Apple Tuesday has announced the long-awaited debut of the Powerbeats Pro 2 Earbuds. The new headphones have arrived nearly six years since the original PowerBeats came to the market. This new model maintains the familiar ear hooks for your workouts while offering upgraded sound, better battery life and a wireless charging case.
The earphones also feature built-in heart rate monitoring, indicating the key next step in the company’s bid to expand its healthcare capabilities. This feature is triggered during training and provides real-time data via an LED light sensor.
In addition to Apple’s own health app, surveillance is compatible with many major fitness apps, including Open, Peloton, Runna, Slopes, Ladder, Nike Run Club, and Yaoyao. One of the most popular running apps, Strava is notably lacking on the list.
PowerBeats is expanding Apple Health Portfolio, which is currently revolving around the Apple Watch. Elements like step tracking have been around since the beginning, but Apple has since worked on health. The watch features ECG measurements, fall detection, sleep tracking, and a variety of other features aimed at providing an overall picture of the wearer’s health.
Apple’s Health Suite branched out further in 2024, adding hearing aids functionality for the AirPods Pro 2. The arrival of heart rate monitoring on the Beats line could signal the addition of features to future AirPods updates, but it would be a big need to do so in hardware updates.
Apple-branded headphones are also a more common lifestyle product compared to Powerbeats’ fitness focus.
The new headphones have been upgraded from Apple’s W2 to the H2 chip. It debuted in 2022 with the AirPods Pro 2. .
Apple cites its own silicon as the driving force behind improving battery life. The bud itself shows off its 10-hour battery compared to its predecessor, nine. But what’s even more impressive is improving the total battery life from 24 to 45 hours. This is a feat managed by the company while reducing the footprint of the original PowerBeats Pro’s infamous large-scale case.
Apple is touting improved sound quality thanks to the same noise cancellation found on the AirPods Pro 2 thanks to the addition of spatial audio with head tracking.
The familiar ear hooks feature a nickel alloy to improve strength, but the overall weight of the buds has been reduced by 20%.
Apple says it has tested 1,000 athletes professionals to create a more universal fit. The headphones also come with an IPX4 sweat resistance rating. This is the same rating you can see on AirPods. In addition to wireless charging, the headphones replace the predecessor’s Lightning port with a USB-C.
The PowerBeats Pro 2 is available online starting today, when it was sold at the same price as its predecessor in 2019 for $250. They were featured on shelves in store this Thursday, February 13th.
Apple just missed the Super Bowl with the announcement, but that hasn’t stopped the company from putting a load on ads. It has been approved by star athletes such as LeBron James, Lionel Messi and Shoes Hei Ohtani.
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