I had to go to an ear specialist last year, I won’t go into detail, but the long and the short of it was that I have VERY small ear canals apparently… I think that’s why I’ve only ever found one pair of in-ear headphones that have fit well and stayed in, but that was 25 years ago and, since then, I’ve almost exclusively used over-ear headphones.

Recently I was asked if I’d like to review the fresh new Beats Powerbeats Fit in-ear buds for sports and working out, with their unique design I thought it may well be worth a shot! And here we are.

Unless you’ve been living under a large noise-cancelling rock, you’ll know that Apple purchased Beats back in 2014 for an eye-watering $3B and has since run Beats as a subsidiary brand. Despite what you may think, Apple hasn’t had much of a hand in the design, that’s left to SF based design house, Ammunition Group. I didn’t realise this and just thought that the aesthetically pleasing, tactile, minimalistic packaging (and product) was down to Apple – I was wrong! Beats packaging is a beautiful experience in itself, and honestly, so is their gear… (But it’s not all about how it looks, more on that later)

 

The Setup

Opening the compact package, you’re greeted with the (in my case) orange earbud charging case that houses your new earbuds, and below that you have an extra three sets of silicone ear tips, one smaller and two larger than the ones that are already installed. I figured I’d have to immediately switch out for the smallest set, but tried and kept the medium set in action and haven’t changed them yet.

The buds are partially charged (They’ve been fully charged in the case in the image below) and, after pairing, can be used right away. My pairing experience was near seamless (iPhone 17 Pro Max) as soon as you bring your charging case close to your phone and open it, you’re asked if you’d like to pair, and so pair I did. This is all down to the Apple H1 chip, it does things like Spatial Audio, Head tracking, ANC and transparency mode, but also managed the seamless handoff between two devices (I’m on an iPhone and use a Mac) as well as providing support for “Find My” and Siri, you still get one-touch pairing on Android with the Beats, but I can’t speak to that as I don’t have an Android device I’m sorry not sorry. (Sorry Petey)

 

The Fit

The new Powerbeats Fit are most notably different than previous generations with the more compact charging case, and the more flexible “wing tip”. When you pop the Powerbeats Fit in your ear and rotate it slightly backward, the wingtip ‘locks’ it into place. As I mentioned earlier, my odd ears mean that nothing locks into place, that said, these have been the best fitting in-ears so far. I can cycle (off-road and with transparency mode active, thank you very much) walk the dog, run for a tram and haven’t had one come flying out yet – *I was on a call earlier, trying on a suit (don’t ask) and I managed to have one come out mid-call, which led to a funny situation (more on that later)

I do find that when I yawn or (I don’t really know how to say this!) wiggle / move my ears (it’s something I’ve just always done, ok!) that the right bud becomes slightly dislodged and I need to re-seat it, but that’s not happened often. The Powerbeats Fit actually do FIT pretty well. (Me and my weird ears!)

 

The Sound

As I mentioned, the Powerbeats Fit have ANC, or Active Noise Cancelling, and while I don’t have the Apple Airpod Things to compare to, I do have a previous pair of Sony buds (not as new, the ANC is better with the Beats) I found it to block out I’d call it about 95% of ambient noise, be it walking or sitting on a tram or in a cafe – they do a great job! The transparency mode lets in a mostly natural sounding ambient surrounding sound, and is very handy when you want to maintain some connection to the outside world (listening for my kids or wife yelling out to me) or if you need to hear the bus stop coming up etc.

An unfair comparison, but I prefer the noise cancelling and transparency modes on my over-ear headphones, but that’s an unfair comparison. So I won’t….

I mentioned in my last Beats review that I thought previously all Beats headphones were really bass and treble heavy, but for buds, I found the listening experience pretty relaxed, a decent amount of midrange along with a fairly standard amount of highs and lows, certainly not the tinny earbud experience of yesteryear.

 

General Use

I mentioned earlier I was on a call, dropped a bud and then…. well, because of the H1 chip and the seamless handoff between devices, when I answered the call, I was on my Mac, but then I wandered off with my phone and the call switched across to that, then the earbud flew out (I hooked it with the shirt collar – it was a comedy of errors!) so I put it back in and, when you tap the earbud, you start playback, but I was on a call and after putting the bud back in, I’d managed to restart the rather traumatic podcast I was listening to, I frantically tapped again and ended the call and stopped the podcast – that might take some getting used to. You have a single multi-function button on each bud, they’re pretty easy to tap… If I need to adjust fit on the fly, I typically also manage to start or stop playback, not an issue, just something to watch out for!

These buds are called “Powerbeats Fit” and the tagline is “True Wireless Earbuds for Sports and Working Out” which is why they’re IPX4 rated. Heat, Cold, Light Rain, Snow (Both the buds and the case) …but don’t go swimming under water with them, I don’t think they’d like that! I’ve not used them for any hard-hitting sport, and haven’t managed to get them messy, but they seem sturdy enough!

I’ve used them for the most part of a whole work day, no problem, battery is rated for upto 30 hours on a single charge, 7 hours continuous playback (not sure how those two figures go together, but they last long enough for most people) If you do happen to run out, they have a pretty fast charge cycle, five minutes of charge will get you an hour of playback.

 

In Summary

Pros:

  • Good sound quality.
  • Quick charging.
  • Solid connection during test.
  • Multiple earbud tips for best fit.
  • Cute, compact and in good colours (Though that’s to your own taste)

Cons:

  • Why no wireless charging in 2025 guys?
  • H1 chip rather than the new H2 chip? (But I get it, Apple has to keep the flagship in their flagship Airpod Pro, I guess?)

At the end of the day, I’m pretty impressed. The Powerbeats Fit are well featured and perfectly compact! I’ll be taking these on my OS flight next month (14 hours in a metal tube!) and look forward to packing them away in my pocket rather than having to take an extra bag for my over-ears. Good job, Beats.

They are available in Jet Black, Gravel Grey, Spark Orange and Power Pink, for A$329.95, from Beats or Apple.com.

DRN would like to thank Beats for providing the review unit.