Beats Solo Pro initial review: Popular headphones get premium

The Beats Solo is the company's most popular range of headphones to date. In fact, the manufacturer - now owned by Apple - has sold over a staggering 30 million units. So the company was obviously keen to update these over-ears, using its ties with Apple to create a silhouette which is better designed, better sounding and filled with advanced modern features than the earlier Solo. 

Those who might look down their noses at the previous plastic-heavy Solo might just do a double take when checking out the latest iteration. The 2019 Solo might look familiar, but Beats redesigned almost everything from the ground up, while still keeping that distinctive look, to make for some altogether more attractive cans.

Premium styling and comfort

• Anodised aluminium arms
• Versatile tilting ear cups
• Foldable design
• New canvas carry case

The fruits of the partnership with Apple are finally starting to show prominently in Beats' 2019 headphone and earphone line-up. With the Solo, it's more clear than before, for one main reason: that anodised aluminium. Rather than have a fully plastic headband with a tendency to rattle a little, Beats has used Apple's experience with aluminium to create a far nicer looking and feeling headband. 

Aluminium arms slide smoothly in and out of the headband, with enough resistance to keep them secure on your head, and without that ratchet style clicking you get from a lot of other headphones. Not only does that mean it feels more high-end when you adjust it, but also means it's a lot more versatile and can be more fine-tuned to fit your head. 

Depending on which colour Beats Solo Pro you go for, this anodised aluminium is finished in a way to match that colour scheme. The grey model, for instance, has a deep bronze accent, while the light blue headphones have a darker blue accent. And there's no shiny plastic anywhere, it's all a classy matte look, not like its predecessors. 

With Apple's influence comes attention to detail too. For instance, the wires connecting to the ear cups are seamlessly hidden away along the underside of the aluminium, so they don't jump out anywhere. What's more, the arms within the headphones extend longer than previous models, which should mean it fits bigger heads without feeling too snug. 

Part of the Apple strength also comes in research and development data. Having used Apple's extensive research capabilities, Beats came up with an ear cushion that offers more surface contact, with a dense cushion for a more comfortable fit, and a good seal to help keep noise out. 

Look around the earcups and you'll notice there's only one button. This isn't a power button either. It's the mode button that lets you switch the active noise-cancelling (ANC) and audio transparency features on or off. Solo Pro switches on by just unfolding the arms, then switches off by folding them back up again. 

One other thing that's missing is a 3.5mm input. That suggests the headphones won't have the option to use as a traditional wired headphone, with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable. We're yet to find out if the Lightning input is capable of use as an audio input as well as a charging port, but when our review unit comes, we'll be sure to test it out. 

H1 smarts and ANC

• Adaptive active noise-cancelling (ANC) adjusts for noise around you
• Battery life: 22 hours (with ANC) / 40 hours (without ANC)
• Audio transparency feature

The easiest way to describe the smarts inside the Solo Pro is that they're the same as in the Beats Studio 3 Wireless (well, almost, the earlier W1 chip has now switched for the updated H1 chip). The Solo 3 Pro has this updated H1 chip inside, taking care of all the smarts, which means you get "Hey Siri" voice support to call up the iPhone's assistant, among other additional features.

Like the Studio 3, the H1 processor means it's constantly adapting noise-cancelling and the sound you hear in order to adapt for the external environment. It's not just a single filter designed to cut out Boeing 747 engine drone. It adapts to cafe, train, tube noises and virtually any constant noise happening around you, as well as having the engine for cutting out wind tear.

One feature the H1 chip is renowned for is easy pairing with iPhones and iOS devices. Like AirPods you get a visual popup window when the headphones are first switched on, so you can pair them easily and then have them instantly paired with any Apple device using that same iCloud account - whether that be Mac, iPad or Apple Watch. 

What's really quite clever is that it uses the mics inside the ear cups to detect if there's any noise leakage, which is useful for anyone who might be wearing glasses. 

As well as noise-cancelling, there's an audio transparency feature that lets you hear more of what's going on around you. If you're often waiting at train station platforms or in airport lounges, you'll not need telling why this voice passthrough feature is useful. You switch it on or off quickly by pressing the single button on the ear cup. 

We got to test it sitting in a room blaring fairly loud sounds from traffic, cafe situations and such, and found the transparency did work pretty well. We could hear a coffee shop employee asking how we would like our coffee, for instance. Granted, this is all in a controlled environment, not in a real life coffee shop, but the difference between having ANC on or having audio transparency on was massively noticeable. It worked best with the volume at below 50 per cent in our initial test, but it definitely works. 

Of course, if you have your music turned up really loud, the audio transparency feature is going to struggle - or more your own ears might. Quieter ambient noises won't cut through Papa Roach blaring at 95 per cent volume. 

Beats claims that with either ANC or audio transparency switched on, you'll get around 22 hours from a full battery charge. With it off, you can get up to 40 hours. And you can charge it with your iPhone's Lightning cable. 

Feeling supersonic

• Proprietary driver (won't find it anywhere else)
• Optimised geometries and diaphragm films
• Custom tuned silicone

As well as redesigning the headphones on the outside, Beats and Apple have done a lot of work on the acoustics, custom building a proprietary driver that you won't find in any other pair of headphones. Rather than look for a driver in the Chinese supply chain, the two designed a new one,  then got it made to scale. 

The idea behind this new driver is that Beats could then create the sound it wanted to get from the headphones, with the aim of making them a blank canvas, so when it came to the tuning the silicone that delivers the sound it could be crafted to sound just right. This is where the pure driver and the H1 smarts combine to create a sound that's great, no matter the environment. 

Beats wanted to ensure there was a good balance across all the frequencies, so that each of the bands was separate and didn't muddy over each other, so you could hear quality at every point. 

We only got a short time with the headphones, so we'll reserve our full judgement until we get a pair in the real world, and test it every day in our own environment, but our short time using the Solo Pro was grand. The sound certainly seemed well-balanced, there wasn't any overly booming bass, and details in the high frequencies were crisp without any noticeable distortion. 

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