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Powerbeats Pro vs. Powerbeats 3

I have been using my PB3 for about a year now and they are great for running, hiking and weight lifting. They are durable and sound good. I picked them up for $70 at Best Buy and it was well worth it. I have no reason to upgrade at the moment, but I would highly recommend the PB3 to someone who wants a good athletic headphone that you can regularly find on sale.

acorntoy said:
People seem to forget that cheap ($10-$90) earphones that use a wire break, a lot, because of the wire. It's usually the weak point in the earphones. I used to go through a pair every couple months, if my AirPods died tomorrow I would still have saved a significant amount of money in the last two years because they don't have the failure prone wire.

For example: The wired version of AirPods reviews. https://www.apple.com/shop/reviews/MMTN2AM/A/earpods-with-lightning-connector?page=0&rf=1

Most didn't even last a year let alone 2.
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EarPods with 3.5 mm Headphone Plug

EarPods with Lightning Connector
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How are you going through them so quickly? I have been using the same pair that came with my iPhone 6S and I use them all the time!
 
Goompa said:
LOL
(all my other headphones have detachable aux cable).
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Exactly HEADPHONES. Small earbuds and such do not typically have detachable cables, thus when the cable dies the product dies. You're comparing two completely different product categories here.

If you took the AirPods, and took their direct "wired" competitor the EarPods, I would be willing to bet that you'd spend more than $150 replacing various pairs of failed EarPods before the AirPods needed replacing. The whole "they are the scourge of the environment and awful and the peak of planned obsolescence" is just bull, they really aren't any worse than the multiple pairs of wired headphones that will be thrown away over the same period of time.
 
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bobob said:
That is the equivalent of a subscription of $6.25/month.

If I found my AirPods so useful that I completely wore out the batteries in just 2 years, I would happily pay that much.

However as it turns out, although I do indeed love my AirPods, I'm a much lighter user of them and my batteries are all still fine after 2 years. I expect to get 5 years out of them before the battery life impacts my own use case. That brings my own monthly AirPods cost down to $2.50
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And for people replacing their iPhone’s batteries ever two years, that would be equivalent to a $2.88/month subscription (for ‘X’ iPhones). Though the total cost of ownership (only hardware costs), if you stretch out the replacement cycle to four years, might be more in the order of $15/month.

BTW, Apple also offers an AirPods battery exchange for $49 per AirPod, or $4.08/month on a 24 month cycle (or $1.63/month on a 60 month cycle).
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AustinIllini said:
The AirPods battery is a huge problem. I'm not paying $150 ever other year to replace them.
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Apple will replace the batteries in AirPods for $49 per AirPod or $98 for the pair of them.
 
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MauiPa said:
"There have been a lot of complaints about Powerbeats 3 failing due to sweat exposure". More like a "few" or "some" than a lot. There are a lot of praises for how well they stand up to sweat exposure as well.
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I had real issues with Powerbeats 2 and then 3 failing. I went through a few pairs of the 2 before getting a full refund and when the 3 came out I gave them a go but had the exact same issue. When I started to look online it turned out it was a common issue and it seemed to be the remote was letting moisture/sweat in causing them to slowly fail - it would start triggering

My AirPods have been rock solid under the same conditions, but aren't a great fit for me, so I'm hoping the Powerbeats Pro are the answer.
 
kizaw said:
Received my Power Beats Pro today and after listening I put them right back in the box to return to Apple. The sound quality is just blah. I'm used to the Bose Free Sound Sports and these PBP's don't even come close in sound quality. To me all the other features mean nothing unless you have optimal sound quality. And these do not have it.
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I wish reviewers would start with this premise, and expand. THIS is exactly what I was trying to find out in reading this and other reviews. Since my Bose SoundSport batteries are now down to ~1.5 hours on a charge, a long hike will kill them, so I’m in the market for a replacement. I’ll keep looking for a sweat proof, comfortable, long-lasting, great sounding replacement that stays in my ears...
 
Powerbeats 1 and 2 were cheap and broke for no reason. (Apple knew it they'd send you a new pair without any real questions) I haven't had any issues outta the 3's but I admit I don't use them much.
Ive had the Airpods since they came out. I use them over 8 hours a day for work. I do tech support so Im talking on them. The battery is still as good now almost 2 years later. So you must have got a bad pair
 
