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Meet Beats Studio Buds: active noise cancellation and more for $149

By Joshua Swingle

Updated: Jun 14, 2021, 10:30 AM

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Wearables Audio

Meet Beats Studio Buds: active noise cancellation and more for $149

The Beats Studio Buds are official as the latest wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation. The announcement follows several weeks of rumors and precedes a release later this month.

Beats Studio Buds design and colors

These newest Beats wireless earbuds are also the company’s smallest thus far. They introduce a new compact design that resemble what Samsung and Sony have offered on their recent earbuds.

The unmistakable Beats ‘b’ logo sits on the outside of the earbuds and is visible when wearing them. Speaking of wearing them, the Studio Buds use rubber tips to provide a tighter and more comfortable fit.

Storing the Beats Studio Buds is made easy with the accompanying charging case. It’s a lot smaller than the Powerbeats Pro case — it’s around the size of the AirPods Pro charging case — and comes in matching colors.

The Beats Studio Buds will be available in three colors at launch:

Black
White
Red

Completing the external package is an IPX4 sweat and water resistance rating. It means you’ll be able to use the earbuds while working out, just don’t think about taking them swimming with you.

Touch controls are also included on the earbuds, letting you quickly and easily play or pause music and skip or reverse tracks, among other things. And fun fact: the earbuds can be used independently.

Active Noise Cancelling, Spatial Audio for Apple Music, and other features

Helping Beats’ Studio Buds stand out from the crowd is active noise cancellation, something typically reserved for more expensive earbuds. It’s coupled with Transparency Mode, which latter helps you stay aware of your surrounding even when you’re using the earbuds.

Also supported is automatic Spatial Audio recognition for Apple Music. Spatial Audio essentially enables a much more immersive audio experience and arrives at a time when it’s more popular than ever — Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos was added to Apple Music just last week.

Another notable audio-related feature includes the presence of 8.2mm drivers. For reference, the recently announced and more expensive Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds settled for 6mm drivers.

Bluetooth 5.2 is part of the package too alongside voice-activated virtual assistant support and quick pairing. The latter works with Apple's AirPods-like setup and Control Center integration, as well as Android's Fast Pair and Google's Find My Device.

Interestingly, Beats Studio Buds don't feature Apple’s H1 chip, instead using a custom Beats chipset for connectivity. The downside is that Studio Buds lack the ability to automatically switch between Apple products like AirPods.

Battery life and charging

The Beats Studio Buds will last up to 8 hours on a single charge when active noise cancellation is switched up. The charging case gives you an additional 16 hours of use, meaning a combined total of 24 hours.

If you’re certain about using active noise cancellation, the Studio Buds will last up to 5 hours, with the charging case offering up an extra 10 hours. That means you’ll get a combined total of 15 hours of use out of them, which is still decent.

When you do eventually run out of charge, you’ll have to plug them in via the included USB-C port — there’s no wireless charging support. The good news is that a quick 5-minute charge will give you 1 hour of use.

Price and release date

Beats’ Studio Buds retail at $149.99 in the United States. Pre-orders open today via the Apple website and participating retailers, with shipments scheduled to start next week on Thursday, June 24.