Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 review: The new, updated model. Last updated 10 hours ago. Announced on Tuesday, Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 improve massively on the original, with heart beat monitoring the biggest and most important feature addition to Apple's audio lineup in years. And, we've been using them for a while. Initially introduced in May 2019, the Beats Powerbeats Pro offered many of the useful elements you'd find in AirPods, but in a package made for high-intensity workouts. Made with an ear hook, they could be securely mounted to the user's ear with little fear that they'd fly off during a particularly vigorous workout.
Over five years later, and after some pre-launch teasing, Apple subsidiary Beats has brought out a brand new version. One that not only makes refinements to the existing form, but one that also takes a massive step towards being a multi-purpose wearable device. This time around, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 aren't just for listening to music. It listens to your heart too. Much like the original Powerbeats Pro, the Powerbeats Pro 2 are fairly large for earphones. That is mostly caused by the design, which uses a hefty section from the earbud itself, crossing the ear, to an earhook that makes its way back around.
That said, the new models are still more ergonomically refined than the previous version, with a more rounded appearance. The earhook is also half the size of the old one, with overall weight down 20% too. The earbud still uses a silicone element to plug the ear canal itself. However, with the earhook in use, it's not intended to be the way the earbud stays put, which makes for a fairly more comfortable experience.
There's less need to have a cushion that wedges in firm anymore. With Beats including five sizes of silicone tips in the box, that's a fair amount of comfort choice available. As for the fit itself, an attempt to throw them off by head thrashing to "Bohemian Rhapsody" resulted in no movement at all. In the vast majority of cases, it's going to be stuck on your ear until you purposefully take it off.
That earbud is going nowhere. Along the ear-crossing section are a few vent holes and electrical contacts, as well as a rocker volume switch. This physical switch is a great inclusion, since you'd probably want to have immediate tactile controls while working out, instead of fumbling for an iPhone or trying to remember the correct button press combination. Both earbuds also have the Beats button, which this time is a tiny bit more discrete to match the smaller body. It still clicks in satisfactorily, with increasing clicks handling media and call control.
A long press can also be used to trigger other effects, which can be configured on your iPhone or Android device. The big change, heart rate detection, is visible thanks to a new transparent section below the silicone tip. This section presses into the bit behind the tragus - the flappy bit at the front of the ear covering the canal - and shines a light to scan for blood vessels. On the other side is a small black covering hiding an optical sensor, which is used to automatically play and pause music when you remove them from your ear. While it is sensitive and works very quickly, it's not too trigger-happy to pause whenever the earbud is jostled about.
The original Powerbeats Pro relied on the H1 chip, but the second-gen model is the first Beats product to use an H2 chip. The upgrade means the new version is a lot more capable. This includes the much-needed addition of Active Noise Cancelling with Transparency mode. A big feature the original model didn't have, which is certainly welcomed in this release. In our usage, while the ANC did work decently for earbuds, they aren't going to give you the same sort of world-blocking effect as over-ear headphones. However, they still worked reasonably well against a busy street, when Transparency is extremely useful.
Following that are features like Adaptive EQ, Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking, Lossless Audio, and deep integration with iOS. This last point is a strong card for all of Apple's personal audio accessories, as it provides easy access to the various features and settings within the Settings app. You can adjust the ANC and Transparency, including selecting which earbud's B button works with Noise Control and which summons Siri.
There are options to adjust the number of presses required for call control functions, enabling or disabling automatic ear detection, microphone side selection, setting up Spatial Audio, and enabling the heart rate sensor. Since Beats also services Android users, there is support for other smartphones using the Beats app, which handles many configuration elements. There's also quite a bit of cross-platform feature parity, with Android users able to use their version of Apple's Find My to keep track of the earbuds, as well as features like quick pairing and device switching.
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