANC, I honestly don't think that I ever used it other than to hear and understand the difference and how it worked. That was when I purchased them on the first day. Living in NYC, for me its a BIG no no, for "commonsense safety" in these streets today (gotta know if my Ops' are trying to catch me slacking 😂
😂). But on a serious note, I really do have to have to have my auditory awareness about me. You can see it everyday whether it involves a confrontation or a vehicular accident, gotta be aware at all times. It's the non-battery case... Maybe the 18 hour battery that might be able to win the minds. I may pick up a set for a back up.
 
mac-imperator said:
I can live without the ANC, I honestly don't think that I ever used it other than to hear and understand the difference and how it worked. That was when I purchased them on the first day. Living in NYC, for me its a BIG no no, for "commonsense safety" in these streets today (gotta know if my Ops' are trying to catch me slacking 😂
😂). But on a serious note, I really do have to have to have my auditory awareness about me. You can see it everyday whether it involves a confrontation or a vehicular accident, gotta be aware at all times. It's the non-battery case... Maybe the 18 hour battery that might be able to win the minds. I may pick up a set for a back up.
Click to expand...
Honestly, I haven’t really had a problem using the ANC on the AirPods Pro in public in NYC (and can always switch to Transparency mode, and even pause the music, when I feel the need for extra situational awareness - or just take them out and put them back in the case). Then again, some neighborhoods are safer than others, and mine’s probably safer (Brooklyn is looking better and better than Manhattan by the day). Then again, even without hearing, I generally have a good sixth sense about where people are around me (even behind me), which helps with situational awareness.
 
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Spock said:
Who thought this was a good idea to cut the cost?
Click to expand...
I can go on amazon or run to any nearby consumer electronics retailer, or bigger grocery store chain, and pick up any number of <$30-$50 wireless bluetooth earbuds. Most of them would be around half of these $80 Beats or less.

And while features, sound, pairing, and design is probably way worse than these new Beats, exactly all(!) of these cheap wireless earbuds have a battery built into the charging case that recharges the earbuds without any need for the re-chargable charging case to be plugged into an external power-source.

Then again, if the offer great audio and actually last 18 hours at 50% then maybe they're still a decent deal.

Idk. It's hard for me to imagine having tried so many Beats. They all had one too many drawbacks for me.

It should be noted that there's also no auto-switching like all AirPods have (even the old Gen. 2) as these Beats Solo do not feature any of Apple's great H1 or H2 chips.

Also no ANC and no water or sweat-proofing. So probably not a good fit for workouts. 😕
 
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With 18h battery life, I don't find lack of a charging case that bad. I have a powerbank with me either way - and couldn't you just charge them directly from an iphone? I also have to charge the case of my airpods pro which have around 24h of listening time with the case, so that's only 30% more.

I just think they look huge, I'd miss the advanced connectivity of airpods and ANC and most important: The sound of beats usually isn't that true to the original recording. Too much bass, which works for some music but ruins other (looking at you, Homepod).
 
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ApplesAreSweet&Sour said:
I can go on amazon or run to any nearby consumer electronics retailer, or bigger grocery store chain, and pick up any number of <$30-$50 wireless bluetooth earbuds. Most of them would be around half of these $80 Beats or less.

And while features, sound, pairing, and design is probably way worse than these new Beats, exactly all(!) of these cheap wireless earbuds have a battery built into the charging case that recharges the earbuds without any need for the re-chargable charging case to be plugged into an external power-source.

Then again, if the offer great audio and actually last 18 hours at 50% then maybe they're still a decent deal.

Idk. It's hard for me to imagine having tried so many Beats. They all had one too many drawbacks for me.

It should be noted that there's also no auto-switching like all AirPods have (even the old Gen. 2) as these Beats Solo do not feature any of Apple's great H1 or H2 chips.

Also no ANC and no water or sweat-proofing. So probably not a good fit for workouts. 😕
Click to expand...
Wait, they don't handle auto switching devices?

