The Beats Pill+ is a small, portable Bluetooth speaker. It has a sturdy build, though it doesn't have an advertised rating for dust or water resistance. Its sound profile is boomy, and the overemphasized treble range may make higher frequencies sound bright or piercing. However, it can play stereo content without downmixing it into mono. Unfortunately, it's not compatible with voice assistants.
Our Verdict
The Beats Pill+ is middling for music. Its boomy sound profile can make vocals and lead instruments muddy, while the overemphasized treble makes higher frequencies sound bright or piercing. It also struggles to reproduce a thumpy low-bass, which is disappointing for fans of bass-heavy genres like EDM. Unfortunately, there's no EQ to let you tweak its sound profile. Thankfully, this speaker can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono, so you feel immersed in your music.
-
Able to play stereo content.
-
No EQ.
-
Lacks low-bass.
The Beats Pill+ is sub-par for watching videos and movies. It has an overemphasized treble range, so dialogue may sound sharp or piercing. It also lacks low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump and rumble in action-packed movie scenes. Fortunately, its Bluetooth latency is low with iOS and Android devices, making it suitable for watching videos. However, some apps compensate differently for latency, so user experience may vary.
-
Low latency over Bluetooth.
-
No EQ.
-
Lacks low-bass.
The Beats Pill+ is decent for playing podcasts. You can pair up to two devices at a time, which is useful if you want to switch your audio source frequently between your phone and laptop. It's also quite portable, and its battery lasts just under eight hours. Unfortunately, its boomy sound profile can muddy vocals and dialogue, while the overemphasized treble can make sibilants sound bright or sharp.
-
Supports multi-device pairing.
-
No EQ.
This speaker doesn't have voice assistant support.
The Beats Pill+ is reasonable for outdoor use. Its sound profile is fairly boomy, which may please fans of bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop. Although its battery lasts just under eight hours, that's still long enough to use it outside for most of the day. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very loud, and it doesn't have an advertised rating for water or dust resistance, which we don't currently test for.
-
Able to play stereo content.
-
Small and portable design.
-
Doesn't have an advertised rating for water or dust resistance.
- Music
- Videos/Movies
- Podcasts
- Voice Assistant
- Outdoors
- Updated Aug 15, 2024: We've added a comparison between this speaker and the Beats Pill in Soundstage.
- Updated Aug 21, 2023: Updated the Portability picture for greater clarity and consistency between reviews.
- Updated Feb 25, 2021: Review published.
- Updated Feb 23, 2021: Early access published.
- Updated Feb 17, 2021: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Feb 17, 2021: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Beats Pill Plus comes in three color variants: 'Black', 'White', and 'Red'. We tested the 'Black' variant, and you can see the label for the model we tested here. We expect all variants to perform similarly in tests.
If you come across a variant not listed here, let us know in the discussions so we can update our review.
Compared To Other Speakers
The Beats Pill Plus is a portable Bluetooth speaker. Its sound profile is fairly boomy, and its treble is overemphasized, so higher frequencies might sound bright. Fortunately, It can play stereo content without downmixing it into mono. Although it feels solidly built, it doesn't have an advertised IP rating for dust or water resistance. Unfortunately, it's not compatible with voice assistants.
See also our recommendations for the best Bluetooth speakers, the best cheap speakers, and the best Bluetooth speakers for bass.
The Beats Pill is the updated, 2024 version of the Beats Pill+. While there have been some upgrades in terms of performance and features, there have been some omissions with the newest iteration too. The 2024 variant has more balanced sound, a better build quality and support for voice assistants via compatible smartphones. It also charges via USB-C (as opposed to Lightning) which will be a bonus for many users. That said, users that like to hear stereo separation in their music will be disappointed that the new pill only supports mono playback. It also lacks Bluetooth multi-device pairing, which will be frustrating if you like to take turns DJing.
The JBL Flip 5 is a better speaker than the Beats Pill+. The JBL is a better-built speaker with an IPX7 rating for water resistance. It also has a more balanced sound profile. However, the Beats can play stereo content, and its latency over Bluetooth with iOS devices is lower, making it more suitable for watching videos. That being said, some apps compensate differently for latency.
The Beats Pill+ is a slightly better speaker than the JBL Charge 4. The Beats can play stereo content, unlike the JBL. However, the JBL is a better-built speaker with longer battery life, lasting over thirteen hours on a single charge. It also has slightly less compression than the Beats at max volume.
