When Did Beats Solo 3 Come Out

Apple made a big, polarizing splash when it appear its new wireless AirPods during concluding week's iPhone seven keynote. The AirPods, which are completely devoid of whatever wires, were met with plenty of mixed reactions online. Whether or not you agree with the design of the AirPods is one thing, but the new W1 wireless chip, Apple'southward commencement, is promising to bring a better overall wireless audio experience to the masses.

Unfortunately, the AirPods don't ship until belatedly Oct, so unless yous're amongst the few who received early on review units, you'll accept to wait until the fall before you can experience the $159 wireless earphones for yourself. That said, you can still take Apple'southward new wireless W1 fleck for a spin, arguably the most important component of its AirPods, anyway.

The W1 wireless chip is not but embedded in Apple'due south AirPods, you'll find the same fleck tucked away in several pairs of new Beats-branded headphones also. The just-released Beats Solo3 On-Ear Wireless Headphones, for example, accept the distinction of being the outset production to hit the market place with a W1 bit nestled inside. As such, we felt that it was only right to provide you with a hands-on await at this compelling new wireless headphone pick.

"Up until now, no one has taken on the challenge to really evangelize the audio experience wirelessly between your mobile device and your headphones in a mode that takes advantage of the opportunities to do something new and practise something nifty," notes Apple's SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller. "And upwardly until now, no 1 has taken on the challenge of fixing the things that are difficult to do in those wireless experiences, and made it easy so that nosotros all want to relish them."

Speaking of the W1 fleck, Apple'south Chief Design Officer, Jony Ive, notes: "It is the first of its kind to produce intelligent, high efficiency playback while delivering a consistent, reliable connection … The W1 flake enables intelligent connectedness to all your Apple devices, and allows you lot to instantly switch betwixt whichever i you're using."

Of class, both Ive and Schiller were speaking in the context of AirPods, but the chip-speak should apply to whatever device that features a W1, such as the Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones. Watch our unboxing and pairing video below for a hands-on look at the W1 flake in action. To skip right to the pairing procedure, click here.

Video walkthrough

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Interestingly, there is nary a mention of the new W1 scrap, iOS ten compatibility, or anything else that would separate these headphones from others on the shelf, mentioned on the Beats Solo3's packaging. The 40 hours of wireless battery life, a meaning jump over the 12 hours of battery available in the Beats Solo2, is the 1 matter that might inkling a casual onlooker in on the fact that something's different. That, and the power to quickly charge the headphones using the Fast Fuel option, which lends 3 hours of playback for just a 5-minute charge.

Pairing

It'south in the headphone's instruction manual that the differences are finally addressed. Although the moniker "W1" is never mentioned anywhere throughout the materials, users are provided with updated pairing process instructions for iOS 10:

Step 1: Turn on Bluetooth via Control Center.

Stride 2: Press the ability button on the Beats Solo3 for ane second, concur the headphones near an unlocked iPhone, and follow the onscreen instructions.

Step 3: Start listening.

The pairing process is but as elementary as Apple tree demonstrated during the iPhone 7 event

It's a much-welcomed divergence from what can oftentimes exist a painful Bluetooth pairing process. For the tape, Bluetooth is yet beingness used, it'south just that Apple has dipped the protocol in its ain secret sauce to brand the pairing process much more palatable.

Audio output options on iPhone

Like the AirPods, the Beats Solo3 tin can exist simultaneously connected to your iPhone and Apple Lookout man, providing instant switching between devices. For other devices like iPads and Macs running macOS Sierra, information technology'due south as simple as selecting the Beats Solo3 as an output source.

The W1 chip affords simultaneous Apple tree Scout and iPhone connectivity

The bang-up thing near the new pairing process afforded by the W1 chip is its iCloud integration. In one case you pair your headphones with one device, the pairing information propagates across all iCloud-enabled devices running the latest Apple tree software.

Audio output options on iPad Pro

This ways that you can just open Control Eye on your iOS x-enabled iPad, or macOS Sierra-enabled Mac, and the Beats Solo3 headphones will announced as an audio output option. In that regard the process is a scrap, as Apple often likes to exclaim, magical.

