I have of late been noticing a lot of people in Indian cities and airports walk around with Apple’s AirPods Max despite their premium pricing. But now we have the option of buying top-end headphones from Apple which are a bit more affordable. The Beats Studio Pro are the top-of-the-line wireless headphones from the Beats by Dr Dre range which Apple has now made available in India too.
The Beats Studio Pro came to me in a sandstone colour, which I can say is not something I was expecting. It certainly is a colour I would not pick up on my own. But my son loved it, underlining how this works well for younger audiences. The sandstone body has some gold linings around the headband and the Beats logo too in the same metallic finish.
Kim Kardashian branded case. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
The design is conventional, though the headphones bend and fold into a small Kim Kardashian-branded case making them very portable. There is a power button on the right with LED battery level indicators just under it. It took me some time to locate this button with the headphones worn. On the left earcup, there is a button that lets you control the music and take calls, the ring around it has the volume controls. The headphones are very comfortable to wear for long hours as I experienced on a quick trip to Kerala.
Like with other Beats products, the Studio Pro works seamlessly with iPhones and other Apple products — you get a pop-up on the phone the moment you switch them on and you can adjust noise cancellation and settings easily from the control centre. You can move from the iPhone to the MacBook with a tap too. Now, the connectivity is as good with Android too as these use Google Fast Pair. However, the headphones keep playing even if they are not on your head and at this price point not having a sensor to figure this out is weird.
The noise cancelling on the Beats Studio Pro is very effective. I could make this out quickly as my air purifier was working full throttle most of this week and the moment you power on the headphones the whirring sound is muted. They come back when you go into transparency mode. There is a small beep that comes in between these modes so that you know the command has worked. There is also personalised spatial audio which can also be customised from fixed to head track mode.
The headphones come with 40mm drivers that are tuned and matched perfectly. Listening to Zakir Hussain’s magic on the tabla with Ek Taal with the sarangi playing the background you feel the deep bass these drivers can attain without much effort. As the maestro’s fingers take you to rhythm heaven, the headphones offer you a rich mellow feel even though this is a very basic composition without the arrangement of multiple instruments and the like.
The headphone has a USB-C port for charging. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
I switched to something more complex from the Top 100 2024 spatial music list of Apple Music. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things has that perfect mix of highs and lows with strong vocals that can test any decent headphones. The Studio Pro held itself under the pressure and gave a rich experience with zero distortion. Bass is the strong suit of this headphone, and I felt it with Doja Cat’s Paint The Town Red, not to mention the surround sound that spatial audio brings you.
With Nirmohiya from Bandish Bandits 2, the headphones smoothly transitioned from a chorus to male and female vocals, giving both the clarity they needed. However, I missed the sense of space you get with some headphones that cost this much. Because of this, I feel the Studio Pro will not impress many an audiophile.
At Rs 37,900, the Beats Studio Pro are rich headphones for those in the Apple or Android ecosystems. I would recommend these for younger audiences who are a bit biased towards bassy numbers but would like to experience different genres all the time.
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