Beats had been out of the Bluetooth speaker game even since Apple discontinued the Beats Pill Plus in January 2022 – until now! It had been leaked, it had been seen in the wild (in the hands of stars), and now it's here.
To be completely honest, the 2015-issue Beats Pill+ would’ve missed out on a spot in our picks for the best Bluetooth speakers if it were still in circulation today. But that has all changed now. Why? The just-launched Beats Pill offers IP67 dust and water resistance; Bluetooth 5.3; USB-C for both charging and audio passthrough; a more audio-conscious build (the tweaked drivers are on a 20-degree angle so the sound better hits your ears), iOS and Android compatibility plus up to 24 hours of battery life – which is double that of the Beats Pill+. That's why.
That's not all though. Now that it's here, we're working on a full review, but here are the specs and features, ahead of our considered thoughts on the sound.
Beats Pill: release date
Instagram had been the epicenter for the majority of the Beats Pill leaks, with a reel heavily pointing to a possible announcement happening on June 25 – as did the X post, below…
And so it came to pass!
6/25. @KingJames @LilTunechi pic.twitter.com/NkpLlTeVhJJune 17, 2024
The ad, featuring LeBron James and L'il Wayne, was uploaded to the Beats By Dre accounts on Instagram and X. At the end of the video the numbers 6.25 appeared, which all but confirmed a June 25 launch.
(For another fun look though, James had previously been spotted with a Beats Pill-esque speaker in April, which was shared to the Lakers' Instagram feed.)
Beats Pill: Price
The recent pricing leak also proved accurate, as did the post on X (formerly Twitter) from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman mentioned that the next Beats Pill would come with a price tag of $149 and that's precisely how much the new Beats Pill will cost when it hits shelves on June 27 (well, $149.99). This is much lower than we might have expected, given that the Beats Pill Plus was $179.95 when it was last on sale, (having launched in 2015 at $199) but hey, we're not complaining.
Australian pricing is set at AU$249.95, and UK pricing is on its way.
In terms of finishes, you get three – Champagne Gold, Matte Black and Statement Red.
Beats Pill: Features
The 2024 Beats Pill doubles as a speakerphone for phone calls, which might sound a little, ahem, old-hat, but by deploying Beats’ proprietary noise-learning algorithm its makers say this Pill will better target the user’s voice.
The Beats Pill now supports instant one-touch pairing on either Android or iOS, plus Find My (iOS) or Find My Device (Android). OK, it's essentially an Apple product, so certain Apple ecosystem features – iCloud pairing to every device on your iCloud account and the ability to hand off audio to your Apple Watch if your iPhone's out of range – are here.
For extra features on Android, Beats will direct you to the Beats app (requires Android 8.0 or later) but for iOS users, Beats clearly feels its integration with iOS is sufficient – your AirPods don't have a dedicated app on your iPhone, after all…
You can also sync two Beats Pill speakers for double the audio, in either mono or stereo, which is done by pressing a button on the top of the speakers simultaneously, although connecting up to 100 Pills (in the way you can with JBL PartyBoost, say) is off-menu.
If you find the Pill low on juice, Fast Fuel should give you 120 minutes of music from a 10-minute charge too.
Beats Pill: Sound
How does the Beats Pill compare for sound up against the likes of the Sonos Roam 2 – and is it one of the best Bluetooth speakers around? We're working on it, we promise. Check back for a full review soon.
Until then, we can tell you about the upgraded acoustic architecture under the hood: there's now a solo, reengineered racetrack woofer (rather than the dual woofers found in the Beats Pill+) and it's now aided by stronger neodymium magnets. According to Beats, this helps the Beats Pill drive 28% more motor force to "displace 90% more air volume". Then there's "radial ribbing" – ergo, it should sound louder, but with minimal distortion.
Taking care of the high notes is a redesigned tweeter (again one, not two, as in the older iteration) secured in its own housing, and let's not forget the entire configuration is now angled up by 20 degrees, so its improved sound should hit you just right. The 2024 Beats Pill is also 10% lighter than its predecessor, because Beats has shaved 68g / 2.4oz off the weight.
But the big ace up the Pill's sleeve is that you can use the included USB-C cable to charge your phone or enjoy lossless audio from your laptop or other devices. It's a good (no, great!) perk to have if you value audio quality, because Bluetooth streaming, however convenient, does impose a degree of compression on your music.
When we've had the pleasure of testing it fully, you'll be the first to know…
@techradar ♬ Rock and Roll Session - Canal Records JP
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