Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 review: Apple’s best workout buds are back with a bang
After five years, Apple is back with a full revamp of the earbuds that put its Beats headphones brand on the map for athletes and sports people: the Powerbeats Pro 2.The Guardian’s journalism is independent.We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.Designed to hook on to the ear and stay put without wires, the original Powerbeats Pro were the best earbuds for working out and were worn by sports superstars including LeBron James and Anthony Joshua.
For 2025 Apple has taken all the good bits of the originals and refined the fit, slimmed down the bulk, and added noise cancelling and heart rate monitoring for £250 (€300/$250/A$400), aiming to retake the premium workout earbuds top spot,The overall shape of the earbuds has stayed the same,A flexible silicone wire hooks over the back of the user’s ear while an arm connects it to an earbud that sits in their ear,The fit is lighter but no less secure than their predecessors: comfortable for extended listening sessions on the commute while not budging at all during vigorous exercise,The earbuds last about eight hours of playback with noise cancelling (10 hours without it) and charge in a good flip-top case that contains enough juice for 3.
5 full charges of the earbuds.The case is 30% smaller than before but it is still quite large, fitting easily in a bag but only in a pocket at a push.The Powerbeats Pro 2 have the same H2 chip and connectivity as Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, which means a seamless connection with various Apple gear, including spatial audio for movies and music, audio sharing, Siri support and lossless audio when used with an Apple Vision Pro.But the earbuds also support advanced features on Android too, using the Beats app for one-touch pairing, customisation, updates and other functions, making them much more flexible than other Apple earbuds.The H2 chip gives the Powerbeats many of the top-class features of the AirPods.
That includes active noise cancelling that is almost as effective as Apple’s top buds, able to significantly reduce outside sounds and only falling slightly behind by letting a little more of higher tones break through, such as chatting or clicks.The earbuds handle wind noise well and have a best-in-class transparency mode, which is excellent while out walking or in the gym.While running it accentuates your own footsteps a little and reduced my awareness slightly compared with bone-conduction headphones, but was perfectly usable in environments such as parks and safer streets.The new Powerbeats are easily Beats’ best-sounding earbuds, producing a balanced sound with great separation of tones, well-controlled punch in the low end and plenty of detail with high notes.They do justice to pop, hip-hop and big rock tracks while remaining rounded enough for more nuanced genres such as classical or jazz.
They aren’t quite as good as the AirPods Pro and have no ability to adjust how they sound, which can be a little too clean and controlled for some tracks, lacking a little energy in dance tracks, but they are far better than most workout buds.The Beats also have Apple’s personalised spatial audio system with head-tracking for immersive movie sound with Apple devices, similar to AirPods, and excellent call quality for both ends of calls.Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, SBC, AAC, H2 chip, HR sensorBattery life: 8 hours ANC playback (36 hours with case)Water resistance: IPX4 earbuds (sweat resistant)Earbud dimensions: 45 x 41 x 24mmEarbud weight: 8.7g eachCharging case dimensions: 75 x 66 x 34mmCharging case weight: 69gCase charging: USB-C, Qi wirelessThe Powerbeats have optical heart rate sensors that can monitor your pulse through your ears similar to Sennheiser’s recent Momentum Sport earbuds.
The sensors are on the part of the earbuds that touches the inside of your tragus, and in theory can match or better the accuracy of optical heart rate monitors on watches.The sensors only work when wearing both earbuds, which compare the data between your ears before sending out a reading via Bluetooth to a connected phone or device every five seconds.In testing they were similar in accuracy to a Garmin Fenix 8 smartwatch and stayed in place, but an appropriate app is needed on Android or iPhone to connect to the earbuds.Neither Beats nor Apple make a workout app for them and only a small number of apps work out of the gate on an iPhone, including the popular Runna, Peloton and Nike Run Club apps, the latter of which worked seamlessly.On Android, any app that works with heart rate devices such as Bluetooth chest straps should work with the earbuds, including Strava when tested.
Heart rate data is stored in the Health app on an iPhone or in the connected workout app for Android users.Apple does not provide an expected lifespan for the batteries, but they should last in excess of 500 full-charge cycles with at least 80% of their original capacity.The earbuds contain recycled plastic in some internal components.They are not repairable but Apple will offer individual replacements for lost or damaged parts.It does not publish environmental impact reports for accessories such as headphones.
The company offers trade-in and free recycling schemes, including for non-Apple products,The Powerbeats Pro 2 cost £249,99 (€299,95/$249,99/A$399.
95).For comparison, the Beats Fit Pro cost £219.99, the Beats Studio Buds + cost £179.99, the Beats Solo Buds cost £79.99, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 cost £229 and the Sennheiser Momentum Sport cost £199.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 are an upgrade to just about every aspect of the originals, making them some of the very best premium workout earbuds available.The fit is super-secure but surprisingly light, holding themselves in place for vigorous workouts without the pinching force many similar alternatives with ear hooks require.They sound great for powering through workouts but have enough nuance to be daily earbuds for all sorts of music genres too.The effective noise cancelling helps with commutes or quietening busy roads.The very good transparency mode is miles better than most competitors, but still diminishes your awareness compared with open-ear headphones so best saved for workouts in safer spaces.
