If you’re hunting for headphones to keep you motivated through exercise sessions and runs, the Beats Fit Pro buds are a sportier rival to Apple’s all-powerful, gym floor-dominating AirPods. With a wing-tip design, solid battery life, active noise cancellation and water resistance—they are one of our favourite sets of wireless earbuds to pop in the gym bag.
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They are now available for around R3 895—which is slightly less than the AirPods Pro 2. The price point puts the Fit Pro at the premium end of the audio in-ear spectrum, offering an alternative to Sony’s WF series and the rest of Beats’ fitness family, including the Studio and Powerbeats Pro.
Beats Fit Pro Design
The Fit Pro buds each have flexible silicone wing tips that fit neatly on the inside curve of your ear, plus three sizes of dome-like tips to hold them in place. Like many other Beats earbuds, you tap on the side of the bud to pause or skip tracks as well as answer calls and activate Siri.
Each bud weighs 5.6g and they are quite light to hold (just 0.3g heavier than the AirPods Pro 2) and are recharged inside the case. There are six different colours —black, white, grey, purple, blue and yellow—and the branding is minimal, only showing the “B” logo on the bud. The wingtips are comfy to wear for the short term, but we did find that having them in for hours at a time caused some slight discomfort—although they stayed fully secure during weight training and running on a treadmill.
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The case is slightly larger than some of the other models that we’ve tried in recent months, but it’s more than small enough to pop inside a pocket or bag.
Beats Fit Pro Features
So what can they do? First, we are happy to see the same brilliant active noise cancellation (ANC) tech that you find in the AirPods Pro, meaning you can drown out grunts and groans of the gym to focus on your music or podcasts. We found it blocked out loads of unwanted ambient noise on test, and they performed really well during a train commute, too.
They have the same IPX4 water resistance as Apple’s iconic white buds, protecting against sweat and rain, and will survive a five-minute dunk underwater. We’re also impressed to see head tracking and spatial audio on the Fit Pro, meaning your playlists come at you from a 360 soundscape and make it sound like the noise is coming from all around you.
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They feature the latest H1 chip found in Apple’s premium headphones, connecting seamlessly to iPhones in a few seconds. Thankfully, these are compatible with Android phones, too. They still connect quickly through Bluetooth, though you need to download an app to sync them up.
Beats Fit Pro Battery Life
You’ll get around six hours of listening time from each bud when using the noise cancellation, which is roughly what we’ve come to expect from modern wireless earbuds. This is pushed to up to a solid 21 hours in total using the charging case, which is topped up with a USB-C cable. Battery capacity is fine, but it’s a shame that there’s no wireless charging.
Beats Fit Pro: Worth it in 2023?
A secure wingtip design, solid battery life and effective ANC combine to make the Beats Fit Pro a worthy workout companion. The brand is owned by Apple so you’re getting seamless integration with iPhones and the Siri voice assistant, but we appreciate the Android compatibility, top. While the price is slightly high and the charging case larger than some rivals, these are made for anyone who wants a sportier alternative to the AirPods without sacrificing on sound quality, build and audio performance.
Alternatives for Any Budget
The Beats Fit Pro earphones isn’t the only kid on the block with some serious sound cred. Here are some other options to consider if you want to snag yourself wireless listening:
Huawei Freelace
If you’re on a budget, these will still deliver solid audio without breaking the bank. Plus, these can even be reverse charged by your phone.
Skullcandy Sesh
These tiny buds are still heavyweights in the audio department. Combined with the case, they’ll give you 10 hours of listening.
Apple Airpods Pro
The GOAT of wireless headphones keeps getting better. These pump out crystal-clear highs, heavy lows and have tons of quality-of-life features.
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health UK.
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