I use portable wireless speakers quite a bit when I’m working in the yard, in my man-shed tinkering with some mid-life-crisis woodworking project, or somewhere else in my house other than my office, kitchen, or lounge (I have existing sound arrangements in those places).
So, taking delivery of the new Beats Pill Portable Bluetooth Wireless Water-Resistant Speaker for review was quite the fun prospect! A couple of the speakers I have are half the size and, to be honest, not very good at all. They’re fine if all you have as an alternative is your phone—don’t be one of those kids on the bus playing rap music through your phone’s speaker. For starters, there’s no bass (or mids… or anything, really!). I digress.
I also have a couple of larger Bluetooth speakers, notably my Bluesound Pulse, which is actually a soundbar. We use it for music much more often than for television or film. I guess you could say they were largely my benchmark for how I felt the new Beats Pill performed.
First, the specs of the Beats Pill Portable Bluetooth Wireless Water-Resistant Speaker, which I won’t type again because that’s a mouthful! Let’s just call it the Beats Pill. The Beats Pill is an aesthetically pleasing, perfectly tactile Bluetooth speaker, running Class 1 Bluetooth, typically utilised in more industrial devices. You can connect up to 100 meters away, though, to be honest, after thinking about it, I can’t imagine a scenario that would involve me having my phone more than about 50 meters from my speaker ever. So in the real world, I’m sure the Bluetooth range is just fine! I’ve tested by leaving my iPhone in my office and wandering all around my house with no dropouts. That’s a decent pass!
The Pill comes in three colors: Champagne Gold, Statement Red, and Matt Black. As you can see from the photos, I have the red one! It’s vibrant and easy to spot.
The new Beats Pill is lighter and more portable than its predecessor. I’ve not had the chance to take it to the beach—it’s darn cold here in Melbourne right now—but you can see below that it’s pretty easy to slip into your man-bag. The speaker has an IP67 rating so you can splash it and take it to the beach (or in my case, into the shed with all that sawdust) without worrying that you’ll destroy it. You can also use the USB-C charging port to connect your phone and use the Beats Pill to charge your phone or to play high-resolution lossless audio (which you can’t do via Bluetooth). Note, the Beats Pill does not come with a charging adapter, just the cable. You can plug it into your computer to charge; you’ll know it’s working when the Pill makes a BINGGGG noise and the LED on top turns green.
The battery is said to last up to 24 hours and is also quick to take in a charge (a quick 10-minute charge can give you up to 2 hours of playtime). While I’ve not tested it for the claimed 24 hours, I have left it running in my office all day (from about 80% charge state) and it still had 45% left after about 10 hours. That’s pretty impressive.
Now, the main thing with speakers for playing music is how they sound; I think we can all agree on that. That said, I’m not about to pretend we use these smaller Bluetooth speakers like this perfectly compact Beats Pill as some sort of reference speaker—we’re not out here doing critical listening. It’s an occasional music speaker in about 85% of use cases, I’d hazard to guess. The “We need some tunes, Karen! What you got?” and Karen goes and gets the Bluetooth speaker and cranks up some tragic 2021 dance anthem. There’s NOTHING wrong with doing that, and the Beats Pill would be PERFECT for that very occasion. But I’m just putting it out there: you’re not listening to this thing while sitting behind an EMI TG12345 mastering the Beatles’ last album, are you? (I’m no audio snob, but I do love a good sound.)
I’ve sat and listened to a whole host of different styled tunes from Frank Ocean to Bob Dylan on this Pill. Right now, while typing up my thoughts, I’m listening to the latest Fink album, “Beauty In Your Wake” (well worth a listen!), which, without sounding too uppity, is pretty technical musically with lots of detail. The highs and lows are handled just fine on this little Beats Pill, the mids get lost pretty easily, and at high volumes (over about 75%), it starts to muddy up, and the detail gets lost pretty quickly after that. (But she’s loud.) You are talking about a Bluetooth speaker that is smaller than the ham/salad roll I had for lunch today, so it’s really no surprise. Does that mean it has bad sound? Actually, I think it’s in the top three or four small Bluetooth speakers that I’ve listened to. I used to love my old Sony SRS XB3 (again, volume under about half), but this Beats Pill, which is a good amount smaller, has a much more relaxing sound for a speaker of this size. So it’s my go-to Bluetooth speaker for using around the house and in the shed for now. But yes, when you turn it up loud—and it can get quite loud—it gets pretty muddy.
You can pair a couple of Beats Pills for stereo L&R operation or for synchronized audio that Beats call ‘Amplify Mode.’ So you could have two speakers, one on one side of the room, one on the other, playing the same thing. I don’t have two, so I’ve not been able to test this setup. I don’t know if there’d be any audible delay when paired.
What’s in the box?
- Beats Pill wireless Bluetooth® speaker
- Removable carry lanyard
- USB‑C to USB‑C cable for charging and audio
- Quick Start Guide
- Warranty card
(USB‑C power adaptor sold separately)
You can read about the full technical specs of the Beats Pill and pick yourself one up on their website here: Beats Pill.
In summary (while listening to “Long Way Home” by the immeasurable Ray Lamontagne), I’m suitably impressed with this new version of the Beats Pill. It looks good, feels great in the hand (though I’m acutely aware that’s not a real measure of a Bluetooth speaker—you’ll know what I mean when you hold your own!), and sounds quite good at intermediate volumes. It’s loud enough to get your rad dance moves on if LOUD is what you’re here for. Good job, Beats. Good job, Dre.
DRN would like to thank Beats for the review unit.
