Beats Solo Buds With 18-Hour Battery Look Like The Budget Earbuds To Beat At $80
Having a catalog choked with solid entries like the Beats Solo 4 ($170) and Studio Pro ($350) headphones plus the rather impressive $170 Beats Studio Buds Plus, Beats by Dre is adding the Solo Buds for more budget-conscious buyers. Now, with the price drop, you can expect certain features (from something like the Studio Buds Plus) to be axed, such as active noise cancellation (ANC), wear detection, hi-res audio codec support, and wireless charging.
However, this seemed to have allowed Beats to focus on the basics. With the Solo Buds, Beats offers consumer-friendly tuning, which means energetic and lively sound, along with its trademark punchy bass. With its AAC and SBC codec support (for Apple and Android devices respectively), the earbuds are able to offer strong transmission rates for most music streaming services, just as long as you're not expecting to tap into higher resolution FLAC or MQA content.
Adding to the listening experience is what may be the smallest and lightest earbuds Beats has ever made. At 0.2 ounces per side (along with the included XS, S, M, and L eartips), it'd be easy for users to find the best fit and comfort for those long listening sessions.
Speaking of long, these earbuds have some of the strongest battery life on sale right now. When we saw Beats claiming 18 hours of listening time, we figured that included the case, but nope: it's for the buds, which is crazy long. The Solo Buds also have fast charging (called Fast Fuel) to quickly get you one hour of listening time for a five-minute charge.
Besides the earbuds, Beats is also quick to tout that the Solo Buds' case is the smallest one they've made, but one caveat: the case doesn't have an internal battery, which explains the absurd battery life on the buds themselves.
You can get one of those now for $80 at Best Buy. The buds come in three colorways, namely Matte Black, Storm Gray, and Transparent Red (that comes with a translucent case).
