I really didn’t like the Beats Studio Buds, I wrote about them at the age of 21 – I don’t know why Beats decided to put a MediaTek processor in their headphones, it turned out at least strange and ridiculous.

I remember when I first saw the Fit Pro, it seemed to me that these were Studio Buds with temples – so I immediately wrote them off as scrap. In fact, these are the best Beats headphones at the moment, albeit with some rough edges.

I will state the main conclusion immediately:

If you plan to change Powerbeats Pro, then the next one should definitely take Fit Pro.

If anyone does not know, Powerbeats Pro are ingenious sports headphones, I sincerely consider them the best in the category.

And one more thing: every time I look at the black and red Fit Pro, I remember the Book of Eli.

There were times when the Beats company tried to get into different projects and all this contributed to popularity: films, clips, pictures, posters, advertising. In recent years, the fuse has faded – either Apple does not want competition within the line, or all the perky people have left, or the market has changed. For example, I generally learned about the release of Beats Fit Pro from the Hypebeast.com news feed.

Design

In fact, we have Beats Studio Buds with temples and a slightly modified design – I will go through the main points and start with the temples. What are they needed for? The answer is simple: Fit Pro continues the work of Powerbeats Pro, but Powerbeats were sharpened for sports. In the case of Fit Pro, the marketing is different: they don’t talk much about sports here, but they focus on comfort, convenience, and reliability of fixation – all this is necessary for greater coverage.

But the ears of the Powerbeats Pro stick out anyway – protection against sweat and water (IPX4) is in place, the transparency mode will help runners hear everything that happens around them, buttons instead of sensors are much more convenient during training. I tried walking/running with the Fit Pro on the track, punching a punching bag – great. Great fix!

Well, a couple more thoughts. I used Powerbeats Pro for a long time, two things pissed me off. First, a huge case took up all the space in your pocket; the Fit Pro case is half the size, thinner, more compact and more pleasant. The second point – with Powerbeats, I constantly thought about which earpiece to stuff into which groove, it was not at all obvious. With Fit Pro, everything has become clearer.

For charging, a USB Type-C connector is used – yes, there is no Lightning here! It is not clear whether Apple will massively transfer all their audio products to USB Type-C, or this only applies to Beats – we’ll see when they announce new AirPods. Living with Beats Fit Pro is nice, because, you know, I charged my MacBook, gamepads for Xbox and PS5, headphones with one cable. Bliss.

The operating time is about six hours, another 16 hours gives a case. In real life, it all depends on the operation of the noise reduction system, volume, range and a bunch of other things. By modern standards, autonomy is all right here. The case does not have wireless charging.

Headphones are available in four colors. In addition to the classic – black with red b – there are also pink, white and gray versions. Surely after some time they will offer something else, including limited editions created together with famous designers. In the kit, in addition to the headphones, there is a sticker, nozzles (three sizes in total), a short black USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable.

The fastening of the nozzles is normal, not like the AirPods Pro – in theory, you can replace them with “foam”. There is a proximity sensor on the inside of the cups: when you pull out the cup, the content pauses. Bluetooth Class 1 is supported, in theory, it is possible to work at a distance of more than ten meters from the smartphone – in fact, the connection is interrupted just eight or nine meters away. It will be necessary to check the range on the street when the turnstiles begin.

Most importantly, it uses the Apple H1 chip. It provides both Siri-related functions, stability, spatial audio, firmware updates that are invisible to the user, and reading notifications from various utilities.

Control

Like the Beats Studio Buds, it doesn’t use sensors, but pleasantly clicky buttons – the beauty is that they can be pressed with both hands and gloved fingers. This is very important in winter – you don’t need to remove anything, just click and order.

The second important feature is that the volume change is implemented here with the help of long presses on the button. Let me remind you that AirPods do not have such a function: if you want to make it quieter, take your iPhone out of your pocket. Everything works great here. From which cup to make louder or quieter, you can choose in the settings.

Everything else is typical. Setting up on an iPhone using a pop-up menu, for once they made a good program for Android, Valya showed it in a video about Fit Pro on our channel:

The settings in the iPhone menu also do not raise questions: spatial audio is supported (as far as I understand, in Apple Music for Android too), you can look at the firmware, check the fit to your ears – just like the AirPods Pro.

Just in case, I’ll say this: the buttons are on two cups! You can press with either hand.

Noise reduction system

Alas, unlike the AirPods Pro, the noise reduction system is almost invisible. Well, that is, there is no such global difference between when it is turned on or off – in AirPods, it’s as if pillows are immediately applied to your ears. Transparency works ok.

Bottom Line: Don’t try to replace your AirPods Pro with a Fit Pro if noise cancellation is important. Alas, nothing will work.

Sound

The sound quality is about the same as in AirPods Pro – as for me, everything is pretty nice, smooth, but in streaming services everything depends very much on the “master”. I liked listening to music most of all on Apple Music, least of all on SoundCloud, just a few mixes in a row turned out to be crappy in terms of quality (although no one promised quality there).

The voice quality is excellent – and I can hear perfectly, and I can hear perfectly. Auto-switching the microphone works like in AirPods.

By the way, I constantly used Powerbeats Pro for Skype workouts precisely because of the convenience, good fixation and excellent voice quality – Fit Pro also performed well. But if, in general, the arms of the old “prosh” are still more convenient than the rubber horns of the novelty, then after an hour or so you want to get them out of your ear and take a break.

Verdict

In retail, Beats Fit Pro cost 19,990 rubles. Let me remind you that in official places you will pay 24,990 rubles for AirPods Pro – other AirPods (without noise reduction) are cheaper.

I liked the small case, the presence of an Apple chip, fit (but I can’t work in them as long as in Powerbeats Pro), sound quality and voice quality, VERY convenient control with a regular button. They made their own application for Android, this is also an extremely correct step. And for USB Type-C, I also praise.

Cons – the bow still causes discomfort after a while, the noise reduction system works almost imperceptibly, there are some roughness with the connection. Sometimes you have to go to the iPhone menu and select Fit Pro again.

Who should buy or try in the store? I don’t recommend it to anyone who goes in for sports: runners, triathletes, boxers, weightlifters, swimmers, there is no protection from water. Well, if not sports, then Fit Pro will show themselves well in the city – they hold tight, are invisible under a hat, beautiful, with good sound settings, especially for Apple Music.

So it turns out that at the moment these are the best Beats headphones in existence. I don’t recommend buying incomprehensible Beats Studio Buds, it’s time to upgrade all the big Beats headphones – I hope this year we’ll wait for the upgrade. In the meantime, feel free to buy Fit Pro.