Beats By Dre officially has unveiled its often-rumored Studio Buds, available in black, white, and Beats red, with an expected release later this summer for $149.99. At $50 to $100 less than Apple’s AirPods and AirPods Pro, with comparable performance and battery life, the new earbuds could become a major competitor. The new earbuds offer balanced and powerful sound by way of a “customized acoustic platform,” in addition to quality call performance, thanks to two dual beam-forming microphones. Active Noise Cancelling is available to block unwanted environmental sounds, as well as wind reduction that will improve voice clarity over the phone. A Transparency mode also is available and can be activated in order to let some ambient noises in, if desired. They can provide up to eight hours of listening time on a full charge, as well, which is about three hours more than what current AirPods provide. The charging case, itself, can be used for two additional full charges, for a potential 24 hours of use. Similarly, the Studio Buds offer a comparable one hour of playback time on a quick charge, when compared to AirPods. Beats Studio Buds will be compatible with both Apple and Android devices via one-touch pairing over Class 1 Bluetooth. Users will be able to connect to an iPhone by using Siri, or downloading the Beats app to access the full suite of features on Android. Once connected, the earbuds can be controlled by a single multi-purpose button on either earpiece, or through on-device controls directly.
