Beats Solo 3 review: decent sound, better wireless

The new flagship headphones from Apple-owned Beats are basically the old Solo 2s with the added luster of Apple’s W1 wireless chip, as featured on the AirPods, and big promises about extended battery life and rapid recharging. You can’t fault a company for keeping a good thing going, but the audio world hasn’t stood still during the years of Beats’ success, and the new Solos will need to live up to their "wireless remastered" tagline to validate their existence.

The ear pads on the Solo 3s are not replaceable. They’re also not made of the same luxurious lambskin as the identically priced (but wired) Beoplay H6, but I have little to complain about with the comfort of the Beats headphones. Others have found their fit a little too tight, but in my experience, their clamping force is exactly as strong as it needs to be to keep them securely on my head, and the synthetic leather warms my ears up nicely in the winter (which is likely to turn into a downside on a hot summer day). For on-ear headphones, the Solos are commendably comfortable and surprisingly good at isolating exterior noise. These are important aspects of what makes them so popular and ubiquitous on commutes in and out of work.

The convenience of the Solo headphones is enhanced if you have an iPhone to pair them with. Hell, the way these two things work together is probably the number one reason to get Solo 3s instead of Solo 2s. Turn on the new Solo cans, bring them in the vicinity of an iPhone with Bluetooth turned on and they’ll have paired before you’ve had a chance to look at the screen. It’s exactly the sort of effortless and immediate experience you’d get from using Apple Pay (or Android Pay, for that matter). When wireless technology works in this way, it’s a dream. And once they’re hooked up to your iPhone, the Beats headphones’ battery life will be visible on the phone itself, so there’ll be no nasty zero-charge surprises.

Beats has branded its fast charging on the Solo 3s "Fast Fuel": it adds a promised three hours of music playback from just five minutes of charging. Ideal if you’re caught with a flat battery and in a hurry to head out. I never found myself needing to resort to that feature, because the Beats headphones really do just last and last. Apple touts a 40-hour battery life, which might be possible under some best-case scenario, but my experience pairing primarily with an iMac and the Google Pixel XL was somewhere in the teens of hours before needing to charge back up. Segmented over the course of casual listening sessions every day, that got me through a week without needing to dig out the MicroUSB cable. And that’s one thing I have to criticize Apple for: the company’s been super aggressive about cutting ties with the past, but it left its brand new Beats cans with the world’s fastest-deprecating charging connector.

Beyond the super slick pairing with iOS devices, the Beats Solo 3 also exhibit excellent wireless performance. I can’t think of any instances when the Bluetooth connection to my Pixel XL was interrupted, and that’s not even Apple’s target device for these cans. I favor testing with the Pixel XL, because (a) it’s an awesome phone, and (b) its Bluetooth radio seems especially susceptible to audio clipping or small drop-offs when the glass shield on its back is covered up. No such issues with the Beats Solo 3.

Apple and Beats’ claims about raising the bar for Bluetooth performance with their 2016 headphone range are fully justified. I’ve been holding out on recommending wireless headphones precisely because of the unreliable and inconsistent connections that most are plagued by, but the Solo 3s put my worries to rest.

The Beats’ lack of subtlety may seem like a downside, especially when you factor in their high price tag, but it lines up well with modern music tastes and the intended usage scenarios for these headphones. I wouldn’t recommend the Solo 3s for getting the most out of Agnes Obel’s acoustic instrumentation at home, but if you’re blasting out Twenty One Pilots while riding on the underground, the Solo 3s are kind of perfect. Their extra bass bite helps offset the drone around you, and it’s not like they’re technically bankrupt: their spatial imaging gives a nice stereo presentation that will please uncritical listeners.

You have to ask yourself: how subtle is your music, and how subtle is your listening environment? If the answer to both is "not very," then you’ll enjoy the Beats Solo 3s.

For those that expect true high-quality sound when spending hundreds of dollars on a pair of headphones, I would point toward the Audio-Technica MSR7 (which can now be found for $189), the planar magnetic Oppo PM3 or Audeze Sine, or the aforementioned, utterly delightful, Beoplay H6. But then all of those cans have that dreaded wire attached to them, so you ultimately have to make a decision. At any given price, do you want the best wireless tech or the best sound quality? The two are not going to coincide in the same device for a long while to come.

For everyone else, the picture is complicated by the likes of the V-Moda Crossfade Wireless, the Bowers & Wilkins P5 and P7 Wireless, and what’s sure to be a wireless audio deluge at CES in a couple of weeks. If they didn’t cost nearly $300, the Beats Solo 3s would be an easy recommendation, but as an Android user with an aversion for glossy plastic, I’m going to keep looking for my ideal pair of wireless cans.