My first exposure to Beats was actually via Sime a little over a decade ago, when he kindly gifted me his old Beats Monster Studio Dr Dre cans. A year later, Apple bought Beats for a cool $3 billion bucks in a cash and stock deal.
Sime had recently reviewed the new Beats Studio Pro and the Pill, both of which got rare nods of assent from the music aficionado. When I was offered a chance to check it out for myself, but in the Beats Pill x Kim colourways, I jumped at the chance.
First Impressions
Right off the bat, the Beats Pill x Kim is the same unit as the standard Pill. This third collaboration between Kim Kardashian and Beats brings two new colourways to the line up. Unlike the Studio Pro which was inspired by Kim’s signature palette, the Pill collab gave us Light Grey and Dark Grey.
After consulting with my partner, the decision was to opt for a Light Grey review unit. The colour to me skirts closer to a warm beige but don’t fight me on it. Pretty much everybody have told me that I never pick the colour right so stand down there.
Going back onto safer grounds, the Pills really looks like … a pill. It’s a giant pill, with a very solid feeling mesh that takes up about a third of the front of the speaker. A simple “b” in the same colour adorns the center of the mesh.
Four little rubber feet helps keep the Pill in place. Buttons wise on the top going from left to right is power, mute, and volume up and down. A handy wrist strap in matching colourway on one end.
If you are trying to picture the size of the Pill, the length is roughly the short edge of a piece of A4 paper.
In Use
There is nothing to getting the music pumping. You simply pair the Pills via Bluetooth and stream your music.
On Android there is an app that gives you some controls, but only in very basic ways.
When you first turn on the Pill you get a pretty loud and distinct bing noise, which you can tone down via the app. You can also change the controls to optimise your audio and video calls. Noting that is changing how the buttons react to set actions. There is no provision to change the sound profile in any way. It comes with an engineered sound and that is what you will get.
With that out of the way, how does the Pill sound? Does it live up to what Sime thinks?
Well it gets loud, like really loud. You can crank it up right up for the life of the party but at that level of sound, don’t expect the best audio quality. But I am jumping ahead of myself. Truly I do value my hearing.
I mix up my music a lot depending on my mood. With the Beats Pill I started off with something boppy and very current – the collaboration between Bruno Mars and Rosé “APT”. At a much more reasonable volume level, the rendition was excellent, the voices of Rosé and Bruno Mars complements each other and without fails sets Princess A dancing to it. It is one of her favourite songs at the moment.
Continuing with the Philo pocket rocket collaborations with Lady Gaga “Die with a smile”. What a banger of a track between two powerful voices that is just the track for a reflective moment. The Pill did not disappoint with the delivery.
Moving into something entirely different, I felt the urge to listen to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. I feel this is where the Pill’s weakness is exposed. The classical piece requires more precision and separation of instruments and chords to truly showcase this masterpiece of violin music. But rather than an attack, dynamics and tone of the violins, the soundstage felt tight and the notes a bit muddled.
Skipping back to k-pop with Lalisa’s Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me), the vocals comes through cleanly and there is a nice separation of the beat from her voice.
I cycled through a few more classical pieces, Boléro, Ride of the Valkyries, Pachelbel Canon in D. I can’t put my finger on it, but the audio for some of these pieces are not quite there particularly with string instruments. It came across muddled and lacking clarity. It was not as apparent with brass or woodwind instruments. Perhaps I am just a snob, having played the violin in a previous life.
How Many Reviewers Does It Take to Put the Beats Pills into Stereo Mode?
Apparently two. I took the opportunity to catch up with Sime and his red “Pillock” to test both units together.
The Beats Pill can work in Amplify or Stereo mode. It took us a couple of goes to figure it out and it was easier on Android than on iOS. But essentially we had to pair both devices via Bluetooth to the same phone, then add the second speaker to the group within the Beats app itself.
When we got it working, we have to admit it works pretty good. The sound was full and rich, and it maintained clarity even on a bit over 60% volume and filling Sime’s lounge and kitchen space with music (bit of Gunners and also Fink). It will do very nicely for a party gathering.
That said though, side by side, my Pills unit sounds tinnier than Sime’s unit.
Other Features
The Beats Pill comes with a Class 1 Bluetooth, which means you can connect up to 100 meters away. Not something I am going to be doing in a public place, and I don’t have a mansion with great lawns where it can be 100m away from me on a private property.
I did have it in the yard playing music or podcast whilst I worked in the garden, or tinkering with the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra with my boy. No complains there even when I wander further off, the Pill never lost the connection.
Battery life is rated for 24 hours, and in my testing I have yet to charge it up over the days I have been using it. It has been going strong straight out of the packaging. If you are getting desperate though, a quick ten minutes charge can yield up to two hours playtime. Your mileage will vary naturally, if you prefer to blast it at full volume.
Also a nice touch is the app colour theme reflects the colour of your unit. In the case of Sime’s red “Pillock”, the app returns a red interface. With my “Pillsocodone” in the Kim Light Grey, the app reflects that.
Conclusions
The Beats Pill x Kim is a solid Bluetooth speaker. There is no technical difference on the Kim collaboration unit from the standard edition, other than two new colourways. I really don’t mind the light gray even though it looks closer to a warm cream beige to me. Everything feels solid, there is no flex in the mesh up the front.
I suppose it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue calling it a Beats Banh Mi, but I can’t help myself, the colourway and shape just triggers that association for me.
I find that if I stay away from classical music, the Pill has little to complain about at intermediate volumes. If you want to blast it on high, it will rise to the challenge for the volume, but less so for the sound quality. Then again if you are the type to listen to everything at full volume, you are not really there for all the subtle nuances of the rhythm.
Both Sime and I were impressed at the overall quality of the sound coming out from such a small unit.
The Beats Pill x Kim is available in Light Grey or Dark Grey with RRP AUD $249.95. The standard Beats Pill comes in Champagne Gold, Statement Red and Matt Black. These are available from the Apple Store, or JB Hi-Fi.
DRN would like to thank Beats for providing the review unit.