The thing to remember is that, every bit long every bit you are signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID across all devices, you lot'll only need to pair your gear up of Beats Solo3 headphones once, and every bit shown above, even that initial pairing process is painless.

There'southward a reason why Apple tree made it easier to choose audio output on macOS Sierra

Both iOS ten and macOS Sierra are designed in a way that makes it easy to switch audio output devices on the fly. A elementary swipe upwardly from the bottom of the screen reveals the redesigned Command Centre interface in iOS ten, which makes switching output devices easy. In the new iOS ten Music app, switching output devices is fifty-fifty more simple; audio switching is baked into the Music app'due south At present Playing interface.

The new Music app interface in iOS 10 makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to switch between sound output devices

If you lot switch between devices often, yous'll appreciate how easy it is to route music to your headphones without needing to finagle with the device's Bluetooth settings. Yous tin can still pair the Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones with 4th-gen Apple TVs and non-Apple devices via the traditional Bluetooth pairing process, y'all just won't get the benefits afforded past the W1 chip.

Bombardment life

Forth with the ability to select the Beats Solo3 as an output device, you're besides given current battery statistics for the headphones.  Jony Ive'due south quote included a line almost "intelligent high efficiency playback," and the results are encouraging.

I don't have bombardment size specifications, but the Beats Solo3 lasts a whopping twoscore hours on a single charge. That's 28 hours more than the Beats Solo2, which, at seven.viii ounces, weighs only 0.two ounces less. In other words, while at that place may be some changes with regard to the bombardment and other internals, it seems as if the W1 chip has helped in the area of battery life.

Range

I've never endemic whatever wireless headphones above the $200 price threshold. I've owned a pair of PowerBeats 2 in the past, but never anything above that. Most of the wireless Bluetooth headphones that I've endemic have been on the depression cease of the cost calibration. As such, I normally have problems with connectivity and maintaining a good, strong signal.

The Beats Solo3 is easily-downwards the best pair of wireless headphones that I've e'er tested when it comes to range, much in part due to its class 1 radio. I placed my iPhone by the front door within my firm. I then proceeded to exit the back door and walk all the mode to the back of the yard, Michael Jackson's "Wanna be Starting Something" all the same thumping, and walked right near the argue line. I don't know the exact distance that was, but I can assure y'all that it wasn't nearby.

With any other headphones that I've owned, the signal would take long departed, probably before I even stepped exterior the house. With the Beats Solo3, the signal was withal perfect and the music kept playing without even the slightest of interruptions. Super-impressive.

Sound quality and fit

It might seem silly to take sound quality this far downwardly the page, but I've learned that sound is a highly subjective matter. What sounds skillful to me, might not sound as adept to you, and vice versa. Therefore, I like to focus on the technical and characteristic aspects of headphones that I review.

That said, it's imperative to at least bear on sound quality in gild to understand the type of headphones that you're getting. The Beats Solo3 is a pair of closed back headphones with tiny leather-similar plush cups for the ears. The headset won't, in most cases, enclose your entire ear, but information technology'southward made to residuum snuggly — a little too snuggly for my tastes — against the ear.

Audio with these headphones definitely favors low stop bass, only it'due south nothing like the stereotypical pair of booming bass headphones that Beats made its name off of. Overpowering low stop audio is still the brand's bread and butter, but significant attention to detail has been paid to the mids and highs besides.

In near cases, unless you're someone who takes audio very seriously, you'll be happy with the way these sound. The ranges are balanced enough to satisfy the average listener, and aren't nearly as bass-reliant equally Beats headphones have been in the past.

On board controls

Yous'll exist happy to know that the Beats Solo three features on board controls for music playback, volume, and Siri invocation. The left ear loving cup features all of the needed controls, along with a microphone for sending commands to Siri.

On the opposite ear cup, you'll find a fuel gauge, which helps denote how much battery life is remaining. The fuel judge features v pocket-sized LEDs that display remaining battery life with a quick printing of the power button.