Just sayin... said:
I wish reviewers would start with this premise, and expand. THIS is exactly what I was trying to find out in reading this and other reviews. Since my Bose SoundSport batteries are now down to ~1.5 hours on a charge, a long hike will kill them, so I’m in the market for a replacement. I’ll keep looking for a sweat proof, comfortable, long-lasting, great sounding replacement that stays in my ears...
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I'll expand since you asked. I didn't want to go on and on about a sound quality review, but since your interested I'll try and explain. I've used Bose for a long time not because I'm a Bose fanboy but they have a wonderful full range sound. They cover the full range of frequencies from the deep lows all the way to those crisp and detailed highs. It's very hard to find other headphone companies who can reproduce the sound like they do. I've tried other companies in the past and wound up returning them because of this same sound quality issue (Jaybirds, Shure, B&O, Sony) None of them reproduce that full sound like Bose does. I was really hoping these Beats were going to sound similar or better than Bose because I've only heard Beats sound great and are bass heavy. These definitely don't come close to that Bose sound. The lows are that invisible kind of bass. This is where I was most surprised because of always hearing Beats are bass heavy. In my opinion not so much. The mids are clear and detailed and are the most pronounced. So I would say Beats are more mid heavy than bass heavy. Then the highs roll off way to early. They are missing those crisp detailed high end treble notes. So your basically listening to midrange heavy headphones. My sister in law bought a pair of those TaoTronics $30 headphones from Amazon and these Beats have a very similar sound to those. In my opinion that's the closest match sound wise that the Beats remind me of. So $30 vs. $250 with similar sound doesn't cut it for me. All the chips, ease of pairing, black lightning cables means nothing to me because they are headphones meant for music to sound good. These don't do that for my ears. Hope this helped.
 
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kizaw said:
Received my Power Beats Pro today and after listening I put them right back in the box to return to Apple. The sound quality is just blah. I'm used to the Bose Free Sound Sports and these PBP's don't even come close in sound quality. To me all the other features mean nothing unless you have optimal sound quality. And these do not have it.
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Bose does not have H1 chip allowing seamless and fast Bluetooth connection to iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and other apple Bluetooth capable devices, which Powerbeats Pro capable of like AirPods 2 once it is paired with iPhone. The H1 chip allows switching apple devices quickly without having to reconnect each time you have to change a device. Bose could not do that.
 
myapple2019 said:
Bose does not have H1 chip allowing seamless and fast Bluetooth connection to iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and other apple Bluetooth capable devices, which Powerbeats Pro capable of like AirPods 2 once it is paired with iPhone. The H1 chip allows switching apple devices quickly without having to reconnect each time you have to change a device. Bose could not do that.
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The H1 chip was my reason for buying the Beats for the simplicity of pairing and using across multiple devices. However, I and most people use headphones 99% of the time for listening to music so for me If they don't handle that great they are not for me :-(
 
myapple2019 said:
Bose does not have H1 chip allowing seamless and fast Bluetooth connection to iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and other apple Bluetooth capable devices, which Powerbeats Pro capable of like AirPods 2 once it is paired with iPhone. The H1 chip allows switching apple devices quickly without having to reconnect each time you have to change a device. Bose could not do that.
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I have no trouble connecting/switching quickly the Bose to my Bluetooth enabled devices, and using my AW S4 as a remote control:apple:
 
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I have the Powerbeats 3 and now the Pros. Love no wire. Worth the price of admission alone.

Worked from home two days this week and use one of the Pros for conference calls. People say I sound good.

Using them for morning dog walks in the park and they work great. Love doing hands free hey siri to find out what time it is.
 
kizaw said:
Received my Power Beats Pro today and after listening I put them right back in the box to return to Apple. The sound quality is just blah. I'm used to the Bose Free Sound Sports and these PBP's don't even come close in sound quality. To me all the other features mean nothing unless you have optimal sound quality. And these do not have it.
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Excuse me for thinking this sounds silly, but you do realize there's a break-in period for headphones right?
 
When are these supposed to be released in Australia? Is there any indication of when to expect them as they just say “coming soon” in black and “coming this winter” in other colours.

Does “coming soon” in black mean it will be before winter? If so that mean she they are coming out before June.
 
Does anyone know if the Silicone ear tips for the Powerbeats 3 correctly fit the Powerbeats Pro? There are 10,000 alternatives out there but no idea which would fit. Of all the comparisons between the PB 2/3 and the Pro’s nobody mentions this.
Right now I am good with the silicone one that came with my Pros, but if something happened to it I am out of luck.

Thanks
 
I recommend that you try the upcoming Fostex TM2 truly wireless MMCX receivers with a Shure SE846 or other IEM of your choice.

kizaw said:
Received my Power Beats Pro today and after listening I put them right back in the box to return to Apple. The sound quality is just blah. I'm used to the Bose Free Sound Sports and these PBP's don't even come close in sound quality. To me all the other features mean nothing unless you have optimal sound quality. And these do not have it.
Click to expand...

haddy said:
Well... I have just bought/received the Bose Free Sound Sports, mainly on the basis of recommendations on this board as well as my use of the wired Bose noise cancelling ear pods. Sound quality is the most important feature for me.
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triton100 said:
This is what I was waiting to find out. Sounds like I won’t be getting them either then. I have the sennheisser momentum true wireless in ears. And they are on a par with the Bose sport or arguably better. I would have loved to have had the easy pairing though as swapping between devices is a pain. But like u say it’s sound quality first all the way.
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Just sayin... said:
I wish reviewers would start with this premise, and expand. THIS is exactly what I was trying to find out in reading this and other reviews. Since my Bose SoundSport batteries are now down to ~1.5 hours on a charge, a long hike will kill them, so I’m in the market for a replacement. I’ll keep looking for a sweat proof, comfortable, long-lasting, great sounding replacement that stays in my ears...
Click to expand...
 
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