Beats Pill (2024) Review: A Fortified Contender

Its stout backside and beforehand grille supply immoderate rugged durability, but arsenic I discovered connected a caller camping trip, it’s not rather arsenic resilient to drops oregon bumps arsenic the toughest options. While jamming tunes connected a compartment deck, a person accidentally knocked the Pill disconnected a 4-foot railing, sending it bouncing disconnected a mates of stairs. The show wasn’t affected, but the grille gained immoderate caller conflict scars successful the signifier of dual dents astatine its edges. Back location I tried a akin stairwell driblet trial with the JBL Flip 5 and Ultimate Ears Boom 4, some of which walked distant mostly unscathed without immoderate noticeable dents.

Somewhat ironically, portion of the crushed I placed the Pill successful specified a precarious presumption is its comparative deficiency of setup positions compared to those much versatile rivals. It's surely robust capable for outdoor adventures–just prime your setup spot amended than I did.

Fully Loaded

Beats packed the caller Pill with a afloat suite of features, including immoderate I ne'er adjacent considered, similar a USB-C integer input that lets you ligament successful high-resolution audio à la the Beats Studio Pro (7/10, WIRED Recommends). As before, you tin brace the talker with different Pill to “amplify” the dependable oregon dispersed them retired arsenic a stereo pair, which works good but unsurprisingly doesn't lucifer likewise priced desktop models. Class 1 Bluetooth provides fantabulous wireless scope (I got up to 130 feet with enactment of show earlier cutouts), peculiarly adjuvant for those times erstwhile you rotation distant from the enactment with your phone.

Other extras see one-touch pairing and adjacent Find My functionality for iOS oregon Android devices, a built-in speakerphone, entree to your phone’s dependable assistant, and the quality to flip the USB-C larboard to output powerfulness for charging different devices. You don’t get a 3.5-mm input for sourcing bequest audio devices, and there’s nary mode to EQ the sound, but neither of those are features I regularly scope for successful a talker designed mostly for ambiance.

I person immoderate insignificant points of contention with the Pill’s power system. It's elemental for tasks similar play/pause, opus skip, volume, and calling, but going deeper sometimes demands excessively overmuch “multi” from the multifunction keys. When I archetypal tried powering down, I kept holding the powerfulness cardinal past the required “.8 seconds,” putting the talker successful pairing mode. You’ve got to usage a speedy pat for a artillery check, oregon pat 3 times to let the USB-C larboard to complaint different devices. iPhone users person to spell done immoderate center-key hullabaloo to get 2 Pills to brace up, portion Android users tin link them successful the Beats app. None of this is simply a immense deal, but you whitethorn request to look online since immoderate controls aren’t outlined successful the speedy guide.

The Pill’s mondo artillery beingness steps successful to easiness those insignificant power inconveniences. With up to 24 hours of playback astatine fractional volume, the talker doubles its predecessor and cheaper options similar the Flip, portion easy outlasting the latest UE Boom (15 hours) and pricier JBL Charge (20 hours). I got adjacent much play clip successful testing, since I seldom raised the Pill's measurement supra 30 percent indoors.

Snazzy Sound

In existent Beats fashion, the Pill takes a calculated extremist attack to its dependable signature. The bass is large and brawny, portion the treble is snappy and vibrant for a show that’s arsenic slick, shiny, and polished arsenic the talker itself. At first, I thought it was a excessively sculpted and snazzy for my taste, but possibly owed successful portion to Apple’s takeover, there’s a resigned tact that keeps things from getting overly boomy down debased oregon brittle up high.

After I settled in, I began to truly bask the Pill’s affected dependable for its quality to exposure instruments and effects with some clarity and power. The apical broadside preserves lush item and awesome sonic extent crossed genres, portion the full-bodied bass brings a brazen unit that warms up your favourite tracks for a saccharine ride. My woman and I couldn’t assistance but announcement the talker buzzing warmly crossed surfaces similar the picnic array astatine our campsite, adding immoderate bounce to our breakfast.