Beats today released its new Powerbeats Pro 2 sports earbuds. Apple says the new buds are “built for ultimate athletic performance with powerful, immersive sound and Heart Rate Monitoring for workouts.” The new earbuds boast a redesigned earhook and upgrades to sound, battery life, and call performance, as well as the addition of Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), Transparency mode, Adaptive EQ, and wireless charging.
Powerbeats Pro 2 is available to order starting today in four colors — Jet Black, Quick Sand, Hyper Purple, and Electric Orange — for $249.99 (USD).
“Powerbeats Pro 2 is the most impressive product in Beats’ history — developed to withstand intense training sessions and equipped with our most innovative technology and powerful sound,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Music, Sports, and Beats. “Now with Heart Rate Monitoring for workouts, Active Noise Cancellation, and Transparency mode, Powerbeats Pro 2 sets a new standard in audio for fitness.”
Powerbeats Pro 2 offers a redesigned acoustic architecture and Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking to deliver powerful, immersive sound. Beats leveraged Apple’s best-performing Active Noise Cancelling technology and added Transparency mode to allow athletes to still hear what’s going on around them.
Adaptive EQ tunes sound in real time based on how Powerbeats Pro 2 fits in the user’s ear. An inward-facing microphone monitors for sound, and then Adaptive EQ tunes the low and mid frequencies.
Accurate Heart Rate Monitoring for workouts provides real-time data on an athlete’s performance, as LED optical sensors pulse over 100 times per second to measure blood flow.
The data the Powerbeats Pro 2 collects can be sent to compatible fitness apps in real time. The Powerbeats Pro 2 Heart Rate Monitoring feature is currently compatible with the following apps in the United States:
- Open
- Peloton
- Runna
- Slopes
- Ladder
- Nike Run Club
- YaoYao
Powerbeats Pro 2 offers one-touch pairing, automatic switching, Audio Sharing, hands-free Siri, and Find My with Apple devices. Android users can take advantage of one-touch pairing, the ability to activate or disable Heart Rate Monitoring, customizable controls, battery status widgets, Locate My Beats, and over-the-air updates.
On-ear buttons or hands-free Siri can be used to control music. Each earbud also has a tactile volume rocker for ultimate convenience.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 are equipped with the Apple-designed H2 chip, and delivers up to 45 hours of battery life with the charging case, with each bud delivering up to 10 hours of playback per charge. A Fast Fuel feature means a five-minute charge provides up to 90 minutes of playback.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 charging case is 33% smaller than its predecessor and is the first-ever Beats case to feature wireless charging.
Powerbeats Pro 2 is available to order starting today in four colors, Jet Black, Quick Sand, Hyper Purple, and Electric Orange, for $249.99 from apple.com in the US, with on-shelf availability starting February 13th.
