Beats Solo 3 vs. Solo Pro vs. Studio 3: In-Depth Comparison And Verdict

Overview of Beats Solo 3, Solo Pro and Studio 3

| #1  Beats Solo 3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones

Google Users Rating: 4.6/5

• Bestbuy: $149.99 (up to 0.5% cashback)

• Walmart: $154.95 (up to 4% cashback)

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The Solo 3 Wireless are the most popular over/on-ear headphones in the Beats range and are regularly featured in cheap Beats headphones sales.They're available in a whole range of different color designs so there's plenty of scope to choose a color scheme that best represents your personality - whether that's jet black or blingy gold!  Touch-sensitive controls are present on the left ear cup for skipping tracks and changing volume. Beats claims up to 40 hours of life - and they do last so long - but, naturally, you can also plug in a 3.5mm cable for a wired connection to your phone. Or charge them up for five minutes to get three hours of playback time.

 As the smallest of the Beats on- and over-ear family, they wear their Apple ownership on their sleeve and come with Apple’s W1 chip built in for faster pairing with Apple devices. The newer Class 1 Bluetooth helps to create one of the most stable wireless connections. From a sound perspective, however, The Solo 3 Wireless fall a little short. It’s not that the sound is bad, and it’s certainly not as unwieldy as some Beats naysayers would have you think. But for all they give us in full-bodied sound and enthusiasm, they miss out in subtlety and refinement compared to the cream of the similarly-priced crop.

PROS	CONS
Light and comfortable	Dominant bass
Fun, energetic sound	Flimsy, plastic-rich construction
Apple W1 chip enhances experience with iOS devices	No active noise canceling
Excellent wireless connection
Detachable cable with inline remote for passive listening
Excellent battery life and range
Often available at a discounted price

| #2  Beats Solo Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling On-Ear Headphones

Google Users Rating: 4.5/5

• Bestbuy: $229.99 (up to 0.5% cashback)

• Kohl's: $279.99 (up to 3% cashback)

Beats Solo Pro are a marked step up from previous iteration which takes the smarts and noise cancelling of the Studio 3 and puts them in a smaller, on-ear pair of headphones. It's probably the best pair of wireless headphones Beats has made to date. Beats Solo Pro offers more surface contact than its predecessor, thanks to a redesign and new materials. The ear cups are mounted on arms in a way that allows them to move and angle freely to fit each user. They're a slightly tight fit and they can be bettered for timing, but their overall balance is nicely judged and bass isn't overpowering, which makes for an enjoyable listen.

Like the 2019 AirPods and AirPods Pro, Beats Solo Pro come with the H1 chip and this allows for fast pairing and hands-free Siri integration. The active noise-cancelation brings Beats Solo Pro somewhat closer to the best offerings from Sony and Bose, although those two are still ahead by some distance. I do like the simple-one button access to the transparency mode here though. This optional feature allows some outside noise to come through, which can be handy in an office if you want to be aware of someone calling your name or making sure you're aware of traffic around you when walking or cycling.
Battery life is a respectable 22 hours (40 hours with noise cancelling turned off).

PROS	CONS
Improved design	Lightning port only
Great Audio Quality and Punchy Bass in loud volume	Lacks 3.5mm AUX port
Great noise-cancelation	Expensive
Useful transparency mode
Excellent microphone quality
Features Apple H1 headphone chip and Class I BT technology
Nice Apple-specific benefits with Hands-Free Siri
Good Battery life

| #3  Beats Studio Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones

Google Users Rating: 4.2/5

• Bestbuy: $199.99 (up to 0.5% cashback)

• Amazon: $199.99

The Beats Studio3 Wireless is an over-ear headphone that features high-quality active noise canceling and brilliant sound quality. It creates a splendid listening experience by blocking out distractions through the Pure Adaptive Noise Canceling feature to let you focus on your music. Its audio reproduction and active noise canceling (ANC) system automatically adapt to you and your environment. Like most Beats headphones, it comes with the fantastic Apple's W1 chip which allows it to faultlessly connect with iOS devices, given that it is linked to an iCloud account.  The Beats Studio3 Wireless will not only support wireless pair and play with any of your Bluetooth devices within a 30-foot range but can also be hardwired through the audio cable to your phone.

