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Apple's AirPods are truly magical, and truly wireless... But so are the Powerbeats Pro. But are they better? Which should you get? Why are the Powerbeats Pro so darn good? And who are the AirPods for?
The Powerbeats Pro vs. AirPods showdown!
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0:00
What's going on, everybody, Ian here for Cult of Mac
0:20
And back in 2014, long before the AirPods were even a rumored product, I picked up what would become my kind of go-to-workout fitness headphones
0:29
the power beats too. And I absolutely love them. They were super comfortable to wear
0:34
The ear hooks gave me a lot of confidence that they weren't going to fall out of my ears when I was running or biking
0:39
or working out really hard. And on top of that, they offered fantastic battery life
0:44
and fairly punchy sound. They were way better than any wired headphone
0:48
I had been using up to that point. Then a couple years later
0:52
when Apple introduced the AirPods, I picked up a pair hoping that they could maybe replace
0:55
my failing power beats too, which were literally four. falling apart. Since then, I've used the AirPods almost daily, both my first gen and now more
1:04
recently my second gen AirPods, for working out, for taking phone calls, for listening to music and
1:09
podcasts. Pretty much any situation where I'm going to listen to something that doesn't involve
1:13
heavy audio editing, I'm wearing my AirPods. Now, as much as I love my AirPods, there are a couple
1:19
things that I kind of hate about them. For one, if there's any kind of background noise, it can be
1:24
really hard to hear things, even with the volume cranked all the way up, because the AirPods don't isolate any of the outside noise
1:30
On top of that, the AirPods aren't exactly the most confidence-inducing headphones
1:35
when you're working out with them. They always have this tendency to want to slip just a little bit
1:40
and make you feel like maybe they'll fall out of your ears. Now, I've never had it happen, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm always a little worried that it might
1:48
Even with those minor drawbacks the AirPods have consistently been my favorite headphone And then I got the Power Beats Pro In a of ways the AirPods and the Powerbeats Pro are actually very similar They both fully wireless headphones
2:01
They both sync across all your ICloud devices. They both feature that awesome autopause feature for when you take them out of your ear
2:07
And they both feature Apple's H1 chip, which makes for faster device switching, faster connections
2:14
and of course, hey Siri. But Powerbeats Pro don't need to rely on the H1 chip like the AirPods do
2:19
And that's because on the Powerbeats Pro, you have buttons. On the side, the Beets logo actually serves as a multifunction button
2:27
which can be used to play or pause whatever you're listening to, or with a double-click, skip ahead, triple-click to skip back
2:33
or press and hold to activate Siri. There's also volume buttons on both sides
2:37
You can just reach up and go click up or click down to turn the volume upward down without disrupting whatever you're doing
2:43
Having physical buttons is awesome when you remember to use them. After more than two years of wearing the AirPods
2:49
I'd kind of forgotten what it's like to have buttons on my headphones, and I got used to just
2:54
using my voice or grabbing my phone to make those changes, but knowing that it's there is a huge
2:59
improvement. And if you're somebody who's coming from another pair of headphones that has buttons
3:02
on it, the Powerbeats Pro are great because they still have that button for you. The Power Beats Pro
3:07
pack almost nine hours of battery life on a single charge, almost doubling that of the second
3:12
generation AirPods. That said, both the AirPods and the Powerbeats Pro and a fully charged charging case
3:18
for either, offers roughly 24 hours of total listening time. It's just a matter of whether you want
3:23
the Powerbeats Pro, which can go much longer between charges, or the AirPods, which have a slightly
3:28
smaller charging case. For me, I'm rarely wearing my headphones for more than an hour or two at a time
3:34
so the extra battery life in the Power Beats Pro wasn't a critical thing. But if you're running
3:38
marathons or riding centuries, that difference in battery life could be the difference between
3:43
finishing in silence or riding across the finish line listening to your favorite victory song Looking at the design of the Powerbeats Pro I think they kind of cool and futuristic looking Some of that has to do with their overall shape and style Some of that has to do with the fact that they come in black
3:56
I think they're a little more understated and a little less braggy than the AirPods. But that's entirely subjective
4:02
Either one can allow you to flex in your own weird way. From a comfort standpoint, the Power Beats Pro are kind of a mixed bag
4:10
The ear hooks are great because they keep them in place and I'm not ever worried that they're going to fall out of my ears
4:14
and the little ear tips are pretty nice at keeping them fairly well isolated from the outside
4:21
meaning I can listen at lower volumes and get a little bit better sound out of them when I'm listening to music
4:27
At the same time, the combination of the ear tips and the ear hooks had a tendency to rub kind of funny
4:33
especially on my right ear, which made it really obnoxious to wear them for too long
4:38
Now again, generally, I'm only wearing them for short bursts of an hour or two at a time
4:41
so that wasn't a huge issue, but compared to my AirPods, which I could wear literally all day and forget they're there
4:48
the Powerbeats Pro definitely started to get uncomfortable in longer listening. Again, the decision on which is more comfortable for you could be entirely subjective
4:58
Maybe it's just my ears, so your mileage may vary. Another comfort consideration to make is with the charging case
5:05
With the AirPods, the case is super compact and can fit in just about any pocket of your pants or your bag
5:10
With the Power Beats Pro, on the other hand, the case is about twice as big
5:14
in every direction. Not to say that it isn't pocketable, but if you're wearing skinny pants
5:20
the Power Beats Pro case is going to be huge. As far as sound quality goes
5:24
the Power Beets Pro definitely have a huge advantage. A lot of this has to do with the overall design
5:29
of the headphones, the way the ear tips actually fit into your ears, creates a better seal
5:33
which helps for bass tones to pass through better than they do with the AirPods
5:39
Because of the more snug fit and the way they sit deeper into your ear the Power Beets Pro have a much fuller more punchy sound and they also do a much better job of canceling out that background noise like I talked about before That said neither the
5:52
AirPods or the Power Beats Pro are noise canceling, so if that's something you're looking for
5:56
you're not going to find it in either pair. But if you want to help isolate some of that
6:00
outside noise from creeping in on whatever you're listening to, the Power Beads Pro definitely
6:04
have a huge leg up. Ultimately, there's a ton to love about the Power Beats Pro. They have great
6:10
sound, they stay in place, they have awesome battery life. And if you're coming from some older pair
6:15
of headphones like the old Powerbeats 2, or still using the free headphones that come with your
6:20
iPhone, the Powerbeats Pro are a huge step up and definitely worth consideration. For me, the AirPods
6:27
are way more convenient. They fit into my life and my pocket way better than Power Beats Pro do
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Now, I've never had any issues with the sound quality of the AirPods, and I've never felt particularly
6:38
concerned that I was going to lose my AirPods when I'm working out. It's not hard to make a minor
6:43
adjustment and get them back in place. So for as much as I loved my Powerbeats 2 back in the day
6:48
and as much as I love the Power Beats Pro today, for me, I think I'm sticking with the AirPods
6:53
just because they're what I've gotten used to. But if you're not an AirPods user already, or you're not
6:59
sure, I think there's way more to love about the Power Beats Pro and way more value in the Powerbeats
7:04
Pro than there might be in the AirPods as somebody new to the fully wireless headphone market
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If you found this helpful or insightful, make sure you hit that thumbs up button. Leave me a comment down below and let me know what kind of headphones you're using or what
7:16
your preferred headphones are for working out. And make sure you subscribe to the channel and hit that bell to be notified about future videos
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so you don't miss anything coming out. I'm Me & Forkulton Mac and I'll catch you in the next one
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