Execs
- Redesigned built-in wingtip presents a extra snug 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 deal at their record value (however they need to be often 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 Fit, with their redesigned winged suggestions and 17% smaller charging case and no different vital upgrades, are what we’re getting as a substitute of the Match Professional 2 for a similar $200 record value?
Yep. That is the scenario — at the least for now. Maybe in 2026 we’ll get the true 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 glorious new AirPods Pro 3, leaving them loads of room to run within the market (Beats’ sporty H2-powered Powerbeats Pro 2 are presently extra of direct competitor to the AirPods Professional 3).
Learn extra: Best wireless earbuds of 2025
Normally I do not quote firm executives in my critiques, however I feel it is value listening to from Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice chairman of Music, Sports activities and Beats, on how the buds are being positioned. “Reintroducing Beats Fit Pro as Powerbeats Match — alongside Powerbeats Professional 2 — unifies our lineup below a reputation synonymous with athletic efficiency and provides prospects a clearer selection between two distinct, fitness-first type elements,” Schusser mentioned. “Powerbeats Match combines the perfect 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 title 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 workouts and on a regular basis use, regardless that their fundamental elements are technically 4 years previous (the Beats Match Professional have been launched Nov. 1, 2021). Let’s get proper into these design adjustments, as I will focus the majority of my evaluate on them as they’re the one factor that is actually new concerning the Beats Powerbeats Match apart from the extra compact charging case.
Extra snug with softer, extra sturdy wingtips
Beats engineers have finished a couple of issues with the wingtips to enhance their design. The fabric they’re made out of feels completely 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 mushy rubber edge beforehand but it surely was nonetheless an edge). Apple has clearly finished its analysis when it comes to ear designs and the way the unique Beats Match Professional wingtips slot in individuals’s ears and made the changes to make them match a little bit 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 concern with the earlier wingtips however I do know people who discovered that they began to get uncomfortable over longer listening classes. They usually 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 strain level.
Beats additionally instructed me the wingtips are extra sturdy they usually 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 carrying them with out the wingtips, which made them seem like 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 would not get me the right seal to optimize sound high quality and noise canceling, so I’ve to carry my very own tricks to the get together (Sennheiser’s massive ear suggestions work finest for me).
I want to see Apple redesign its ear suggestions prefer it has finished with the AirPods Professional 3. Whereas most of you must get a decent seal from one of many included ear suggestions, I believe a small fraction of individuals will not get an optimum seal. And, as I mentioned, that may affect the sound high quality and noise canceling efficiency.
Learn extra: Best earbuds or workouts and the gym in 2025
Smaller charging case was one different key enchancment
As Beats says, the charging case is 17% smaller, and I actually respect a smaller charging case, although it nonetheless would 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 a little bit 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 be additionally IPX4 splash-proof just like the buds themselves. And word 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
Previously 4 years I’ve sporadically used the Beats Match Professional, significantly for operating 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 evaluate the Match Professional to different sports activities buds and have a tendency to come back 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 mainly function the identical know-how as the unique AirPods Professional, which got here out in late 2019 and have been additionally powered by an H1 chip. In my review of the Beats Match Professional, I known as them “the sportier AirPods you have all the time wished” and mentioned they appeared to sound barely higher than the AirPods Professional. I assumed they’d a contact extra readability and the bass packed a little bit extra punch and went a little bit 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 Matches’ 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 concerning the voice-calling efficiency: it is good however not top-tier. Callers mentioned they heard extra background sound than after I was calling with the AirPods Professional 3, however they mentioned 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 out there 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 Pro 2 (though the Powerbeats Professional 2 do not have Apple’s Dwell Translation function or Listening to Help mode). You aren’t getting all the brand new options that Apple dropped at the AirPods Professional 2 and Professional 3, together with Adaptive Audio, Dialog Consciousness and the aforementioned Dwell Translation and Listening to Help mode. Whereas they do have spatial audio with head-tracking, auto-switching between gadgets in your iCloud account and hands-free Siri, they actually fall nicely quick within the options division in comparison with what you get with AirPods Professional 3.
On a extra optimistic word, like different Beats buds, they’re extra Android pleasant than AirPods, with Android customers in a position to obtain the Beats app on their gadgets 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 apart from spatial audio.
The buds are actually designed to lock in your ears and work nicely for operating and sporting actions.
Battery life is identical because the Beat Match Professional, Beats says. It is rated for as much as 6 hours with noise canceling on at average 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 closing ideas
If you’d like a deeper dive into what the Beats Powerbeats Match are all about, you’ll be able to learn my Beats Fit Pro review (which is a little bit 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 purpose I said in that evaluate and why I awarded the Beats Match Professional a CNET Editors’ Selection award in 2021: Not solely do they provide a cushty, safe match that is been barely improved due to the redesign of the wingtips, however they sound superb and supply respectable noise-canceling and voice-calling efficiency together with 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, they usually match my ears higher than the earlier mannequin, however I feel 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, after all, is how a lot will the Beats Match actually promote for. I can not advocate you purchase them for $200, however their avenue value 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’re going to observe an identical pricing path to the Beats Studio Pro, which record for $350 however usually promote for $100 to $150 much less and value as little as $140 for a refurbished mannequin.
In June, the Match Professional have been all the way down to $110 at Woot. I do not suppose the Powerbeats Match’s value will dip fairly that low anytime quickly, however there is definitely room for vital discounting. Because it stands, these buds make much more sense — and simpler to advocate — at lower than $140.