The Studio 3 is available in multiple colors including: red, matte black, white, porcelain rose, blue and shadow grey. There are controls on the headphones themselves to skip tracks, change volume and accept phone calls. Its premium design warrants that the headphones encapsulate your whole ear inside its ear cup while the soft over-ear cushions offer extended comfort.It boasts a superb battery life from which one can enjoy music for up to 22 hours or up to 40 hours with the active noise canceling turned off. With the Fast Fuel feature, you get up to 3 hours of playback after only 10 minutes of charging.

PROS	CONS
Comfortable & plush earpads	No gesture controls
Plenty of color options	No passive listening mode
Solid sound quality and performance	The adaptive aspect of NC is not impressive
Good active noise cancellation
Apple W1 chip makes pairing with iOS devices even more simple
Android compatible
Great wireless performance
Good battery life

Beats Solo 3 vs. Solo Pro vs. Studio 3: In-Depth Comparison

The below comparison table will show you a short overview of these three Beats headphones.You can see the difference between their all key specs at once.  

	Beats Solo 3	Beats Solo Pro	Beats Studio 3
Type	On-ear	On-ear	Over-ear
Enclosure	Closed-Back	Closed-Back	Closed-Back
Wireless	Yes	Yes	Yes
Noise Cancelling	No	Yes	Yes
Mic	Yes	Yes	Yes
Transducer	Dynamic	Dynamic	Dynamic
Dimension	7.4 x 5 x 3.8 inches	7.48 x 5.55 x 3.43 inches	6.3 x 4.7 x 8.9 inches
Weight	0.47 lbs	0.59 lbs	0.58 lbs
Clamping Force	0.9 lbs	1.2 lbs	1.1 lbs
Controls
OS Compatibility	Not OS specific	Not OS specific	Not OS specific
Ease Of Use	Decent	Good	Good
Feedback	Decent	Good	Good
Call/Music Control	Yes	Yes	Yes
Volume Control	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microphone Control	No	No	No
Channel Mixing	No	No	No
Noise Cancelling Control	No	On/Off	On/Off
Talk-Through	No	On/Off	No
Additional Controls	Voice Assistant	Voice Assistant	No
Sound Profile
Bass Amount	3.55 dB	0.95 dB	-0.42 dB
Treble Amount	-3 dB	0.19 dB	-3.39 dB
Virtual Soundstage
Head Modeling	No	No	No
Speaker Modeling	No	No	No
Room Ambience	No	No	No
Head Tracking	No	No	No
Virtual Surround	No	No	No
Test Settings
Firmware	7.8.8	Unknown	Unknown
Power	On	On	On
Connection	Bluetooth 4.2	Bluetooth 5.0	Unknown
Codec	SBC, 16-bit, 48kHz	SBC, 16-bit, 48kHz	SBC, 16-bit, 48kHz
EQ	No EQ	No EQ	No EQ
ANC	No ANC	On	On
Tip/Pad	Default	Default	Default
Microphone	Integrated	Integrated	Integrated
Noise Isolation
Overall Attenuation	-11.63 dB	-23.18 dB	-21.66 dB
Bass	-0.16 dB	-11.23 dB	-8.03 dB
Mid	-7.97 dB	-23.13 dB	-22.18 dB
Treble	-27.36 dB	-36.34 dB	-36.18 dB
Microphone
Integrated	Yes	Yes	Yes
In-Line	No	No	Yes
Boom	No	No	No
Detachable Boom	No	No	No
Battery
Battery Type	Rechargable	Rechargable	Rechargable
Continuous Battery Life	38.2 hrs	24 hrs	23 hrs
Additional Charges	0.0	0.0	0.0
Total Battery Life	38.2 hrs	24 hrs	23 hrs
Charge Time	1.4 hrs	1.2 hrs	2 hrs
Power-Saving Feature	No	No	No
Audio While Charging	Yes	No	Yes
Passive Playback	Yes	No	No
Charging Port	micro-USB	Lightning	micro-USB
App Support
App Name	Beats	No	Beats
iOS	Yes	Yes	Yes
Android	Yes	Yes	Yes
macOS	No	No	No
Windows	No	No	No
Equalizer	No	No	No
ANC Control	No	On/Off	On/Off
Mic Control	No	No	No
Room Effects	No	No	No
Playback Control	No	No	No
Button Mapping	No	No	No
Surround Support	No	Yes	No
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Version	4.2 + W1 chip	5.0+H1 chip	4.2 + W1 chip
Multi-Device Pairing	No	No	No
NFC Pairing	No	No	No
Line Of Sight Range	313.00 ft (95.40 m)	277.00 ft (84.43 m)	297.00 ft (90.53 m)
PC Latency (SBC)	173 ms	216 ms	176 ms
PC Latency (aptX)	N/A	N/A	N/A
PC Latency (aptX HD)	N/A	N/A	N/A
PC Latency (aptX-LL)	N/A	N/A	N/A
iOS Latency	81 ms	88 ms	22 ms
Android Latency	120 ms	101 ms	73 ms
PC / PS4 Compatibility
PC/PS4 Analog	Audio Only (Not included)	No	Audio + Microphone
PC/PS4 Wired USB	No	No	No
PC/PS4 Non-BT Wireless	No	No	No
Xbox One Compatibility
Xbox One Analog	Audio Only (Not included)	No	Audio Only
Xbox One Wired USB	No	No	No
Xbox One Non-BT Wireless	No	No	No

