TL;DR
- Beats Solo Buds are the cheapest true wireless earbuds the company has ever made at just $79.99.
- The buds lack a lot of extras but still have touch controls and nail the other basics.
- You can pick up the earbuds from today in your choice of four colors.
The new affordable buds are fairly basic in design, lacking extras like noise cancelation and auto play/pause functionality. At least there are touch controllers activated by pressing the B button on the headphones that offer basics like playback control, answering calls, and activating Siri. You also get four ear tip sizes out of the box, which should cover pretty much all ear types reasonably well.
We can’t speak for the sound quality of these buds, but at this price point, you’d expect a few concessions. Aside from the lack of more expensive extras, the most obvious trade-off has to do with the case you put your buds in.
While many true wireless earbuds have charging cases that include built-in batteries to bolster battery life quickly, the Solo Buds do not. Thankfully, the earbuds themselves have an impressively solid battery life of up to 18 hours, but after that, you’ll need to put them in the case and plug them into a USB-C to top them back up. Beats says the buds charge up fairly fast, at least, reportedly giving you one hour of playback with just a five-minute charge.
The Beats Solo Buds are available now in your choice of Matte Black, Storm Gray, Arctic Purple, and Transparent Red.
Beats Solo Buds
Compact case • Rapid USB charge
Big battery life, fast charging, tiny case
The Beats Solo Buds rock up to 18 hours of battery life and offer a music-centric big Beats sound. These wireless earbuds have USB rapid charging, and a compact case is ideal for portability.
