powerbeats2 review

powering up my PowerBeats2 via the always-on USB port on my laptop. always-on USB ports = AWESOME.

Review of #PowerBeats2

Overall 2.5 out of 5 rating.

Prior to purchase, it fit all my requirements: higher bass sound quality (that is common w/ Beats products), Bluetooth 4.0, rechargeable, nice looking, phone function support.

I must have very oddly shaped ears.  These very expensive headphones don't fit me well.  And I had to use the largest ear plugs too in order to get anywhere near close to a snug fit.  I must have massive ear holes too.  I suppose it's perfectly possible, but I'm 5'9" and LeBron James is 6'8", so I would expect that he has bigger ears than I do.  But I also have a very large head.  I don't know LeBron's hat size.

The cord snags against clothes.  When I turn my head the cord tends to stick to my skin too.  And because the headphones don't plug in very snugly, or very securely, when I turn my head, it pulls the headphones out more.

The case doesnít fit well with the headphones.  With the diameter of the case, if you lay one end of the headphones into the case, then you gently wrap the cord in a circle into the case, then at the other end you have a little bit more cable left over than can fit into the case elegantly.  It's just really odd.  I have gently wrapped these guys into the case many, many times, and I would say that 3 out of 4 times they don't wrap/rest into the case very well.  

With the delicate nature of these headphones, and the extremely high cost of them, the case needs to be a hard.  Not squishable like the way they are right now.

The case needs a small pocket for the recharge cable.  Because it just sits in there, floating around, and it can get tangled up with the headphones.  And if youíre in a hurry, then you could very easily drop the small recharge cable out of the case and never know until you go to look for it.  I really like the feel of the case.  It feels really nice.  Don't know what the material is, but it doesn't seem to scuff up much and is resilient to gentle to moderate carrying around in a briefcase full of gadgets.

The recharging system I like.
The firmware upgrade system I like.  I heard from a friend that the video/audio sync was much improved after one particular firmware upgrade.

If I shove them into both ears with both my hands, then the audio quality is very good.  Only then do I like the way they sound a lot.  But it's not feasible to walk around 100% of the time with my hands and fingers shoving the headphones into my ears.

The Bluetooth connectivity is flakey.  They probably didn't imagine that a person would be connecting them to different devices all the time, but that's what I do.  I connect them to my iPad at home because I don't want to use my phone.  I use them with my MacBook when I'm on my MacBook and I don't want to bother my wife sitting next to me with my loud youtube videos.  I use them with my iphone when I am out and about in town.  And the connectivity isn't smooth and easy.  It might be an inherent issue with Bluetooth and how it connects.  But if I turn off Bluetooth on my phone and iPad, then the Mac is the only one looking for a connection or able to connect to the PowerBeats2, then I expect it to connect automatically and quickly.  But it doesn't.  I have to manually tell my Mac to connect to the headphones.  I am okay with shutting off the PowerBeats2 as I switch from device to device.  That's fine.  But if I only have one device connectable, and I turn on the PowerBeats2 with the tiny button on it, then I expect it to connect.  But it doesn't.  Sometimes I turn it off and on multiple times and it works.  Sometimes it connect instantly.  Sometimes it connects after a hesitation.  Sometimes I have to manually select the PowerBeats2 on the device I'm changing over to.  With the firmware, seems like the PowerBeats2 might have a list of items it has historically connected to and sequentially try to connect the available devices.

I do like the sound notification upon connection and disconnect (power down).  But sometimes after hearing the sounds over and over in trying to get the PowerBeats2 to connect to the correct device, the two sounds starts to sound the same.  So then I have to take off the already ill-fitting headphones and watch for the little white light and then struggle to get the headphones into a good position again in my ears.

So overall, for the money, which is pretty much the highest amount you can possibly pay for these type of headphones, I would recommend to take a pass with a caveat: I bought mine online, so it's a massive hassle to return them.  In this case because they are so expensive, I would say buy them locally, use them for as much time as allotted, and if they don't work out for you, then return them.  If I had bought mine at a local store, then I would probably return them.

And if you wear glasses, then the earpiece on the PowerBeats2 will interfere with how your glasses fit on your face.