Beats Fit Pro review: Better than AirPods Pro and $50 cheaper

Just when I was thinking about buying the AirPods 3, I found out Beats was getting ready to launch the Fit Pro wireless earbuds.

The Fit Pro, available on November 5, are $200 wireless earbuds with flexible wingtips that are designed to offer a comfortable and stable fit regardless of the shape or size of your ears.

But there’s more here than just improved ergonomics. The Fit Pro buds come with active noise cancellation (ANC), sweat and water resistance (IPX4), spatial audio with dynamic head-tracking (like on AirPods 3, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max), and 6 hours of battery life with ANC (27 hours of total battery with the case). They also come with Apple’s H1 chip, unlike Beats’ Studio Buds, which lets iPhone and iPad owners get access to one-touch pairing, audio-sharing between iOS devices, hands-free “Hey Siri,” and and ear tip test for the best seal.

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The family

If all these features sound like AirPods 3 or AirPods Pro, more or less, it’s because it is. At $200, the Beats Fit Pro fill a price gap in Apple and Beats’ wireless earbuds lineup.

• $130 AirPods 2
• $150 Beats Studio Buds
• $180 AirPods 3
• $200 Beats Fit Pro
• $250 AirPods Pro

With basically the same features, you might be wondering whether the Fit Pro are redundant to the AirPods Pro. I have one thing to say about that: colors. AirPods earbuds only come in white. Beats’ earbuds come in a range of colors and have fitness-focused attributes. The Fit Pro buds come in “Sage Gray,” “Stone Purple,” white, and black.

Pro (wing) tips

Okay, so, how do the Fit Pro sound and fit? Beats says its custom 9.5mm transducer drivers are tuned to combine dynamic range with clarity “across the frequency curve for an emotive, powerful and balanced listening experience.” Out in the real world, that translates to amazing acoustics that don’t get distorted even when active noise cancellation is on. I feel like I say this every time I review Beats earbuds, but it’s worth repeating because there’s still a stigma: This isn’t the Beats company of old, where the products go overboard with the bass.

The Fit Pro get loud and bumpy without being obnoxious. Whether you’re listening to Bad Bunny, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Olivia Rodrigo, or Frank Sinatra, the sound remains balanced across the low, mid, and high notes; vocals are clear, guitar strums are sharp, and beat drops are hard and head-rocking when they need to be. Also a plus: Transparency mode for when you want to be aware of your surroundings without stopping your music.

As far as how the Fit Pro fit in your ears — a major differentiator between the Fit and AirPods — I found them to be very comfortable with the wingtips holding the buds in place. Each earbud weighs 5.6 grams, which is more than AirPods Pro (5.4 grams) and AirPods 3 (4.28 grams), but they didn’t feel heavy to me. That said, I usually don’t have trouble with earbuds fitting me well. I let someone who claims “there’s no earbud in the world that will stay in her ear longer than a few seconds” try the Fit Pro, and even she had was optimistic about the comfort.

Beats includes a couple extra ear tip sizes in the box in case the default ones don’t fit; the ear tip test is a good, easy way to help find the right size tips.

All in all, as someone who ran a marathon in the Powerbeats 4 x Ambush earphones, I’m fully planning on finally leaving those behind and making the Fit Pro my go-to from now on. Because of the H1 chip, the Fit Pro buds work best with iPhones and iPads. But Android users still get features like one-touch pairing and the ear tip test.

So crispy, so clean

There are only two missing feature on the Fit Pro: wireless charging and more control customization. I can live without wireless charging. But the on-buds controls use more customization. Right now, a long press on the “b” button on each earbud controls either noise (ANC/Transparency) or volume, but you can’t do both simultaneously. If the button is set to control volume, you can’t control ANC/Transparency — you’ll need to do that on your paired device, which is annoying.

Aside from that, the “b” button controls play, pause, forward/previous tracks, and calls. The latter sounds clean thanks to five onboard microphones. In my testing, voice calls sounded clear for both me and the person on the other end.

Beats could’ve easily charged more for the Fit Pro, but thankfully, it didn’t. For $200, you’re getting wireless earbuds with virtually all the features of AirPods Pro, several color options, and wingtips. The battery life on the Fit Pro is even longer than AirPods Pro, which at this point is due for an upgrade; even AirPods 3 last longer. It’s all a terrific value.

So Beats Fit Pro or AirPods Pro? Or AirPods 3? Or Studio Buds? Or wireless earbuds from another brand (we’ve reviewed so many this year)? There’s so much choice now that you really have to ask yourself what your budget is and how you plan to use them. But if you can’t decide, let me just say: You can’t go wrong with the Fit Pro. They’re fantastic all around.