To no one’s surprise, there are now new Powerbeats earphones. We say that because apart from all the leaks, the
earbuds showed up on Walmart’s shelves just a couple of days ago.
What is surprising, however, is that instead of being called Powerbeats 4 as everyone expected, they’re just
Powerbeats. The name has little importance, however, so let’s see what’s new with this pair.
First, the design. The new Powerbeats get a major redesign but that doesn’t mean the design is necessarily new. In fact, they look almost identical to the Powerbeats Pro that were released last April. The biggest difference is that the Pros are truly wireless while the two earbuds of the Powerbeats are connected with a wire.
The wire has its practical uses and some people actually prefer to have it
As usual, you can control your music playback via the earphone’s built-in controls or by using voice commands given to Siri.
On the inside, the “basic” Powerbeats now have Apple’s H1 chip as well. The chip shortens connection times, improves range and even power efficiency, giving the earbuds longer battery life.
Speaking of battery life, the Powebeats now boast 15 (previous ones had 12) hours of playback time, beating the 11 hours of the Galaxy Buds+ by 4 whole hours. Still, we should keep in mind Samsung’s pair is truly wireless and that the Powerbeats Pro are rated for 9 hours.
In case the wire between the two pieces (or the image above) hasn’t tipped you off, these don’t come with a charging case, so whatever juice you have in them is all you get until you find a charger (unless you have a power bank). They charge with USB Type-A to Lightning cable, so you use that with any suitable adaptor.
As expected from a pair of earbuds meant for the active types, the Powerbeats come with sweat and water resistance so running in the rain is a go!
Now comes the best part: the new Powerbeats cost $149. Of course, that’s far from cheap, but you shouldn’t be expecting something else from Apple or the Beats by Dre brand anyway. Still, that’s right around where most premium wireless earbuds are, making the Powerbeats a great choice if
AirPods aren’t your cup of tea.
The Powerbeats come in three colors: white, black and red and should be available at beatsbydre.com soon, but as we said earlier, Walmart (probably other retailers too) have them in stock already.