Built-in heart rate monitoring in earbuds is still a novelty,The sensors worked well in my ears, but they rely on third-party apps to work, which are in short supply with an iPhone,That’s not a problem for Android users who can use Strava and most heart-rate compatible apps from the off,At £250, Beats is certainly asking a lot for a set of workout buds,But unlike many fitness rivals the Powerbeats Pro 2 are good enough to be the only earbuds you might need, particularly if you’re an iPhone user who get on with the fit of Apple’s AirPods – these are not going to fall out.
The biggest disappointment is that the battery is still not replaceable, ultimately making them disposable and losing a star.Pros: great sound, very good noise cancelling and transparency modes, very long battery life, secure and comfortable fit, excellent controls, spatial audio, great call quality, cross-platform compatibility with enhanced features for iPhone and Android.Cons: expensive, case still not very pocketable, not many compatible apps for the heart rate feature on an iPhone, no multipoint connectivity, battery can’t be replaced making them disposable.
Lloyds puts aside a further £700m for compensation over car finance scandal
Lloyds Banking Group has been forced to put aside a further £700m for potential compensation over the ballooning car loan commission scandal, in a move that knocked its annual profits by 20%.The latest provision brings the sum it will hold back for payouts to almost £1.2bn. RBC Capital has estimated that the bank could ultimately be on the hook for up to £4.6bn
‘Wilful acts of bastardry’: former Treasury secretary says young Australian workers ‘robbed’ by tax system
Recent governments have carried out “wilful acts of bastardry” and created intergenerational inequality and environmental destruction that will leave younger voters worse off, the former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said, urging tweaks to Australia’s tax system to bridge the growing divide.Henry, who worked under both the Howard and Rudd governments, used a speech at the Per Capita tax summit in Melbourne on Thursday morning to argue the country’s tax settings since the Howard government have fuelled inequality and left further generations and young workers “to pick up the tab”.“Young workers are being robbed by a tax system that relies increasingly upon fiscal drag,” he said.“Fiscal drag forces them to pay higher and higher average tax rates, even if their real incomes are falling.”He said young workers were being denied the “reasonable prospect of home ownership” are “burdened by the punishing costs of securing a tertiary education”, will have to handle catastrophic environment destruction and “deal with the increasing costs of carbon abatement and climate change adaptation”
Unions call for £200m from government to keep two Scunthorpe steel furnaces open
British Steel should get an extra £200m from the government to support it in keeping the UK’s two remaining blast furnaces open until electric replacements are built, according to a proposal put forward by unions.Chinese-owned British Steel has said it will replace its polluting blast furnaces at Scunthorpe with electric arc furnaces, which can be used to make much cleaner, recycled steel.However, unions are concerned that a rapid closure of the blast furnaces will result in the loss of nearly 2,000 jobs within months.The loss of as many as 1,900 of Scunthorpe’s 4,000 jobs could cause “severe socioeconomic consequences” for Lincolnshire, according to a report, seen by the Guardian, from Syndex, a consultancy commissioned by the Community, GMB and Unite unions.The British steel industry must switch away from coal-driven blast furnaces in order to meet net zero carbon targets
Investment in UK’s crumbling public services is pro-growth, says pensions minister
Britain’s crumbling public services are bad for business, and spending more taxpayers’ money to fix them is a pro-growth policy, the pensions minister, Torsten Bell, has argued.Rachel Reeves has been accused by business lobby groups of clobbering the economy with the £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions imposed in her October budget.But in his first interview since being appointed in January, Bell argues that the other side of the ledger – the chancellor’s plans for higher public spending, including an extra £25bn for the NHS over this year and next – has been underplayed.“The reason why the budget is pro-growth is because you cannot have a failing state and a growing economy,” he told the Guardian.“I’ll give you a concrete example: I walk into a Sainsbury’s in Uplands, in Swansea, and there are security guards on the door
Tesco fixes website glitch that affected hundreds of shoppers
Tesco has fixed a problem which forced the supermarket chain to apologise after hundreds of shoppers reported issues with placing online grocery orders.Consumers took to social media on Wednesday to complain that a wide range of groceries were showing as unavailable when they tried to check out and complete their shop.Some said everyday items such as bread and milk were marked as out of stock when they tried to pay for their online order.According to the website downdetector.com, which tracks site traffic, Tesco’s website started to experience problems shortly after 9
Glencore considers ditching UK stock market listing; air fares, food and private school fees push UK inflation to 3% – as it happened
Commodities trader Glencore is considering ditching its primary listing in the UK in favour of New York or another location where it can “get the right valuation”.This would deal another big blow to the London Stock Exchange, which has been hit by a string of high profile departures. Chief executive Gary Nagle said the company was assessing whether other exchanges were “better suited to trade our securities”. He told journalists:Ultimately, what we want to ensure is that our securities are traded on the right exchange where we can get the right and optimal valuation for our stock. There have been questions raised previously around whether London is the right exchange
Stephen Colbert on New York mayor Eric Adams: ‘Trump has Adams by the old Turkish delights’
Perth festival’s most powerful show was 12 hours long, had no actors and will never happen again
Why are Americans toasting their fairy bread, and can the New York Times stop them?
Amy Hetherington: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)
Rick Buckler, drummer of The Jam, dies aged 69 after short illness
Arts Council England to shelve new funding plan after outcry from producers