The Beats Powerbeats 2 Wireless are stable headphones great for the gym but disappoint with their sound quality. They're comfortable and are easy to carry around. Unfortunately, they have a skewed audio reproduction and don't block noise well, which is not ideal for loud environments.
Our Verdict
The Powerbeats 2 Wireless are decent mixed usage headphones. They're more geared towards sports with a good, compact and stable design but struggle under other test cases due to poor isolation and sound quality.
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Comfortable and stable fit.
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Minimal leakage.
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Poor noise isolation.
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Uneven bass-heavy sound.
Not made for critical listening. They have a poor unbalanced audio reproduction and an in-ear design that limits soundstage.
Below-average for commuting. They poorly isolate listeners from ambient noise because of their partially open fit. They won't fare well in loud environments
The Powerbeats 2 are good sports headphones. They have an incredibly stable hook design. They're also wireless and compact enough to carry on your person everywhere you go. Also, their in-ear fit allows you t o monitor your surroundings while running.
Average for office use. Minimal leakage but they won't block the chatter of a busty office.
Subpar for home theater use. They have too much latency for watching videos and movies.
- 6.6 Mixed Usage
- 6.1 Critical Listening
- 6.2 Commute/Travel
- 7.5 Sports/Fitness
- 6.5 Office
- 4.8 Home Theater
- Updated Aug 10, 2017: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Jul 18, 2016: Review published.
- Updated Jul 16, 2016: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jun 27, 2016: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Compared To Other Headphones
The Beats Powerbeats3 Wireless are a good upgrade over the previous Beats Powerbeats2 Wireless model. While the design is fairly the same, a few performance adjustments were done. The in-line remote now offers decent feedback and buttons are now easy to push. They also have a more neutral-sounding sound with a small bass overemphasis, instead of having a really boomy and cluttered sound profile. The Powerbeats3 also have more than double the Powerbeats 2’s battery life, and take less time to charge fully.
Test Results
The Powerbeats 2 Wireless are well crafted in-ear headphones. They have a stylized in-ear bud design with flexible ear hooks that fit around the ears. They come in a variety of two-tone color schemes that are eye-catching and sporty-looking. However, the tips are a little larger than typical in-ears.
The Beats Powerbeats2 Wireless are surprisingly comfortable for an in-ear design. The in-ear tips rest on the edge of the ear canal, reminiscent of an earbud, and do not exert any painful pressure. They would be a good alternative for those who find typical in-ear wireless models uncomfortable. They also come with a variety of tips to help listeners find a better fit.
These headphones have a decent control scheme. They provide call/music, track skipping and volume controls. Unfortunately, the buttons feel shallow and do not provide a good tactile feedback.
These headphones feel remarkably stable. The relatively thick ear hooks add a high amount of stability that some other in-ear headphones don't provide. They will stay in place even during high-intensity exercises at the gym. Their wireless design also makes them less likely to be yanked out of your ears because the audio cable got hooked on something.
The Powerbeats2 Wireless are very portable headphones. They're slightly larger than typical in-ear buds, but They're easy to carry around on your person and will comfortably fit into most pockets.
Comes with a stylish soft case that will protect the headphones from minor falls and water damage. However, the case is not robust enough for high physical stress, like accidently stepping on it.
The build quality of these headphones is above-average. The in-ear buds are lightweight and dense enough, to not get damaged by a few falls. The ear hooks are made of a rubber-like material that's flexible and won't break easily from regular use. However, the cable that links the two earbuds is susceptible to wear and tear and the inline control module feels cheaply made and not durable.
- Powerbeats 2 Wireless Headphones
- Earbud tips (x3)
- Carrying case
- Manual
- USB charging cable
Poor Isolation. Although in-ears usually provide very good Treble isolation, the amount of Treble isolation provided by the Powerbeats is below average. This is due to their loose seal. Additionally, they fail to achieve more than 7dB of isolation in the Mid Range, and provide none in the Bass Range.
Good leakage performance. The significant portion of the leakage is distributed between 4KHz and 7KHz, which is narrow and typical of most in-ears. The overall level of the leakage is relatively low too.
The Powerbeats have a decent wireless range. They're quite far reaching for an in-ear model and won't drop the wireless connection up to 30+ ft when the Bluetooth source is another room. As long as they are not too many walls between the headphones and the source. Their range in direct line of sight, however, is not the best so if your often outdoors or on an open field running laps the audio might cut out a lot sooner than the Soundsport Wireless. Unfortunately pairing them to your Bluetooth device is a bit tedious, and they don't offer NFC. On the upside, the auditory chimes provide a decent feedback when pairing.
The Beats Powerbeats 2 have a below average battery life. They provide just above 5 hours of continuous playtime, and they don't take too long to charge via USB. However, they won't be the ideal headphones to take on a long road trip or a particularly lengthy flight. They also don't have any battery saving features, like an auto-off timer, so they will quickly run out of power if you forget to turn them off.