Beats Studio Buds + Review: Noise Cancelling Earbuds

Billed as a small update to the original Studio Buds, the Beats Studio Buds + promise better noise cancellation, better microphones and a handful of other refinements. Is it a genuine step forward, or a lazy revision? This review is based on that published test, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

Much as Apple did with the AirPods Pro, Beats has changed only cosmetic details here. The first Studio Buds were already a well-executed shape — fairly compact, easy to handle and distinctive enough to have a little visual character — and the Studio Buds + keep that atypical form: a half-sphere on the ear side blending into a small box at the back, with a short nozzle. The one structural tweak is a better-integrated control button, now slightly recessed rather than flush, which does nothing to hurt ergonomics. The colour range changes too: alongside black (now with a silver logo rather than bronze), there is a new ivory and, above all, a transparent version — the one tested here. The differences are purely aesthetic, but showing off the components through the shell, on both the case and the buds, has a certain charm; unlike Nothing, which mixes clear and opaque elements, the Buds are made throughout from a uniform smoked plastic.

Build quality has not moved on, but it was already fine for the price: the buds feel dense and the IPX4 rating is sufficient in most situations. The case is compact enough for most pockets, if a touch longer and thicker than the AirPods Pro's, and remains imperfect, with a little play in the hinge and, notably, still no wireless charging. Comfort, though, is excellent, combining simplicity and a secure hold: the short nozzle lets you wear them for hours without bother, and Beats has added a new XS tip size over the originals. It is a level of comfort comparable to the AirPods Pro.

Going all-in on physical buttons complicates the controls a little. By default you can only play and pause, skip through tracks (one, two or three presses) and change the noise-cancellation mode (a long press); assigning any other function, such as volume or a voice assistant, means giving up that ANC toggle. The buttons at least respond well. The companion app (tested in version 2.6) does not help — it is very, arguably too, stripped-back, with almost no settings, no equaliser and no advanced options beyond reassigning the commands. Connectivity is more interesting. Uniquely, Beats are the only earbuds compatible with both Apple and Google fast pairing, and the firm actually favours the Google side: they are among the rare buds to really exploit Switch Audio with Fast Pair, giving a multipoint-like hop between registered devices — an Android phone and a Chromebook, say — even though they are not true multipoint. With no H1-style chip, there is no equivalent switching across Apple devices. Otherwise things are basic: only the AAC and SBC codecs are supported, with no LE Audio, though connection quality is very good and range excellent thanks to AAC.

This is where the update earns its keep. Without becoming any more intrusive, the Studio Buds + attenuate more effectively, particularly in the bass but also the mids. They do not reach the class leaders — the AirPods Pro 2, Sony WF-1000XM4 or Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 — but they close the gap, with 20, even 25 dB of reduction across bass and mids and, above all, a consistent performance free of big dips. Passive isolation still needs work, especially around the 1 kHz crossover between active and passive; usefully, ANC can stay on with just one bud in. Transparency mode is much more natural than before — a slight veil aside, few rivals bar the AirPods are more convincing on naturalness, and it is perfectly usable. Call quality steps up too, if not to the top tier: capture in quiet is far clearer and almost natural, though in noisy places the processing is a little too gentle, muting outside noise only modestly while at least keeping the voice intelligible.

Between two same-sized generations you might hope for a real endurance gain; here it is only slight. Beats quotes 6 hours with ANC (over AAC) and up to 9 hours without, against 5 and 8 hours before, and in practice those figures roughly hold, never exceeding 6 hours 15 or 8 hours 50 depending on the mode. It is decent enough, but the real advantage is the case, which adds about three further charge cycles. The audio architecture, meanwhile, seems unchanged: a fairly conventional dynamic driver of around 7 to 8 mm, with a membrane less advanced than the AirPods'. The signature is more energetic than the AirPods Pro — boosted bass, recessed mids and a few peaks in the highs, close to a V or W shape — for a result that is genuinely fun and technically fairly controlled, if not without limits. The buds are reasonably versatile, but the marked emphasis on some instruments and high voices can exaggerate a track's flaws and make listening a touch spiky, though rarely fatiguing. The bass is punchy and ample yet a notch behind the AirPods Pro 2, Sony and Bose for scale and control, and the soundstage is already fairly deep and wide for simple earbuds. The mid-to-high imbalance can become pronounced on complex mixes, tipping into the merely demonstrative, and while they are excellent at moderate volume, they show their limits when pushed louder, with draggier bass and imprecise highs.

An evolution of a convincing first version, the Beats Studio Buds + are a broadly successful update that never quite drives the point home. The progress is real, especially in noise cancellation and microphone handling, and the good points are preserved, leaving a capable and very comfortable set of earbuds. Yet the original's flaws have only been partly addressed, and the refusal to take any risks on sound will not win over anyone the first version left cold. These are good mid-range earbuds that do not reinvent the formula, up against rivals that have used the intervening years to evolve more deeply — but taken on their own terms, comfortable, energetic and now genuinely capable at noise cancellation, they remain an easy set to recommend.