Beats PowerBeats 3 Review: Fitness Buds Meet Expectations

The PowerBeats 3 are well constructed with a great battery life and a lot of things are right. But they must do a bit more to make a worthwhile purchase at this price point. Cheaper headphones do much of what PowerBeats 3 does, but they are all acceptable with good battery life and strong bass response.

We have a pair of Beats fitness headphones that are now the property of Apple with PowerBeats 3. They have the W1 chip and have even more power in the Apple ecosystem.

What this new relation implies is that once they are linked to an iPhone, an iPad, Macbook and Apple Watch are remembered with a connection to your profile in iCloud. In theory, at least, you could therefore say farewell to long pairings.

However, with the release of PowerBeats Pro in May 2019, workout enthusiasts have a new, high-quality audio option. The W1 chip also brings with it a strong, long-range connection, so that you can walk far away without jumping or cutting off your music. 

As anyone in exercise advises you, headphones that you plan to work or ride will suit. In order to prevent them from falling apart, the ear hook design of the PowerBeats 3 offers a number of tips to ensure its snug fit. In our test, though, it was not always fine.

You’ll need to spend little more than others if you’re on the market for the Beats buds that won’t fall out. Where can you buy with Bluetooth technology for $20? The payout for the PowerBeats 3 was $199.95 at launch. But you get some significant upgrades for that.

Design

The PowerBeats 3 is not too different in design from the previous iterations. The Beats logo on the cachet side conferred on some by such a brand.

There are a number of different tips in this package, like flanged buds. But the nature of the hook prevents the headphones from slipping off your ear. This ensures the ear seal is not always full–the lace which pushes the outer ear will partially pull the buds out, so that the separation from sound does not become best.

PowerBeats 3 slipped out of the ear, sunk too often, and the hooks were originally far too wide. The hooks however bend a little, and you’ll get a very comfortable fit when you narrow the angle.

You can hardly find the power button on the top of the oblong units to which you attach the buds with your finger. Especially if you didn’t learn, at the beginning, how we did. Turning on and off with gloves is your only option and I am not proud of this fact.

However, with strong buttons and a strong building quality, the inline remote is strong and simple to use making clicking easy to change the volume, make a call or skip tracks with double or triple taps.

Apple products are considered to offer quality build, and PowerBeats 3 deliver that. All of the logo to the button looked luxurious, making higher prices more enticing.

Connectivity & Sound

When it comes to sound quality, many fitness headphones are not good on the Tinny side, pushing your music up so you can hear your music when you grunt through weight lifting or pounding the streets, you will get a greater sound from the PowerBeats 3 than all of that. The bass is higher than on many other headphones, but not at the crazy level. The buds do not resonate in your ears, only give more to what you hear.

It is the bass level which makes the headphones feel like a sports earbuds. Bass is not booming, but we would lie if we told you it didn’t get overwhelmed at times. It is perfect for training, but not good for a more relaxed listening when you want to listen. That doesn’t mean the headphones aren’t mid-high, but behind that bass they can get a little trapped. There are also many satisfying details in your favorite songs from PowerBeats 3 that show great clarity. 

The volume level is usually a little lower than it could be because it doesn’t always suit well to keep you from watching the act in loud environments. But that could be useful again in the later life to save the eardrums.

Battery

While it might be strange for an Apple product to use microUSB as a charge port, It does mean that many people are going to have some appropriate cables around and, of course, the one in the box is included.

Given that these headphones work well with Apple ecosystem products, it will not be surprising if future models instead are linked with Lightning connection.

As far as battery life is concerned, we used the PowerBeats 3 on average over the span of four or five days before we had to load them again.

Charging times are also quick and easy to see you at home with a few minutes charge just in front of your train ride.

Final Words

The PowerBeats 3 are well-made, rugged and of good quality, a fun trio of fitness headphones.

The fit is quite good and probably almost perfect for people with more closed ears. PowerBeats are usually comfortable to wear but some might have difficulty getting a good seal from the tips because of the hooks that hold the buds at a slightly broader angle. The main point is the price, not foreign to the customers of Beats.

There are cheaper and more efficient solutions to a non-fitness-focused headphone set.

When used as a combination of the two, the Powerbeats 3 impresses. You can switch from gym speakers to headphones if you want to go through a noisy place or something. The headphones remain in place and provide high quality sound.

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