Beats Solo Pro review: Style meets noise cancelling

Quick Verdict: The Beats Solo Pro are great looking headphones, and the audio output is mostly sweet, but the much lauded noise cancellation feature is a little on the weak side.

Range of fashionable colours
Transparency mode works well
Good battery life
Seamless iOS integration

Lacks 3.5mm input
Active noise cancelling often feels weak
A touch uncomfortable on larger heads

Last Updated Mar 24, 2021

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Beats made its name thanks to the thumping bass equalisation and fashion look of its iconic headphones. Since its acquisition by Apple, we've seen the company shift towards a more generally equalised sound and some really interesting designs such as the wireless Powerbeats Pro range.

The Beats Solo Pro look more the part of classic Beats designs, making them a good match for those who still want to show off the fashion side of their headphone choice. They're a good sounding pair of headphones for the most part, although the inclusion of active noise cancelling isn't quite as impressive as Beats' marketing materials might make you think.

Design

Wide range of colour choices
On-ear rather than over ear
Could be a touch uncomfortable if you've got a large skull
No 3.5mm input

Close up of Beats Solo Pro headphones in an assortment of colours

You certainly can't accuse the Beats Solo Pro of being shy little headphones. Available in a wide array of colours (I tested with the Dark Blue variant, apparently hand-chosen by Pharrell if such details matter to you) but you can pick from Dark Blue, Red, Light Blue, Ivory, Black or Gray finishes. Compared to prior Beats designs they're almost subtle in terms of the Beats branding, but it's still present at the side of each earcup, so you can let the world know that you're wearing Beats headphones.
Controls are kept to a minimum, with the right ear controlling play/pause and volume, and a button on the left cup that switches between active noise cancelling and transparency modes.
That minimalism also extends to the way you connect to the Beats Solo Pro headphones. These are strictly wireless-only headphones with no sign of a 3.5mm headphone input for wired connectivity. At this price point there are options that include that kind of wired hookup, but it's notably absent here. You do get a rather nice soft Beats case for carrying them around in, but the only cable you'll be dropping in here will be a Lightning cable for charging.
The construction of the Beats Solo Pro is appropriately solid given its asking price, but they did present me with one problem, and it's one I personally can't ignore.
The Beats Solo Pro, as they fit on my own personal head, are just a little bit too tight. I'm quite a regular wearer of full headphones, so I'm accustomed to the feeling of wearing a band over the top of my head. However, the Beats Solo Pro headphones are just that little bit too tight for my overall comfort.
Given the solid construction, I'm not entirely convinced that they'll soften over time. Now, I happily admit that my own skull is on the larger side – finding hats that fit and look good is an everyday challenge if you're me – so this may not be an issue for everyone. Still, if I were you, I'd try on a pair of Beats Solo Pro before you buy, because I really did find them tighter than I'd like for long-term wear purposes.

Performance

Pleasant audio balancing
Active noise cancelling is good but not great
Transparency gives wider audio scope but still feels super-creepy
Active noise cancelling is good but not great

