Often windy. Always worth the trek.
From the top of Twin Peaks with wind strong enough to knock over a bicycle, the audio quality is fantastic. While no noise-cancelling technology is implemented, the snug fit of the Powerbeats Pro ear buds keeps most of the wind’s howls tamped down: no distortion when listening to music, but a quiet audiobook narrator should be saved for a lower elevation. After an hour of running, I still have hours of battery life and nothing but nice things to say about the ear buds: these magic moments never last long.
The buds naturally fall into the correct charging alignment every time. It even works well one handed.
I remember seeing the first wireless ear buds and thinking they’d be more convenient, but I failed to grasp how impactful a change it would be for me. I was content dropping my phone down my shirt collar and pocketing my phone so I could listen with minimal wire intrusion on my range of motions. Apple’s AirPods were my first wireless headphones I used. It became easier to fall into flow states with other activities: cleaning, walking, cooking).
As I felt liberated to expand my use cases and expand my enjoyment opportunities, I began running into AirPod limitations. Sweat over time on long runs would force constant adjustment of the slippery buds; if I ran faster than an eight minute mile they would fall out of my ears. These two faults blinded me from appreciating how much everything else disappeared from attention due to good design. The carrying case maintained what felt like more than fair charge for their size and weight. The buds could only fall into one position and always charged together with the lid closed shut.
The proper alignment and placement of these is more abstract Mensa test than great human interaction design
When the Powerbeats Pro were first shown, I saw product fixes that addressed my nagging AirPod issues and assumed everything else would be handled with the typical Apple polish. While in use, I couldn’t be a stronger advocate for them. They sound great, have no issues with sweat and stay in place regardless of the activity or speed. Once I start recharging them or attempt to swap audio sources, significant problems consistently arise.
The case has enough capacity to recharge the ear buds 2-3 times before its drained and needs to be plugged in. It’s inconvenient enough to make the case kept at home (as opposed to traveling with the AirPod case in a pants pocket). Even with a denser battery, the case’s design has no regard for mobility. I can’t even close the lid and maintain charging on both ear buds. Whenever traveling with the case in a backpack, it’s a pretty safe bet that the jostling will have disconnected charging from at least one of the buds. I am never surprised when traveling to find the buds that were at 100% in the morning floating around zero after a traveling day spent in the backpack.
I shouldn’t need to check this every time I place them down to charge.
My lack of confidence in the Powerbeats Pro charging case has forced me to always consult my phone to double check that both ear buds are charging. It’s a pain that prevents the worse scenario of wanting to leave on an early morning run only to find that they died overnight while ‘charging’.
Another persistent Powerbeats issue stems from bluetooth connectivity. Often when they first connect to the phone, audio only registers from one ear. The iOS UI indicates a successful connection to both ear buds, yet sound fails to play out of one. Sometimes force quitting Libby or Music or Overcast and relaunching would fix the problem, but those fixes are unsuccessful enough that I now power cycle my phone every time I encounter one-ear audio issues. This happens on average once every four sessions of ear buds away from their charging case, or once every one to two days.
One way I can guarantee to trigger the one-ear audio bug is to try to swap audio sources. I would like to use my ear buds when listening from my phone, then while chatting in a video conference meeting on my laptop, and then to my watch for a run: that’s never going to happen. If I’m running a minute late to that meeting, I reach for my AirPods since they connect with audio in both ears every time I use them and every time I change the audio source. I don’t like feeling constrained by a product’s own shortcomings. Powerbeats Pro should float painlessly in use between audio sources.
I have such good occasional moments with my Powerbeats Pro. I wish I could have more of them. The damage in confidence to the brand makes me very unlikely to jump to the next Beats iteration of the product. My best bet for expectation management is hoping some of the sportier features end up incorporated into future AirPods iterations.