Beats urBeats3 Earphones  Headphones Review

The urBeats3 are in-ears that don’t particularly stand-out. They have a flat cable and the bud is very small, similar to the design of the Beats BeatsX but without the neckband design. They come in a few color schemes, but you seem to get more options if you go for models with a lightning cable connector.

These headphones have a typical in-ear fit that isn’t for everyone. If you don’t find in-ears comfortable, you might have the same issues with these. They enter your ear canal, but on the upside, the bud design is very small and lightweight. You get different tip options, and their fin options can help you find a more stable fit that feels comfortable.

The control scheme of the urBeats3 is good. On iOS devices, you get full support for call/music management, volume control, and track skipping. You can also trigger your device’s voice assistant easily. However, on Android devices, the volume buttons don’t work and you can only use the middle button to play/pause and skip tracks. You’ll have to hold the middle button to trigger your device’s voice assistant to use voice enabled commands for volume control. Additionally, we tested this on multiple Android devices, and the voice assistant wouldn’t always trigger and would instead continuously rewind/skip backward on your playlist. Your experience may vary according to your device.

Like most in-ears, the urBeats3 don’t trap much heat and will be suitable for sports. You won’t notice a big difference in temperature when wearing these and you shouldn’t sweat more than usual.

These wired headphones can easily fit inside pockets or a bag. They are very portable and easy to carry with you at all times. Their earbuds are also magnetic, which makes cable management easier when wearing them around your neck. They also come with a small rubber pouch.

The Beats urBeats3 come with a similar rubber pouch/soft case as that of the Beats BeatsX. It's flexible and portable and should protect your headphones from scratches and minor water exposure, but it will not shield them well against physical damage from drops.

The urBeats3 are practically built the same way the BeatsX are. They have a nice rubberized design and a flat cable which gives them a fairly durable feel. The buds themselves seem fairly solid and should survive a few accidental drops without too much damage.

The Beats urBeats3 are stable earbuds, even more so with the included stability fins. You should be able to jog and exercise with these if you can find a good fit with the different tip and fin sizes. The small buds enter deeply in the ear canal, which is stable. Since they are wired headphones, their cable could get hooked on something, which would yank the buds out of your ears.

• Beats urBeats3 headphones
• 4x tip sizes
• 2x stability fin sizes
• Carrying pouch
• Manuals

The frequency response consistency is excellent. If the user is able to achieve a proper fit and an air-tight seal using the assortment of tips that come with the headphones, then they should be able to get consistent bass and treble delivery every time they use the headphones.

The bass performance of the urBeats3 is very good. LFE (low-frequency extension) is down to 10Hz, which is excellent. The low-bass is also over our target curve by more than 3dB, which will add an excess thump and rumble, which fans of bass-heavy music may prefer. However, the rest of the range is fairly flat and follows our target curve well. Overall, the bass is really good, but might be a bit too thumpy for some.

The urBeats3 have a good mid-range performance. The overall response is fairly even and well-balanced, which is important for the clear and well-balanced reproduction of vocals and instruments. However, it shows a 5dB recess centered around 800Hz. This pushes vocals and leads to the back of the mix by giving more emphasis to bass and treble frequencies.

The treble of these headphones is also very good. The response is even and well-balanced up to 7kHz, but there’s a small dip centered around 8kHz and a high peak at 10kHz. This will make sibilants (S and T sounds) in these frequencies a bit uneven, as some may lack detail and brightness while others will feel sharp and piercing. However, not everyone hears treble frequencies the same way, so your listening experience may vary.

The stereo imaging is great. Their weighted group delay is at 0.12, which is great. The group delay graph also shows that the entire response is well below our audibility threshold. This ensures a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Also, the L/R drivers of our test unit were very well-matched in frequency, amplitude, and phase response. This is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The soundstage is poor. This is because creating an out-of-head and speaker-like soundstage is largely dependent on activating the resonances of the pinna (outer ear). The design of in-ears and earbuds is in such a way that fully bypasses the pinna and doesn't interact with it. Also, because these headphones have a closed-back enclosure, their soundstage won't be perceived to be as open as that of open-back earbuds like the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) Truly Wireless, or the Bose SoundSport Free.

The isolation performance of the urBeats3 is great. In the bass range, where the rumble of airplanes and bus engines sit, they achieved about 11dB of isolation, which is decent and quite good for passive in-ears. In the mid-range, important for blocking out speech, they reduce outside noise by more than 22dB, which is very good. In the treble range, occupied by sharp S and T sounds and air conditioning noises, they isolate by more than 36dB, which is also very good.

The leakage performance is excellent. These in-ears basically do not leak, so there's no need to worry about disturbing the people around you unless you are blasting your music in a very quiet place. With the music at 100dB SPL, the leakage at 1 foot away averages at 28dB SPL and peaks at 44dB SPL, which is below the noise floor of an average office.

The microphone of the urBeats3 has a very good recording quality. The LFE of 269Hz indicates a recorded/transmitted speech that is slightly thin. However, this won't have a significant effect on the comprehensibility of the speech. Additionally, the HFE (high-frequency extension) of 15kHz and the relatively flat response between LFE and HFE mean that speech will sound relatively present and natural.

The noise handling of this in-line microphone is mediocre. In our noise handling test, it achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of about 14dB, which means they will have difficulty separating speech from ambient noise in moderately loud environments.

The Beats urBeats3 don’t have a battery.

The Beats urBeats3 don’t have a companion app for controls and customization options.

These wired in-ears headphones are not Bluetooth compatible.

Thanks to their wired connection, these headphones won’t have any latency issues, which is great for watching video content and playing games.

Update 05/17/2019: We've adjusted the review to show that the urBeats3 are intended to be used with an iOS device as you don't get full controls on other devices.

While their 1/8” TRRS connector is compatible for audio and mic support on PC and PS4, the mic won’t work on Xbox One. Also, we don’t recommend using the microphone on PS4 as there is a loud hissing noise that can be heard, which affects the intelligibility of speech, making it practically unusable.

The Beats urBeats3 don’t have a dock.