Design & Build

Beats Solo 3, Beats Solo Pro and Beats Studio 3 look almost identical. They have closed-back designs and are available with multiple color options to match your taste. All Beats headphones have brash “b” logos on their both earcups, and these three are also not an exception to this. Their weight is also almost the same, and both come with foldable designs.

However, they have one big difference in their form factor. Beats Solo 3 and Solo Pro is an on-ear headphone, while Studio 3 has come with an over-ear design.

Comfort & Fit

All the three headphones offer a good amount of comfort with their thick and soft padding. Besides, you will get the right fit, thanks to their easily adjustable headbands. They have secured clamping force, which prevents them from sliding off easily upon head movement. But the clamping force of Beats Studio 3 more satisfy me.

In addition, as Studio 3 is an over-ear headphone, It has the edge over the on-ear Solo 3 and Solo Pro in terms of comfort. It won’t sit on your ears like the Solo 3 and Solo Pro. Instead, it will cover your whole ears without causing any irritating sensation. And as for the breathability, all the three headphones are the same showing an average performance. As long as you sit back idly and enjoy your music, they won’t trap much heat making your ears hot, but they are not ideal for using during moderate physical activity or gym.

Control System

The control system of Beats Solo Pro, Studio 3 and Solo 3 is almost similar. Beats Solo Pro has a dedicated button on its left earcup to activate the ANC or transparency mode. You can find the rest of the controls on the left earcup. There you will find a touch interface to adjust volume, play/pause/skip tracks, manage calls, and others. One downside is, there is no power button. You need to fold the headset to turn it off.

All the playback controls and call management options of Studio 3 and Solo 3 are also on the left earcup.You can click the left “b” button, and pressing it once, twice, or thrice and holding it down will accomplish different tasks.It works as a button for play/pause, skipping to the next or previous track, answering or ending calls, and activating the voice assistant.And press the upper part of the “b” button to increase the volume and the lower part to decrease it.Beats Studio 3 powering up automatically activates the noise cancelation. And for deactivating the ANC, you need to double-tap the power button.

