New Beats Solo Buds now have an availability date

Sorry for not telling you before, but a month ago Beats (a company Apple bought in 2014) announced new $79 Beats Solo Buds along with the Beats Solo 4 headphones. Now they have an availability date: June 18 (I know, that is a bit far-off to be announced so soon). To be exact, you will be able to preorder it on that date, and the buds ship on June 20.

Features (Beats Solo Buds)

I haven't covered the features of the new buds yet, so I'll do that now. They feature an in-ear design and 4 ear tip sizes (the regular S, M, & L plus XS). They also provide a proprietary Beats chip that provides one-touch pairing with either iOS or Android (I wonder how Apple allows that!). Also, you can locate them if you lose them with either Apple's Find My or Google's rendition. Each of the earbuds offers a Beats-branded button that has similar functions to squeezing the earbud in just the right place with 2nd-gen AirPods: you can use presses to turn on Siri, get in control of the music playing, and answer calls that might be coming through. The functions of the button can be customized in the Settings app. Also, they have a good microphone and speaker, plus Class 1 Bluetooth.

Battery life is the star feature, with Beats saying that up to 18 hours of battery life can come from the buds (no charging case)! Speaking of the charging case, you can't charge your earbuds with it: you have to use the USB-C port to charge (directly from your devices if you want). When you're charging, you can use Fast Fuel (Beats' proprietary fast-charging technology) to get an hour of music after only 5 minutes of charging. The colors are Storm Gray, Matte Black, Arctic Purple (only at Apple and Target), and the star of the show, Transparent Red. The Beats Studio Buds were discontinued following the announcement.

Features (Beats Solo 4)

I decided to list the features of the Beats Solo 4 right now because I thought I might not get the chance again (and it's already been a month since it was announced!). So, the Beats Solo 4 has the same comfortable design as the Solo 3, with ear cushions so thick that they act as a sort of replacement for the nonexistent ANC feature. There is (of course) improved sound (with "dialed back" bass), plus a uplink-&-downlink-compatible USB-C port and headphone jack which doesn't drain battery. The button functionality is the same as before: press the logo for play/pause and move backward/forward, press on the up side or on the down side of the ring around the logo. Only bad thing is, Apple users don't get to enjoy some sound features. I wonder how Apple lets Beats sell that!

Apple says that the Beats Solo 4 offers 50 hours of playback, plus Fast Fuel that offers 5 hours of listening with ten minutes of charging. The colors are Matte Black, Cloud Pink, and Slate Blue. Bye, and happy listening!

By Leo