Close up of Beats Solo Pro headphones in light blue

Prior to its acquisition by Apple, the Beats sound was very easily expressed as being bass-heavy, and while that's a simplification of the kind of equalisation that Beats applies to its headphones, it was definitely its signature tone.
In more recent Beats offerings, such as the Powerbeats Pro, the company has tended towards more general equalisation, although it stresses that it tries to master break out vocals and instruments in its own equalisation. There's no choice of equalisation modes for the Beats Solo Pro headphones, but it's certainly not what I'd call aggressively bass-heavy in the way that classic Beats headphones have been. I'm a fan of that approach, but of course, if you prefer more doof in your music, you might find it annoying.
The slow deliberate guitar and drum opening of Prince's Purple Rain echoed nicely in the Beats Solo Pro's cans, while the voice track was nicely differentiated, something that's often muddied in more bass-heavy headphones.
Switching to the more bass-heavy line of Ice Cube's Hello, a track that should work well with the Beats Solo Pro given the presence of Dr Dre, I still felt the underlying bass lines coming through heavy but clean.
Quieter and more deliberate tracks such as David Bowie's Life on Mars? presented well with good high tones mixed in with the raising orchestra as the song progresses.
The raw throaty performance of Peggy Lee's Fever stood out well against the simple bass and drum line on that track, and the sheer pop cheese of Britney Spears' Work Bitch showed just how heavily produced that track really is. Freddie Mercury's gradually increasing vocals on Barcelona contrasted nicely with Montserrat Caballé's soaring operatic tones. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Given the experience I had with the Powerbeats Pro, I'd expect solid audio quality, really, and for on-ear headphones they're really very good in this aspect.
The other big selling point for the Beats Solo Pro is that they're the company's first headphones with active noise cancelling built in. Active noise cancelling works by using the external microphones to analyse the external audio environment to create, in effect, an equal but opposite noise cancelling wave. The Beats Solo Pro headphones use Apple's own H1 chip for processing, and it's admittedly a difficult matter for on-ear, as distinct from over-the-ear, headphones to manage.
It's a trick that the Beats Solo Pro headphones manage well, but not to a level where I'd call them best in class. Part of that is undoubtedly the loss of noise isolation that you'd get with full over-the-ear headphones, but it's also because there's no option to level out the noise cancellation on the Beats Solo Pro. It's either on or it's off, and the strength of its effect wasn't always enough to provide me with the level of isolation I'd really like. Certainly wearing them and testing them side by side with the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones, I was left in no doubt as to which was the superior pair for noise cancelling.
Spoiler: It wasn't the Beats Solo Pro, but if you're a fan of the on-ear approach they're about as good as you're likely to get.
The Beats Solo Pro will work wirelessly with Apple's own Siri if you're pairing them to an iOS device, and they notably don't have any kind of on/off switch to engage with your chosen smartphone. Like competing designs, they instead power up when you unfold them, which is nice engineering, if not actually unique.
However, one trick I wish Apple had borrowed from other designs is pausing when you're not wearing them. It's totally binary; if you fold them up they power down, but there are plenty of pairs that also pause music playback if you take them off or wear them around your neck. Now, Beats' position on this is that this is what transparency mode is for, so you can hear the outside world easily. Transparency mode is where the external microphones switch outwards to pick up more of the real world at the tap of a button.
The dedicated button on the Beats Solo Pro is a much better solution than the annoying tapping you have to do on the Apple AirPods Pro, but I still can't help finding the whole thing rather creepy whenever I engage it as a mode. Is it just me that would rather remove headphones if I'm talking to somebody? Does nobody else feel like they're eavesdropping by using this mode?
I primarily used the Beats Solo Pro paired with an Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, and not surprisingly, it's an experience that's optimised for iOS users. Unfolding and pairing on an iOS device will grant you an animated view of your headphones in the accurate colour tone as well as a rundown of current battery life, something you won't get when pairing with an Android phone.

Battery

"Up to" 22 hours with ANC enabled
Battery endurance is solid
Lightning charging is annoying

The Beats Solo Pro headphones are rated for "up to" 22 hours of playback with active noise cancelling enabled. If you really wanted to eke out every last minute of playback you can forego it to switch up to a potential 40 hours of playback time, although I'm not sure why you'd invest in the Beats Solo Pro headphones only to switch off ANC.
"Up to" claims can often be sketchy – it will very much depend on your volume settings and overall usage – but in a week's worth of testing it appears reasonably fair for my own listening usage. Over time you can expect that to drop a touch as the batteries degrade, and like every other Bluetooth headphone set, they're not replaceable to speak of.
Charging is via Apple's own proprietary lightning connector, which makes sense when you consider that they're ideally meant to pair with an iPhone of some sort, so you'd presumably be very au fait with lightning accessories. One annoyance here though is that while you do get a lightning cable in the box, you don't get a charger. Given the serious price point on the Beats Solo Pro, this can't help but feel like a cheap move on Apple/Beats' part.

Verdict

Good audio for on-ear headphones, but ANC could use tweaking

Close up of Beats Solo Pro headphones in assorted colours

If you're after the Beats Solo Pro because you loved the previous Beats Solo headphones, then you'll love them. The style is excellent, the build quality at least suggests durability – without a spare pair to destroy I can't say they'll survive everything but they've certainly got the potential to last longer than many cheaper options – and the active noise cancelling is a good addition.

If you're looking at them from the perspective of that noise cancelling, they do fall short of being best in class. In that space I'd certainly opt for the Sony WH-1000XM3 ahead of them. They're also a headphone set I'd strongly suggest you try on before you buy, because that tight fit might just be too much for you.

Pricing and availability

Price: $429.95
Where to buy: eBay, Apple

Specifications

Where to buy

Build

Category

Over-ear headphones

Colours

Blue, Red, Black, Grey

Connectivity

Wired/Wireless

Wireless

Bluetooth

Yes

Bluetooth Version

Class 1

Features

Noise Cancelling

Active Noise Cancelling

Rechargeable Battery

Yes

Foldable

Yes

Battery Life

Up to 22 hours

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Alex Kidman

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A multi-award winning journalist, Alex has written about consumer technology for over 20 years. He has written and edited for virtually every Australian tech publication including Gizmodo, CNET, PC Magazine, Kotaku and more. He has also been the Editor of Gizmodo Australia, PC Mag Australia, CNET.com.au and the Tech and Telco section at Finder. Alex has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England and a serious passion for retro gaming.

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Beats Solo Pro review: Style meets noise cancelling