Powerbeats 4 make surprise debut in Walmart

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Powerbeats4-colors
Coming to a store near you, well, now.
Photo: WinFuture

Apple’s Powerbeats 4 headphones have landed in Walmart — and, potentially, other retailers — without any word of an official announcement.

An image of the new wireless buds was posted on Twitter on Sunday. Twitter user Eddie Wap shared an image of the new Powerbeats in red, white, and black color options. They are listed at $149, making them $50 cheaper than the $199.95 Powerbeats 3.

The new wireless buds look very much like Powerbeats Pro. However, they pack the newest H1 chip for “Hey Siri” support.

A previous report suggested that they would offer up to 15 hours of battery life between charges, up to 1.5x faster connections for phone calls, and up to 30% lower latency. They were also rumored to be charged via a Lightning cable. Those specs have been confirmed by a positive review from AppleInsider, which it got its hands on an early unit over the weekend.

Word of the new earbuds first leaked in December when references to them were discovered in iOS 13.3. After that, iOS 13.3.1 spilled the first official images, before Powerbeats 4 were approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

It’s therefore no surprise that they have made their debut. The surprise is more that they would make their debut without an official announcement. It’s possible that the Powerbeats 4 were put out by Walmart staff by accident ahead of the official release date. Then again, with the COVID-19 coronavirus scuppering Apple’s plans for a March keynote, maybe Apple simply decided to drop them by surprise.

Either way, expect them to show up for sale in other locations early this week.

Source: 9to5Mac

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