Image Credits:<\/strong> Brian Heater<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The size and fit are great, with some slight tweaks to the regular Studio Buds it announced two years back. Having not used their predecessors in some time, the geometry of the buds took a bit of re-acclimation, both in terms of getting them into the ear and back into the case. That seems to be one of the minor drawbacks of making them this small.<\/p>\n

The other is a lack of surface area, but Beats addressed that with physical buttons. These are, again, great for running. The company says it \u201crevised the design of the multifunction \u2018b\u2019 button for better product interactions and to reduce the likelihood of accidental button presses.\u201d Play\/pause and track skipping are accomplished with button presses. Holding it will toggle active noise-canceling on and off.<\/p>\n

The limited space means there\u2019s no volume slider, but you can customize button hold to accomplish this. One side is assigned volume up and the other volume down. Honestly, that\u2019s probably overcomplicating things. Noise-canceling is the way to go there.<\/p>\n

Noise-canceling is improved here, but it doesn\u2019t match up to the best on the market. Ditto for sound. It\u2019s more than enough for casual music and podcast listening, but if audio is your main priority, look elsewhere. At $169, they\u2019re $20 more than the Power Beats were at launch, which puts them between the AirPods 2nd and 3rd gen ($129 and $179, respectively) and well below the AirPods Pro ($249).<\/p>\n

Again, if cost is your top concern, you can get a decent pair of buds for a lot less, but $169 is a good price point for premium buds (the lower end of premium, mind). Interestingly, Beats hopped off the Apple H chip train in favor of its own \u201cproprietary platform\u201d with the Studio Buds. The Buds +, meanwhile, run on the second generation of that platform. But you still get features like instant pairing and spatial audio.<\/p>\n