Execs
- Redesigned built-in wingtip provides a extra comfy safe match and and is extra sturdy
- XS ear tip now included
- Similar robust sound high quality as Match Professional’s
- Efficient noise canceling and good transparency mode
- Smaller charging case that has a greater hinge and is IPX4 splash-proof
- Powered by Apple’s H1 chip, so the buds have particular options for Apple customers, together with spatial audio with head-tracking
- Beats app for Android customers
Cons
- Whereas their wingtip design has improved the buds’ match and the case is 17% extra compact, they’re basically the Beats Match Professional (launched in Nov
- 2021)
- Aren’t powered by Apple’s extra superior H2 chip that unlocks a number of new options and improves efficiency
- No wi-fi charging
- Not a great deal at their listing worth (however they need to be incessantly discounted).
One of many new earbuds I have been wanting ahead to is the Beats Match Professional 2. I imagined some design tweaks, upgraded drivers, an Apple H2 chip changing the H1, together with improved sound, noise canceling and voice-calling efficiency. However wait — queue the screeching sound of a file going backward — the Beats Powerbeats Match, with their redesigned winged suggestions and 17% smaller charging case and no different important upgrades, are what we’re getting as a substitute of the Match Professional 2 for a similar $200 listing worth?
Yep. That is the scenario — a minimum of for now. Maybe in 2026 we’ll get the actual Match Professional 2 with all of the upgrades I listed above. However the Powerbeats Match appear to be type of a transitional Beats product that does not actually get in the best way of Apple’s wonderful new AirPods Professional 3, leaving them loads of room to run within the market (Beats’ sporty H2-powered Powerbeats Professional 2 are presently extra of direct competitor to the AirPods Professional 3).
Learn extra: Finest wi-fi earbuds of 2025
Normally I do not quote firm executives in my evaluations, however I believe it is price listening to from Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice chairman of Music, Sports activities and Beats, on how the buds are being positioned. “Reintroducing Beats Match Professional as Powerbeats Match — alongside Powerbeats Professional 2 — unifies our lineup beneath a reputation synonymous with athletic efficiency and offers clients a clearer alternative between two distinct, fitness-first type components,” Schusser stated. “Powerbeats Match combines the very best of Beats Match Professional with next-level consolation, sturdiness and portability — making it a worthy addition to the Powerbeats household.”
The Powerbeats Match are available in 4 colours, together with pink.
Advertising spin and identify adjustments apart, I’ll say the design upgrades to the wingtips and case do enhance the buds, which stay fairly interesting for these on the lookout for secure-fitting earbuds for exercises and on a regular basis use, though their essential elements are technically 4 years outdated (the Beats Match Professional had been launched Nov. 1, 2021). Let’s get proper into these design adjustments, as I’ll focus the majority of my overview on them as they’re the one factor that is actually new in regards to the Beats Powerbeats Match aside from the extra compact charging case.
Extra comfy with softer, extra sturdy wingtips
Beats engineers have carried out a number of issues with the wingtips to enhance their design. The fabric they’re made out of feels totally different, with a soft-to-the-touch end and a slimmer, extra pliable design. The wingtips are a tad shorter and rounded off and not have an edge (it was a tender rubber edge beforehand however it was nonetheless an edge). Apple has clearly carried out its analysis by way of ear designs and the way the unique Beats Match Professional wingtips slot in individuals’s ears and made the changes to make them match somewhat higher and extra comfortably.
The Powerbeats Match (left) wingtip subsequent to the Match Professional wingtip (proper). The Match’s wingtip is a bit more pliable and has a soft-to-the-touch end.
I personally did not have any actual situation with the earlier wingtips however I do know people who discovered that they began to get uncomfortable over longer listening periods. And so they did not match inside individuals’s ears equally nicely, with the wingtips not fairly becoming into the concha (or extra particularly the cybma concha) in some ears. Or, they match however created a stress level.
Beats additionally advised me the wingtips are extra sturdy and so they appear so in my three days of testing them. I did not have a difficulty with the Match Professional’s sturdiness, however my son managed to fully rip the wingtips off each of his Match Professional buds. It was unclear how he did it, however he continued sporting them with out the wingtips, which made them appear to be Beats Studio Buds Plus buds with a broken end.
The opposite small addition Beats made was so as to add an additional small ear tip, bringing the overall variety of ear suggestions included as much as 4 sizes as a substitute of three (XS, S, M and L). I’d have most well-liked an additional massive tip as a result of the included massive tip does not get me the proper seal to optimize sound high quality and noise canceling, so I’ve to carry my very own tricks to the social gathering (Sennheiser’s massive ear suggestions work finest for me).
I wish to see Apple redesign its ear suggestions prefer it has carried out with the AirPods Professional 3. Whereas most of it’s best to get a good seal from one of many included ear suggestions, I think a small fraction of individuals will not get an optimum seal. And, as I stated, that may impression the sound high quality and noise canceling efficiency.
Learn extra: Finest earbuds or exercises and the fitness center in 2025
Smaller charging case was one different key enchancment
As Beats says, the charging case is 17% smaller, and I definitely respect a smaller charging case, although it nonetheless does not assist wi-fi charging, simply USB-C charging. The opposite design improve to the case is to the lid’s hinge. The lid was somewhat floppy on the Beats Match Professional and Beats has tightened the spring up on the lid so it opens and closes extra easily and the lid feels extra sturdy. The brand new case can also be additionally IPX4 splash-proof just like the buds themselves. And be aware that the Bluetooth pairing button remains to be on the within of the case.
