Budget-Friendly Beats Solo In-Ear Headphones: Balancing Cost and Quality

Key Takeaways

• Beats Solo Buds offer impressive 18-hour battery life in the earbuds, ditching bulkier battery cases for portability.
• Audio quality may not match expectations, lacking richness and depth compared to higher-end earbuds.
• Comfortable and secure fit, but controls may be difficult to use initially, improving with time and practice.

The standard formula for wireless earbuds has been to have medium-length battery life, supplemented by a (mostly) bulky battery case. The Beats Solo Buds break that mold by getting rid of the battery in the case, shrinking it, and shoving 18 hours of listening time into the earbuds. I found them to be fascinating.

Beats Solo Buds

6/ 10

Beats Solo Buds deliver native ecosystem benefits with an enhanced experience for both Apple and Android customers. This includes one-touch pairing and Find My or Find My Device.

Pros

• Comfortable design
• Pocketable and easy to carry
• Long battery life
• Can charge from an iPhone with USB-C port

Cons

• Unimpressive audio quality
• Case doesn’t charge earbuds
• Media controls were hard to press

$79.99 at Apple $79.99 at Best Buy $80 at Amazon

How We Test and Review Products

Price and Availability

The Beats Solo Buds retail for $79.99 and go on sale June 20th, 2024. They’ll come in four color options at launch.

Specifications

Battery Life

18 hours

Microphones

1 MEMS microphone in each earbud

Bluetooth

5.3

IP Rating

N/A

Solo bud mode?

Yes

Charging type

Wired only

Case battery

N/A

Charging Port

USB-C

Compatibility

iOS and Android

Noise Cancellation

No

Earbud weight

5.7g per earbud with medium eartips

Charging case weight

22g (without earbuds)

Charging time

1 hour 20 minutes

Expand

Battery Life Takes Center Stage

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

The story of the Beats Solo Buds bgeins with price and trickles down to all other aspects of how the audio product works. The Solo Buds start well under $100, a key data point and the microscope under which they should be evaluated.

Presumably, removing the battery and extra electronics from their case helps Beats hit that price point. To compensate for having no battery in the case, the earbuds themselves claim a ridiculously impressive 18 hours of listening time. For comparison, most other Beats earbuds can get up to 7 or 9 hours of listening time.

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

The case is small enough to completely wrap in my hand.

Then, to accommodate recharging the buds when they eventually run out of power, they have a fast charging capability that gives them 1 hour of listening time with 5 minutes of power.

Even better, these earbuds can be charged from any iPhone 15 model using a USB-C cable. If you don’t have an iPhone 15, the earbuds, inside their case, can be charged from an Android phone (with USB-C), iPad, laptop, or any normal power adapter. You still need to keep a cable with you, but I like this solution for balancing battery life, price, and case size.

While the Solo Buds themselves aren’t microscopic, the case they go into felt minuscule in my hand. It disappeared in my pants pockets and could get lost in a purse. All things considered, removing the battery from the case seems like a fine trade-off to me. The smaller size was a real benefit and the earbuds’ battery life lasted me days. Casual listeners should get at least a week of listening time before power becomes an issue.

Audio Quality Is on the B-Side

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The Solo Buds use an 8.2 mm, dual-element diaphragm transducer which the company says was developed for the Beats Studio Buds +. However, I’m not sure what to make of that because I wasn’t overly impressed by the sound of music or spoken word from the Solo Buds. The Studio Buds + are much beefier sounding. The low end on the Solo Buds was lacking in all the songs I played. I could hear vocals well, but songs didn’t sound as vibrant as they did on other mid-range earbuds.

The Solo Buds lack the richness of audio that other Beats earbuds have. Cycling through different-sized ear tips didn’t change anything for me either.

Although I wasn’t blown away by the sound, it also didn’t come as a huge surprise, given their price point. The longer I listened using the earbuds, the more normalized the audio quality became, for whatever that’s worth.

One aspect of the audio I was optimistic about was the spatial quality. The soundstage was much wider than I was expecting and was genuinely great. This was particularly noticeable when watching shows and movies. Footsteps and other effects to the left and right, forward and back, were all detailed.

Be aware that there is no active noise cancellation. There is some passive noise isolation from the silicon tips, though not enough to make them the ideal choice for planes. They should handle coffee shops okay though. Just so it’s not a surprise, there’s also no transparency mode or ear detection either. If you remove an earbud to talk to someone, music will continue to play.

General parity between iOS and Android devices rounds out another significant reason for consideration. There’s Find My (Apple) and Find My Device (Google) location tracking. Native fast pairing and device switching are also supported across platforms.

Can You Hear the Microphone Tests?

Each earbud has a custom digital MEMS microphone you can use for calls. Much like the music quality, I thought my voice sounded fine and very passable, but not amazing.

One area budget earbuds tend to fall down hard is in the microphone performance. So while I don’t know if I would want to use these exclusively for work, they sounded better than a lot of other sub-$100 earbuds.

Comfort Reigns While Controls Strain

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

Based on how the Solo Buds looked a little chunky to me in photos, I wasn’t expecting to be thrilled with their fit. I couldn’t have been more wrong, however, and I found the Solo Buds to be easy to wear for hours at a time. Just as important, they never felt like they were on the verge of slipping out.

Some wireless earbuds without hooks don’t stay put in my ears. These never fell out or gave me the feeling that they would. It is worth noting that the Solo Buds don’t have any official sweat or water resistance rating. They might stay in your ears, but I would be hesitant to use them as fitness earbuds too often.

Instead of touch-sensitive controls, a clicky button is hidden above the “b” logo. I appreciate that there is a physicality to each control, but right out of the box I had trouble using it. I couldn’t find the right spot.

After a few hours, I was able to get a feel for it, but still needed to pitch each side of the bud so that the earbuds wouldn’t press hard into my ears for the rigid click to engage. I doubt this will be a universal problem, but I much prefer how much easier the controls on the Studio Buds and Fit Pro are.

Should You Buy the Beats Solo Buds?

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

The Beats Solo Buds are tricky product to nail down since they do make some opinionated design decisions. I don’t think these are the wireless earbuds everyone should run out and get. I think other earbuds from Beats or Apple might make more sense, depending on your needs and budget.

But the Solo Buds are all about offering a compelling product at a ‘don’t think twice’ price. Plus, when the Solo Buds do start going on sale regularly, they’ll start to look like an absolute bargain.

Beats Solo Buds

6/ 10

Beats Solo Buds deliver native ecosystem benefits with an enhanced experience for both Apple and Android customers. This includes one-touch pairing and Find My or Find My Device.

$79.99 at Apple $79.99 at Best Buy $80 at Amazon

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