Apple has launched new Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones that can read your heart rate from inside your ear. The top-end Beats earphones have received their first update since 2019, bringing a new design on the outside as well as new features on the inside. The earphones are lighter, have a new earhook to keep them secure, and have received a redesign for better sound performance. The earphones are available to order today for £249.95. They come in four colours: black, sand, purple and orange.
On the inside, the new Powerbeats Pro are largely similar to Apple’s latest AirPods Pro. They have similar noise cancelling and voice features, for instance, and the same wireless charging features are available on the box they are designed to sit in. The Powerbeats Pro 2 stands out from those other premium Apple earphones however largely because they are intended for fitness. That includes the earhook design, which loops over to make them the best-fitting headphone Beats has ever made, it claims.
Perhaps most notable among the fitness features however is the heart rate monitoring tools that are built into the earphones themselves. The addition of small LEDs and sensors means that they can read their wearers’ heart rate through their ear, which Apple said would give an especially accurate readout. It means that wearers can start a workout in a variety of apps – from Peloton to Nike Run Club – and measure their heart rate as they work out.
It is the first time that any Apple product has offered such a feature. Apple has only previously taken heart rate readings from the wrist, with the Apple Watch, and that will still be the priority if someone is wearing both. The earphones themselves as well as their charging case have been slimmed down, with the latter 33 per cent smaller than its predecessor. Despite that, Beats has improved the battery life of both: each bud will last 10 hours on one charge, an extra hour from the previous version, and there is up to 45 hours of charge when they are used with their case.