Sound Quality

The bass-heavy sound is the signature sign of the Beats headphones. Beats Solo3, Solo Pro and Studio 3 are no exception. A good amount of bass offered by both Studio 3 and Solo 3. They deliver intense thump and boom, which is well-suited for genres like EDM and hip-hop. And talking about the mids, it can be a little unclear and indefinite in both models, but this is more evident on the Solo 3. In addition, the treble sounds bright and crystal-clear on both Studio 3 and Solo 3. They don’t sound muddled and muffled at all.
The Beats Solo Pro, on the contrary, has a pretty neutral sound profile suitable for a wide variety of music genres, including classical music. However, it still delivers emphasized lows for what Beats headphones are well-known. Even though the bass is a bit overpowering, it is still accurate and doesn’t sound muddy at all. Talking about the highs of Solo Pro, they are crystal clear and well-detailed as well. Overall, as per sound performance, I will keep the Beats Solo Pro ahead of Studio 3 and Solo 3.

Noise Canceling

In terms of noise canceling, Beats Solo Pro and Studio 3 have come with active noise canceling feature.They can eliminate any office-related ambient noises like background chatter and the humming of AC units.You can even study with this headphone without any disturbance as it will cut off the babble of your family members. Besides, they can slightly block out the sound of airplane and bus engines as well. Even without ANC on, they can block out ambient sound passively. And also won’t leak any sound at a moderately high volume.A plus point of Beats Solo Pro is that the headset has a Transparency Mode to make you aware of your surroundings. Because of this feature, you can talk with others or cross the road safely without taking off the headphone.

Whereas Beats Solo 3 doesn’t have any ANC feature, it provides passive isolation instead.Honestly, this headphone cannot serve you well if you are in a crowded area. What you can do in such a situation is increasing the music volume to mask the background noise. It’s not a convenient way, though. Otherwise, it won’t block out any bass-range noise like bus engines, which is frustrating while commuting with this headphone.  Talking about the flipside, Solo 3 can only do a bit better with higher-pitched noise.

Microphone and Call Quality

Beats Solo 3 and Solo Pro are both equipped with integrated microphones, but the Solo Pro’s mic has more decent noise handling. Yes, you will feel the presence of moderate noise when speaking, but your voice will still be understandable.Even if you take a phone call in a busy street, the person on the opposite side should still be able to hear you well. In contrast, the noise handling of Solo 3’s mic is sub-par.It struggles to separate your voice from surrounding noise, even in moderately loud environments. Your voice will be drowned out if you take a call in a noisy place.

While the overall microphone and call quality performance of Beats Studio 3 is even better than Solo Pro. The recording quality is also a bit better.Furthermore, along with an integrated mic, the headset supports an in-line microphone too. For this, wired or wireless, in both cases, you will have the calling benefit.

Connectivity

They all have an incredibly long wireless range as they support Class 1 Bluetooth, which means they work far beyond than typical 33 ft wireless range. Class 1 Bluetooth devices can operate at a distance of about 300 ft.
Solo 3 support wired mode along with Bluetooth connectivity. A 3.5mm audio cable is provided with this headphone which will let you switch to wired mode if you want to enjoy no latency connection or when the battery is low. Studio 3 comes with a 3.5 mm RemoteTalk cable, while you can use Solo Pro wired if you separately buy a Lightning to 1/8 inch TRRS cable.

 Battery Life

All of these three headphones offer a good battery life.  However, Beats Solo 3 considerably surpasses Studio 3 and Solo Proin this aspect. It offers 40 hours of battery life which is suitable for multi-day use. If you play it for a few hours per day, it will last for an entire week on just a single charge.Contrarily, Beats Solo Pro and  Studio 3 also can run up to 40 hours only when both the ANC and transparency mode are disabled. However, they can last up to 22 hours when ANC is enabled, which is still good for a noise canceling headphone.

In addition, all the three models feature a fast charging feature. Charge the Solo 3 for a mere 5 minutes. It will provide you with enough battery power to playback audio for 3 hours. In contrast, Studio 3 and Solo Pro will offer the same period of playback from 10 minutes of charging.

Verdict

Beats Solo 3 vs. Solo Pro vs. Studio 3: Who Is The Winner?

From the whole discussion, we can reach a conclusion that all the three headphones are good, but Beats Solo Pro is best which offers better sound, more features, and a more durable build. Moreover, with their better isolation and ANC, Solo Pros are more suitable for blocking out the ambient noises in a crowded area. It is also featured with the newer Apple H1 chip that offers you a more reliable wireless connection.