An Apple subsidiary has stolen a march on the AirPods line by launching Beats Solo Pro, headphones with active noise cancellation.
But this isn’t a set of tiny eabuds, though. It’s for people who want larger, on-ear headphones.
This is apparently the successor to the Beats Solo3 Wireless, despite Apple going with a “Pro” name instead of Solo4.
Beats Solo Pro vs. AirPods
Active Noice Cancellation (ANC) is a feature rumored to be coming to AirPods in 2020, but Beats Solo Pro has it already. ANC doesn’t just block out ambient noise; it uses sound waves that interfere with the external cacophony to produce silence. Or these headphones can filter in a moderate amount of environmental noise.
Like the AirPods introduced earlier this year, the Solo Pro has an Apple H1 processor. That means it offers “Hey Siri” access to this voice assistant, as well as audio sharing. These features are also available in Powerbeats Pro, introduced this summer.
As an Apple subsidiary, it’s not surprising Beats’ new wireless headphones are charged through a Lightning port. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.
They fold up when not in use, and that’s also how power is shut off. Apple promises 40 hours of use on a single charge with ANC turned off.
Color options include red, blue, black, grey, and ivory.
The on-ear headphones are considerably more expensive than $159 AirPods, coming in at $300 (£270 or AU$429). Solo Pro can be pre-ordered now on the Beats website, and will ship Wednesday, October 30.