Overpriced crap.

I've got a set of 1More earbuds that have great sound quality and don't look like I've got snot coming out of my ears, the only annoying thing about them is the Bluetooth pairing. They were less than $50. And they have a battery in the case.
 
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There are $30 buds now with decent quality that have a charging case. That’s a really important feature to just cheap out on (or omit to get people to pay for the better ones). The 18h battery life is nice though.
 
contacos said:
Case looks very 90s. Reminds me of my first see through Game Boy
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This. 100%. Super cool. I think, in general, this is a win on design. It just looks cool, combined with the compactness, this is a cool product. Not one I will ever own, but still just seems like a well executed idea.
 
contacos said:
Case looks very 90s. Reminds me of my first see through Game Boy
Click to expand...
Yeah, I got a purple see through Game Boy years ago. I forgot if it was a Game Boy Pocket or Game Boy Color. I’m still waiting for Sony to release a see through DualSense controller for my PS5. I have a clear PS4 controller.
 
I still wished they upgraded the Beats Flex with better drivers from the Beats Solo Buds, but kept its basic design with a USB Type C charging port to allow up to 18 hours operation per charge.
 
Need to see if the case is small enough, but this might eventually replace my Motorola Boom that I always keep in my pocket when I leave the house.

The Boom only has about 5 hour battery but it’s plenty for how I use it—just very occasionally when I’m out and need to hear audio from my phone without bothering people around me (I don’t like to wear headphones for extended periods while I’m around other people, but if I do it’s usually preplanned in which case I would bring better headphones). I love the Boom because it’s tiny in my pocket (although even smaller would be great) and the flip boom makes it so easy to turn on/off and know that it’s on/off. I despise tiny buttons that you have to long press and look at an LED or wait to hear a sound to know if it’s on/off. Of course the downside of the flip boom is it makes it more prone to breakage. I’m actually on my 3rd or 4th set over the last maybe 10 years from either breaking or losing it, but I hardly care, it’s worth the convenience to me.

What interests me about the Beats though is that the case is small, potentially approaching the size of the Boom. And popping the earbud in and out of the case might be an easy enough way to turn it on/off, perhaps it might even be doable in my pocket one-handed. Plus it’s Apple ecosystem, although that doesn’t matter much since I would use it almost exclusively with my iPhone. If the Boom is ever discontinued, which I fear it might be, this might be a decent runner up. With 18 hours of battery life, I definitely don’t need a battery in the case, especially since I usually only use one earbud at a time which means 36 hours total battery life. But wireless charging would be nice. That’s one thing I wish the Boom had. Although that would probably make things chunkier.
 
Spock said:
Who thought this was a good idea to cut the cost?
Click to expand...

iksretep said:
I understand that something had to be cut out to make that price point a reality, but not having a charging/battery case is a deal breaker for me.
Click to expand...

kc9hzn said:
I guess whoever’s in charge of the Beats brand at Apple was targeting a price point (specifically, probably that of the entry level Ray-Cons).

The translucent case looks pretty cool, but the lack of charging in the case makes them a complete non-starter to me. I’d much rather step up to the AirPods (or to the AirPods Pro, for the active noise canceling, so useful for commuting on public transit). Plus, the AirPods look easier to use, just stick the AirPod into the nook of your ear, while these look like using the AirPods Pro (which are in-ear earbuds) but without the benefits of the ANC.
Click to expand...

StuBeck said:
Its being done to keep the price of the other headphones with recharging case higher. They've been going on deep price cuts for a while, but now they can just push people to the other models.
Click to expand...
I like that the case doesn’t have a battery. It means it can be smaller than the AirPods case (hopefully significantly). The size of the AirPods case is kind of the only reason I haven’t gotten those—I really hate bulk in my pocket, I want to minimize as much as possible. And for me 18 hours battery life is way more than plenty.
I just wish it had wireless charging, as long as it doesn’t make the case significantly bigger.
 
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