Proceed an eye on battery life via Notification Heart or past using the Battery widget

Having a fuel gauge is a nice characteristic, but you'll get much more than accurate bombardment readings by looking at the remaining bombardment life in Control Center, or by using the Battery Widget on the Lock screen.

Other points of note

I never intended for this to be an outright review, only information technology seems to have inadvertently turned into such. With this in mind, I may likewise touch on some of the other notable points about these headphones.

Although the headphones are wireless, a RemoteTalk headphone cablevision with 3.5mm headphone jacks (lol) on both ends is included in the box. This, effectively, allows y'all to plow your Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones into a pair of Beats Solo3 Wired Headphones. The RemoteTalk cablevision fifty-fifty comes with an inline remote for music and phone phone call management. This is peachy for those times when you run out of battery life, or for other occasions, such as depression latency podcast monitoring (latency is significantly less than well-nigh Bluetooth headphones, yet it'southward still discernible.)

During the time when the RemoteTalk cable is being used, the wireless portion of the headphones shut down to conserve bombardment life. It'due south not a feature that people primarily looking for a wireless experience will use oft, only information technology's a great feature to have on standby.

Speaking of battery life, the unit's Fast Fuel feature affords users iii hours of music playback time for only 5 minutes of charging. For comparison, AirPods need 15 minutes of charging to obtain the same corporeality of battery life.

One of the major problems that I tend to experience with Bluetooth headphones is that they're always dead when you need them. With a feature like Fast Fuel, y'all should never take to worry near beingness without music, as long as you lot take five minutes to spare.

Gripes

No Lightning

My biggest gripe with the Beats Solo3 wireless headphones is that it withal requires a microUSB cable for charging. I honestly thought I'd seen the final device with microUSB, but I stand corrected. In a earth with Lightning and USB Type-C, microUSB seems like a definite step dorsum. Another one of Beats' W1-powered products, the Beats X Wireless Earphones, ships with Lightning connectivity in tow. Since Beats Ten is a brand new model to the Beats lineup, it likely made justifying the movement to Lightning much easier.

Build quality

For $299, I expect the build quality to be much better. I can't say for sure how these headphones will hold upwardly over the long term, but the first affair I noticed was the plastic.

At that place'due south lots of plastic hither. The headband is plastic, the outer ear cups are plastic. Almost the entire headphone is…plastic. There is a little bit of metal thrown in there, primarily the inner ring, but college quality materials are few and far between.

The wire that goes betwixt the 2 ear pieces, while protected in a recessed surface area of the inner band, is still exposed. I've seen other headphone manufacturers do a ameliorate task of hiding the wires, which helps protect from shorts and other potential damaging scenarios.

Beats has a history of producing headphones with suspect build quality, and then the initial build of these headphones, while visually highly-seasoned, doesn't instill much confidence in me. Information technology's too bad, because the Beats Solo3 is solid in well-nigh every other aspect.

Determination

If you can expect past the potential build quality bug and the lack of Lightning connectivity, so I retrieve well-nigh will be satisfied with the Beats Solo3. It's $100 more than expensive than I think it deserves to exist, (you lot can find Beats Solo2's for much cheaper) only that'south the cost yous have to pay to be an early adopter.

If y'all employ Apple devices exclusively, then the inclusion of the new W1 wireless fleck makes the Beats Solo3 – available at present on Amazon – that much more attractive. Like shooting fish in a barrel pairing and virtually seamless migration between devices makes using these headphones in most any scenario a breeze.

Then there'due south the xl hours of battery life, iii hours of bombardment life from a five minute charge, and that glorious long range connectivity. Lastly, the on board music and volume controls, Siri controls, and the ability to use these headphones like normal wired headphones is a definite win.

The Beats Solo3 is a characteristic-laden product, just it's non perfect. Not everyone will honey the sound quality or the fit, merely I think a significant contingent of Apple users will appreciate the overall experience.

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When Did Beats Solo 3 Come Out,

Source: https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/15/hands-on-beats-solo3-wireless-the-first-available-headphones-featuring-apples-new-w1-chip-video/

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