The JBL Xtreme 2 is a better speaker than the Beats Pill+. The JBL has voice assistant support, although it relies on your smartphone's voice assistant. It's also a better-built speaker with an IPX7 rating for water resistance, though we don't currently test for this. Thanks to its better-balanced sound profile, vocals and lead instruments are reproduced more clearly. However, the Beats has a punchier high-bass, which may please some fans of bass-heavy genres like EDM.
The Bose SoundLink Revolve is a better speaker than the Beats Pill+. The Bose has voice assistant support, and though it relies on the voice assistant from your smartphone, it can understand you even if you're far away. The Bose also has a more balanced sound profile, making it better-suited to playing most audio content. However, the Beats can play stereo content without downmixing it into mono.
Test Results
The Beats Pill+ is a small speaker with a pill-shaped design. It's meant to be placed horizontally, and there's a speaker on both the front and back sides, each covered by a metal grille. It's wrapped in a rubber coating and it comes in three different color variants. The company logo on top lights up when the speaker's in use.
This speaker is incredibly portable. It's small and lightweight, so you can easily carry it with one hand. Since it's battery-powered, you can use it outside without worrying about plugging it into an outlet.
The Beats Pill Plus has a passable build quality. It feels solid, with metal grilles on each side of the speaker. Most of the speaker is wrapped in a rubber coating, which can scratch easily over time. Fortunately, the rubber doesn't attract fingerprints easily. There's also a rear covering for the speaker's ports. It doesn't have an advertised rating for water, impact, or dust resistance, and we don't currently test for this. If you want a speaker that you can use outside more comfortably, consider the Bose SoundLink Color II, which is rated IPX4 for water resistance.
The Beats Pill+ has very good controls. Located on top of the speaker, the buttons are clicky and easy to press. There are separate volume adjustment buttons and a power button, which you can short-press to see the five-light battery level. When the battery level dips below 10%, the fuel gauge light blinks red. You can press the multipurpose 'b' button once to play/pause your audio, twice to skip forward a track, and three times to go back to the previous track. The 'b' button also lets you answer/end calls. The speaker chimes when powering on/off or when pairing to a device over Bluetooth. Unfortunately, there's no audio or visual indicator for the volume.
- Beats Pill Plus speaker
- Lightning to USB-A charging cable
- AC power adapter
- 3x 'b' stickers
- Quick Start Guide
The Beats Pill+ has sub-par frequency response accuracy. Its sound profile is boomy overall, with an overemphasized treble range that can make higher frequencies sound bright and piercing. Its mid-range isn't very well balanced, either, so vocals and lead instruments may not be reproduced clearly. Although it struggles to produce low-bass, the extra boom in the high-bass may please fans of bass-heavy music like hip-hop or EDM. Unfortunately, there's no EQ to let you tweak its sound.
The Beats Pill speaker has a satisfactory soundstage performance. Unlike its next generation, the Beats Pill, It can play stereo content, but its directivity isn't great. As a result, its soundstage is perceived as narrow, rather than open and spacious.
The Beats Pill Plus has acceptable dynamics. It doesn't get very loud, and there are some compression artifacts present at max volume, so it may not be suitable for playing in large or crowded rooms.
This speaker has a decent battery performance. While it's advertised to last for twelve hours, in our tests it lasted just under eight hours. That said, battery life can vary depending on usage, so user experience may vary. Fortunately, it has a power-saving feature, turning off after some time without audio playing. This speaker is charged using a lightning cable, and it takes a bit less than three hours to charge from an empty battery.
This speaker doesn't have voice assistant support.
The Beats Pill+ app is okay. It's compatible with iOS and Android devices and lets you pair two speakers to form a stereo pair. You can also connect multiple Beats Pill+ speakers to play the same audio across a larger space. Unfortunately, it lacks an EQ, so you can't customize the speaker's sound profile.
This speaker has an AUX port, which you can use to connect your smartphone to the speaker to play audio. There's also a USB-A port, which lets you charge other devices using the speaker's battery.
This speaker has amazing Bluetooth connectivity. You can pair up to two devices at the same time, which is useful if you want to switch your audio source quickly between your laptop and smartphone. Its latency over Bluetooth with iOS and Android devices is low enough to be suitable for watching videos, although some apps compensate for latency differently. Its Bluetooth range is outstanding, so the speaker can still receive audio input even if it's far from the paired device.