Beats’s New Wireless Earbuds Might Be an AirPod Killer

The Beats Solo Buds have all the abilities of Apple’s entry-level AirPods (and then some). Plus, they’re significantly cheaper.

By Tucker Bowe

Published July 22, 2024

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You probably shouldn’t buy Apple’s entry-level AirPods, the AirPods (2nd-generation), unless you can get a truly killer deal. They’re five years old — released in March 2019 — which is a lifetime for consumer electronics. And they’re still quite expensive; Apple sells them for $129, although Amazon frequently discounts them for less than $100.

If you’re looking for the next best alternative and don’t want to opt for Apple’s more expensive AirPods 3 or AirPods Pro, Beats’s newest wireless earbuds — the Beats Solo Buds — are a strong contender. They’re almost identical in terms of sound and features. And they’re significantly cheaper.

Beats Solo Buds

Beats Solo Buds

Specs

Battery Life	Up to 18 hours
Charging	USB-C
Colors	Matte Black, Storm Gray, Artic Purple or Transparent Red

$79.95 at Amazon

They work just like AirPods

If you’re a fan of how effortlessly AirPods work with your iPhone and other Apple devices, you’ll be a fan of the Solo Buds, too. They’re integrated with Beats’ custom chip — which Apple, who acquired Beats a decade ago, helped create — that allows them to work just like the entry-level AirPods.

They support fast iPhone pairing and have the same software features (accessed through Bluetooth settings) as AirPods. They also support Find My network, so you can use Apple’s app to locate the wireless earbuds if misplaced.

They have the same limitations as AirPods, too

Apple’s newer and more expensive wireless earbuds, the AirPods Pro and AirPods 3, naturally sound better and are more feature-packed than its entry-level AirPods. And the Beats Solo Buds miss out on these same things, too.

Just like AirPods, the Solo Buds’s case doesn’t support wireless charging. They don’t have an IP rating — the entry-level AirPods are Apple’s only wireless earbuds that lack this as well — so I wouldn’t recommend working out in them. And they lack support for new-age features like spatial audio.

They’re cheaper than AirPods

The Solo Buds are Beats’s most affordable wireless earbuds to date. They cost just $80, which is significantly cheaper than the $129 that Apple continues to sell its entry-level AirPods for.

That said, Amazon has been known to drop the price of AirPods to down $80 during extreme sales. It’s a decent deal, but it probably should be even steeper to sway you to buy five-year-old wireless earbuds.

They have better battery life than AirPods (sort of)

The charging case is also more pocketable than the cases of Beats’s previous wireless earbuds, too, but there’s a catch. The Solo Buds’s case doesn’t have a built-in battery and only holds the earbuds. To charge them, the case has to be connected power.

It’s a little bit of a bummer, but Beats makes up for it by giving the Solo Buds super battery life: each earbud can get up to 18 hours of juice. Comparatively, each AirPod gets just five hours of playback time, although, with the charging case, AirPods can get up to 24 hours of battery life.

They come in colors other than white

Obviously, the Beats Solo Buds don’t look or fit anything like Apple’s entry-level AirPods. Instead of the old-school stem earbud design — which Apple has evolved quite significantly with its more expensive AirPods — the Solo Buds look and fit just like Beats other wireless earbuds.

They have a more compact shape and thus fit deeper in your ears. They also have silicone tips — Beats offers them in S/M/L sizes—so there’s more leeway to get that perfect fit.

Apple famously only sells AirPods — any model — in white. For those wanting more variety, you can grab the Solo Buds in one of four different finishes: black, purple, gray, or red. The red finish is particularly cool because the case is transparent. (All the other models have matte finishes.)