Apple’s strong run with their Beats headphones continues, and the new Beats Solo Buds fill an important gap in the lineup: true wireless earbuds for under $100. These earbuds offer excellent value with seamless iOS and Android integration, stunning sound quality, and one of the coolest charging cases we’ve seen.
By focusing on the key features and omitting non-essential features, Apple has crafted an incredible pair of buds that deliver performance and style. We’re thoroughly impressed with the combination of design, functionality, and affordability in the Beats Solo Buds.
Earbud design
Apple did a beautiful job with the design and ergonomics of Beats Solo Buds. The design is sleek and modern, and the shape of the buds is perfectly angled for a secure and comfortable fit. There are even laser-cut vents to reduce air pressure and enhance bass performance. They come with four ear tip options (XS, S, M, L) to ensure a personalized fit for various ear sizes.
As someone who usually struggles with earbud fit, these stay secure enough for me to jog with. They’re very light, weighing just 5.7g, and they’re comfortable enough to wear for hours. The seal is good enough to passively block out a fair amount of ambient noise.
Chargeless case
The case was an instant favorite since the red model is translucent and beautifully highlights the technical innards. Red is the only color that’s translucent, while the other 3 colors are matte.
The bean-shaped case is the smallest and lightest Beats has ever made. It weighs just 22 grams. It feels surprisingly light, but still durable and protective. It took us a little while to realize it feels so empty because there’s not actually a built-in battery for charging the buds.
Battery and charging
The Solo Buds advertise an “extended” earbud battery life of up to 18 hours, and we confirmed it. We had these buds playing music non-stop and they died around 18 hours in at a normal listening volume. After 7 hours of non-stop playback, we had only used 40% of the battery. This impressive battery life is how Apple can get away with omitting a case battery.
With Fast Fuel, a 5-minute charge gets you an hour of playback. The case is still used to charge Solo Buds with a standard USB-C cable, which surprisingly was not included. It wouldn’t have hurt to have a short USB-C to USB-C cable since you can charge the buds with your iPhone 15 or certain Android phones.
Controls
Each button has a single tactile button. The button actually requires a bit of force to press. We still prefer a hard-press button over a touch button. There are no accidental clicks to worry about with these control buttons when adjusting the buds or inserting them into our ears.
There’s a tiny amount of customization around what the controls do. Each is mostly your standard multi-press control button. You’ll have to decide between controlling the volume or your voice assistant with the press-and-hold command. And there’s no “Hey Siri”, so you need to choose wisely.
The other nice comfort feature missing is auto-play and auto-pause; there’s no built-in wear sensor.
Sound quality
Beats Solo Buds could easily pass for more expensive Buds when judging on sound alone. They provide excellent precision and detail with respectable bass, and the variety of ear tip sizes helps achieve a perfect seal for enhanced audio performance. Thankfully the buds are tuned to be well-balanced and relatively flat since there are no tuning options.
You can’t adjust the audio style and there’s no spatial audio. That said, we’re very happy with the default tuning. While the bass is present, it’s not overwhelming, allowing for clearer mids and highs. This makes the Solo Buds suitable for a variety of music genres, with a lively and engaging audio experience that doesn’t cause listener fatigue
The microphone quality for phone calls is fairly average, and usually Apple is above average in this category. They’re perfectly fine for phone calls, but voices sound muddy and not as isolated as you’d find on more expensive buds.
Final thoughts
We’re big fans of Apple’s angle with Beats Solo Buds: they’re affordable headphones that excel with the essentials. They look, feel, and sound nearly perfect. The 18-hour battery with Fast Fuel nearly seals the deal.
The cost savings comes at the expense of the frills: there’s no noise canceling, no Spatial Audio, no transparency, no auto-play wear sensor, no “Hey Siri”, no custom equalizer or audio presets, and not even a cable included or a battery inside the case. They still offer nice iOS and Android ecosystem compatibility with Find My, one-touch pairing, and pre-pairing across devices.
For $80 bucks, you’d be challenged to find other wireless buds that sound, look, and feel so good.
The Beats Solo Buds are currently available from Amazon in a choice of transparent red, storm gray, and matte black, and on Apple.com with an additional Arctic Purple color.