The Powerbeats Match’s case (left) is 17% smaller than the Match Professional’s (proper).
No efficiency enhancements however nonetheless strong-performing buds
Prior to now 4 years I’ve sporadically used the Beats Match Professional, significantly for working and figuring out on the fitness center, though I additionally used them for my commutes to the workplace, all the time appreciating their locked-in match so I did not have to fret about them falling out of my ears as I walked over a grate on the streets of New York and disappearing underground (that is all the time one thing of a priority after I put on the usual AirPods, which do not match my ears in addition to the AirPods Professional). I usually examine the Match Professional to different sports activities buds and have a tendency to return away liking them higher, even 4 years later. And I nonetheless like that they’ve a bodily button as a substitute of contact controls to manage playback.
They principally function the identical know-how as the unique AirPods Professional, which got here out in late 2019 and had been additionally powered by an H1 chip. In my overview of the Beats Match Professional, I referred to as them “the sportier AirPods you’ve got all the time wished” and stated they appeared to sound barely higher than the AirPods Professional. I believed that they had a contact extra readability and the bass packed somewhat extra punch and went somewhat deeper.
Whereas they do not sound nearly as good because the AirPods Professional 3, which supply higher general readability and bass efficiency together with a extra spacious soundstage and airier sound, the Beats Suits’ sound holds up nicely all issues thought of. The Powerbeats Professional 2’s sound is arguably barely higher with higher general readability and barely extra dynamic sound. However the Powerbeats Professional 2’s match could also be a difficulty for some people and they’re bigger earbuds with ear hooks which have a bigger case.
The Powerbeats Slot in orange to match the orange iPhone 17 Professional. They’ve the identical bodily button to manage playback because the Match Professional.
As you would possibly anticipate, the Powerbeats Match’s noise canceling and transparency aren’t nearly as good because the AirPods Professional 3’s (the Professional 3’s noise canceling is a giant step up), however each are respectable. I really feel the identical method in regards to the voice-calling efficiency: it is good however not top-tier. Callers stated they heard extra background sound than after I was calling with the AirPods Professional 3, however they stated my voice sounded comparatively clear after I was calling with the Powerbeats Match.
Similar options as Match Professional, plus assist for Android customers
The Beats Match go away off a number of options obtainable to AirPods which are powered by the H2 chip, together with the AirPods Professional 3, AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Noise Canceling and the Beats Powerbeats Professional 2 (though the Powerbeats Professional 2 haven’t got Apple’s Stay Translation function or Listening to Assist mode). You aren’t getting all the brand new options that Apple delivered to the AirPods Professional 2 and Professional 3, together with Adaptive Audio, Dialog Consciousness and the aforementioned Stay Translation and Listening to Assist mode. Whereas they do have spatial audio with head-tracking, auto-switching between units in your iCloud account and hands-free Siri, they definitely fall nicely quick within the options division in comparison with what you get with AirPods Professional 3.
On a extra optimistic be aware, like different Beats buds, they’re extra Android pleasant than AirPods, with Android customers capable of obtain the Beats app on their units to unlock “one-touch pairing, customizable controls, battery standing, Find My Beats and a Match Take a look at for Android customers.” And since they do not have that many options to start with in comparison with the AirPods Professional 3, Android customers aren’t actually lacking out on a lot aside from spatial audio.
The buds are actually designed to lock in your ears and work nicely for working and sporting actions.
Battery life is similar because the Beat Match Professional, Beats says. It is rated for as much as 6 hours with noise canceling on at reasonable quantity ranges, with an extra 18 hours of juice within the charging case. A five-minute cost will get you 1 hour of battery life.
Beats Powerbeats Match remaining ideas
If you’d like a deeper dive into what the Beats Powerbeats Match are all about, you possibly can learn my Beats Match Professional overview (which is somewhat dated as a result of I wrote it 4 years in the past). However in a nutshell, these are nonetheless very interesting wi-fi earbuds for a similar cause I said in that overview and why I awarded the Beats Match Professional a CNET Editors’ Alternative award in 2021: Not solely do they provide a snug, safe match that is been barely improved because of the redesign of the wingtips, however they sound excellent and provide respectable noise-canceling and voice-calling efficiency together with a great transparency mode.
Even with their disappointingly restricted upgrades, I nonetheless like them fairly a bit and like their match to the Powerbeats Professional 2’s (Beats did make some enhancements with the design of the Powerbeats Professional 2, and so they match my ears higher than the earlier mannequin, however I believe the Powerbeats Match are a safer wager fit-wise for extra individuals than the Powerbeats Professional 2). However I just like the AirPodsPro 3 higher. They’re simply superior earbuds general, and their new ear suggestions and design adjustments have helped me get a safer match so I do not want the wingtips as a lot as I used to.
The large query, in fact, is how a lot will the Beats Match actually promote for. I am unable to advocate you purchase them for $200, however their road worth at Amazon will probably be considerably decrease, although you by no means know with the Trump administration tariffs how pricing will play out. Hopefully, they will observe an analogous pricing path to the Beats Studio Professional, which listing for $350 however usually promote for $100 to $150 much less and price as little as $140 for a refurbished mannequin.
In June, the Match Professional had been all the way down to $110 at Woot. I do not suppose the Powerbeats Match’s worth will dip fairly that low anytime quickly, however there is definitely room for important discounting. Because it stands, these buds make much more sense — and simpler to advocate — at lower than $140.
