There’s no doubt that AirPods are going to be a popular purchase this holiday season—they always are. But if you’re thinking about picking up a pair of AirPods Pro for yourself or a loved one to get that sweet noise-canceling goodness, you should consider another of Apple’s earbuds instead: the newer Beats Fit Pro. Here’s why you should go with the AirPods Pro’s sibling instead.
You give up almost none of the features
✅ Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)
✅ Transparency mode
✅ Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking
✅ IPX4 sweat and water resistance
✅ Easy one-touch pairing ✅ Hands-free “Hey, Siri” ✅ Auto-switching to Apple devices❌ Wireless charging
Simply put, the Beats Fit Pro have all the things that make AirPods Pro special, and the easiest and most user-friendly choice for Apple users, with the exception of wireless charging. The wired charging is done via USB-C rather than Lightning cable, which some people will prefer.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the Beats Fit Pro are AirPods. From a features and compatibility standpoint, they are. You give up almost none of the AirPods Pro features or functionality…Beats is owned by Apple, after all, and with the H1 chip inside the Beats Fit Pro, they operate exactly as AirPods Pro do. Only better.
They fit better
The biggest benefit of the Beats Fit Pro is that they just fit better. They’re more comfortable to wear, and they stay in your ears better than the AirPods Pro. The built-in wingtips are surprisingly comfortable and give the ‘buds just enough extra grip and stability to stay put during even significant physical activity.
It’s not as though AirPods Pro are uncomfortable, but their fit depends more on the shape of your ear than the Beats Fit Pro, and the AirPods Pro are easier to jostle loose.
Did I mention that the Beats have actual physical buttons to press, instead of the “squeeze the stem” sensor on the AirPods Pro? Squeezing the AirPods Pro stem always seems to make the earbud come a little loose, while pressing the Beats button just pushes it more firmly in your ear. It’s easier to use, and I never once have activated the buttons accidentally or knocked them out of my ear.
IDG / Jason Cross
They sound better
Maybe it’s because they fit better or maybe it’s the custom 9.5mm driver, but the Beats deliver slightly fuller and clearer sound than the AirPods Pro. Beats have a reputation for being obnoxiously bass-heavy, but we didn’t find any of that here. Instead, they’re quite well balanced.
The Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) works about as well as it does with the AirPods, and the excellent, natural-sounding Transparency mode is there, too. So is spatial audio with head tracking.
In other words, everything sounds at least as good as on the AirPods Pro and often a bit better, with one tiny exception: AirPods Pro have slightly better microphone quality. They both use dual beam-forming microphones with features like wind noise rejection, and the difference, while relatively small, is noticeable. In challenging conditions, you’ll sound slightly better to the person on the other end of a call with AirPods Pro. I’ll take that trade-off for better music quality.
They look better
AirPods Pro come in white. They have little trademark AirPod stems. I hope you love that, because that’s what you get.
Beats Fit Pro don’t have stems and are small enough to sit in your ears without making you look like Uhura from Star Trek. You can get them in white, black, a really lovely “sage” grey, and something called “stone” purple which is… lavender.
But names aside, the point is, you have options. But even if you really want white, Beats Fit Pro actually look better—unless you just really want to advertise “I have AirPods!”
The Beats Fit Pro look a little more stylish than the AirPods Pro—unless you love ear stems.
IDG / Jason Cross
The battery lasts longer
Apple says AirPods Pro should last about four and a half hours on a single charge with ANC enabled, a claim which checks out in my testing. The Beats Fit Pro give you six hours with ANC enabled (seven without), which I’ve verified as well.
An extra hour and a half of listening time on a single charge might not seem like that much, but it’s actually 33 percent longer battery life!
And no matter which model you choose, you’ll get continuous charging in the case with an additional three-four full charges before it runs out. And both provide about an hour of listening time after just five minutes of charging.
They’re less expensive (maybe)
AirPods Pro retail for $249, Beats Fit Pro are $199. It’s pretty obvious which one is a better value.
Or is it? We’re starting to see some quite significant deals on AirPods Pro (they’ve regularly dropped to $190) but the Beats Fit Pro are new enough that the inevitable discounts haven’t started kicking in yet. It’s quite possible you’ll find them each for the same price. Even if the price was the same, I’d get the Beats.
AirPods Pro still have some benefits
Just because we think the Beats Fit Pro are a more enjoyable product for most people, most of the time doesn’t mean there’s nothing to recommend AirPods Pro.
First, hey, they’re AirPods. If you want people to look at you and know that you’re using AirPods, there’s no mistaking that look. The charging case is a bit more compact, too. While the Beats Fit Pro has a charging case that is quite a bit smaller than previous Beats earbuds, and easy to fit into a pocket, there’s no denying that they don’t have that ultra-compact and dense design of the AirPods Pro.
Then there’s wireless charging and MagSafe, which you get with AirPods Pro and not with Beats Fit Pro. Whether this is a critical feature or not is likely very personal. I find that with a good three or four recharges of power in the case itself, and the faster charging of USB/Lightning, I would rather just plug the case in for a couple of hours every now and then rather than try to finesse it into the right spot on a wireless charging pad. But there are those who only want to charge wirelessly, and it could be a dealbreaker. Frankly, I’ll take the 1.5 hours of battery life over wireless charging any day.
But even though the Beats Fit Pro might be better than the AirPods Pro (overall) that doesn’t mean the AirPods Pro are bad. Quite the contrary…if you’re an iPhone user, they’re the best AirPods you can get. It’s just that Apple makes AirPods that aren’t AirPods, and don’t carry Apple branding, that happen to be even better.
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