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Beats just announced the Solo Pro, the company’s first-ever pair of on-ear active noise-canceling headphones. It looks similar to the company’s current wireless on-ear headphones, the Solo3 Wireless, but features Apple’s H1 chip (the same one found in the latest AirPods that allows them to easily pair with any Apple device), a Lightning charging port and active noise-canceling and transparency modes.
The Beats Solo Pro noise-canceling headphones cost $300 and come in six different colors: black, ivory, gray, dark blue, light blue and red. They’re available for preorder and begin shipping on October 30.
According to Beats, the Solo Pro headphones trump the Solo3 Wireless in basically every way: They sound better, thanks to improved drivers that deliver “exceptional frequency response with lower total harmonic distortion.” Their redesigned earcups keep outside sounds out, even with ANC turned off. While a pair of beam-forming microphones and an updated speech-detecting accelerometer helps the Solo Pro with call clarity and voice pickup (which is important for “Hey Siri” commands).
On the noise-cancellation front, the Solo Pro headphones feature the same “Pure Adaptive Noise Cancelling” (Pure ANC) abilities as the company’s over-ear noise-canceling headphones, the Studio3 Wireless ($350). When wearing the headphones, users can switch between ANC and Transparency modes via a button on the side of the headphones.
Beats claims that the Solo Pro can get up to 22 hours of battery life with ANC or Transparency modes turned on, or up to 40 hours with both modes turned off. Another notable feature: the Beats Solo Pro headphones don’t actually have a power button — to turn them on, you have to unfold them; to turn them off, you fold them back up into a compact form factor.
