Beats Studio Pro 2 wishlist: All the features I want to see

Beats recently turned heads with the Powerbeats Pro 2. Destined as some of the most compelling workout earbuds money can buy, these deliver powerful noise canceling, Apple’s H2 chip, and a built-in heart-rate monitor. These juxtapose the company’s latest over-ear headphones, the Beats Solo 4, bringing a high price tag and narrow functionality. Unfortunately, the Beats Studio Pro fare even worse, costing $150 more at launch and owning a feature set strikingly void of high-end Apple features. Even the fit is poor, making the cans a questionable choice for many potential buyers. Little wonder, then, that fans are excited about a substantially improved Beats Studio Pro 2.

Unfortunately, Beats remains tight-lipped and, given the company’s previous release schedule, we may be years away from a feature-rich upgrade. Nevertheless, here are all the features I want to see when the Beats Studio Pro 2 come to fruition.

Larger and deeper ear cups

The best headphones accommodate many head shapes with adjustable headbands, rotating hinges, and differing ear cup sizes. The last is vital for securing a good seal and isolating your music from distracting environmental noise. Different ear cup materials can also improve comfort and drastically alter a headphones’ sound signature and frequency response. For example, the Sennheiser HD 800 S have deep and soft fabric ear pads that are exceptionally comfortable and excel in recreating the intricacies of various genres.

The Beats Studio3 Wireless wear good-sized leatherette ear cups that are comfortable for several hours before getting hot. Unfortunately, Beats downsized the Studio Pro’s ear cups, making them more uncomfortable for those with larger heads and ears. Glasses wearers and those with longer hair are particularly at risk of achieving a poor seal, resulting in degraded ANC and isolation performance. This can lead to a perceived lack of bass and comparatively loud highs that can quickly become grating. The Beats Studio Pro 2 should wear larger and deeper ear cups to accommodate more head shapes and sizes.

Touch-capacitive controls

Most of the best wireless headphones have ditched clicky buttons for touch-capacitive controls. For example, the Sony WH-1000XM5 use touch controls to adjust volume, skip tracks, enable transparency mode, and more in a cinch. Many headphones also use voice assistant features, gesture controls, and ear detection capabilities. These create a seamless user experience without fumbling around with physical buttons.

The Beats Studio Pro are simple to use and adorn physical buttons on the left and right ear cups. These include volume controls, play/ pause, track skipping, voice assistant, ANC toggling, and power on/ off. While these are reliable, applying force to buttons on the back of the ear cup while wearing the item on your head causes problems. Notably, pressing buttons can accidentally break the seal around the ear and emphasize the loud actuation inside the headphones. Sure, this could be avoided with larger and deeper ear cups. However, the Beats Studio Pro 2 should use touch-capacitive controls to remain up-to-date with market trends.

Apple’s H2 chip and multipoint connectivity

It’s worth noting that Beats has been a subsidiary of Apple since 2014. Subsequently, many of its products share hardware with flagship Apple products. For example, the eternally popular Beats Fit Pro come equipped with Apple’s H1 chip, delivering high-end features like spatial audio, the Siri voice assistant, and Bluetooth 5.0. Likewise, the recent Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 use Apple’s H2 chip, enjoying access to one-touch pairing, automatic switching, Audio Sharing, and Find My.

With that in mind, you’d never know the Beats Studio Pro is an Apple product. With neither the H1 or H2 chip installed, fans miss out on multipoint connectivity, automatic ear detection, and improved power efficiency. This is a drag, given other Beats products enjoy many of the best Apple features. The Beats Studio Pro 2 should use Apple’s latest H2 chip. This would deliver Adaptive Transparency Mode, improved noise canceling, longer battery life, and more reliable wireless connections.

Improved software features

As mentioned above, the Beats Studio Pro do not enjoy all the bells and whistles of rivaling flagship headphones. For example, the Sony WH-1000XM5 come with industry-leading noise canceling, Bluetooth 5.2, and the high-res LDAC codec. Downloading the Sony Sound Connect app also unlocks ANC optimization, 360 Reality Audio, and a custom equalizer that saves the settings directly to the headphones.

By comparison, the Beats app provides painfully limited functionality. In particular, the app is primarily used for downloading vital firmware updates, renaming the headphones, or changing the behavior of the system button. The headphones do not support future-proof techs like Auracast, LE Audio, or the LC3 Bluetooth codec. While these may materialize in a future software update, the lack of multipoint connectivity raises questions about Apple’s commitment. The headphones also award only three additional EQs for iOS, while Android fans are forced to download a third-party EQ app. The Beats Studio Pro 2 should provide improved software features at launch.

Better microphone quality

While dedicated condenser microphones placed in front of the mouth deliver the best microphone quality, wireless headphones have come a long way. To that end, (and not to harp on about them,) the Sony WH-1000XM5 enjoy some of the best microphone quality on the market. This is largely thanks to their eight-microphone array and AI noise rejection algorithm. Together, these excel at attenuating unwanted environmental noise from wind, office chatter, and construction works.

Unlike Sony’s flagship offering, the Beats Studio Pro’s microphone sensitivity is very low. This creates very quiet output levels, particularly among frequencies above 1kHz. This is problematic given the headphones’ microphone array is less adept at dampening ambient noise. In busy environments, callers on the other end will likely struggle to differentiate your voice from wind howl and keyboard tapping. The Beats Studio Pro 2 would benefit office workers and those with busy lifestyles by bringing better microphone quality.

Will there be a Beats Studio Pro 2?

Apple remains invested in Beats’ earbuds and headphones categories. The Powerbeats Pro 2 launched in February this year and enjoy Apple’s H2 chip, an integrated heart-rate monitor, and excellent noise canceling. Like AirPods, sales of Beats headphones contribute to Apple’s net sales. The company’s Wearables, Home and Accessories sector continued to outstrip iPhone and Mac sales in Q1 of 2025. Subsequently, the Beats Studio Pro 2 are almost certain to launch.

Unfortunately, Apple has not mentioned its next-gen Beats headphones so far and rumors remain sparse at the time of writing. They may also launch with a different name, given the Studio Pro dropped their predecessors’ ‘Wireless’ moniker.

• Beats Studio2 Wireless — 2013
• Beats Studio3 Wireless — October 2017
• Beats Studio Pro — July 19, 2023

The release window between each generation of Beats Studio headphones continues to increase. The company also appears not to prefer a particular season when refreshing its over-ear headphones. For example, the Beats Studio2 Wireless launched in 2013, followed by the Beats Studio3 Wireless four years later in October 2017. The most recent Beats Studio Pro came to market five years and three months later on July 19, 2023. By that metric, we should not expect the Beats Studio Pro 2 to launch until approximately May 2028. Beats fans will be hoping for an update long before then.

Should you wait for the Beats Studio Pro 2?

Given we are still potentially years away from the Beats Studio Pro 2 being realized, we do not recommend waiting for them. Instead, those with smaller heads looking for noise canceling and USB audio passthrough headphones should consider the Beats Studio Pro. These remain available from major retailers including Amazon and Best Buy.

Provided you can secure a comfortable fit, the Beats Studio Pro ($349.99 at Amazon) are decent headphones. On paper, iOS and Android users receive pleasing sound quality, scoring highly with our panel of MDAQS virtual listeners. Ironically, the headphones do away with the company’s unnecessarily bass-heavy history in favor of over-emphasized highs above 5kHz. Active noise canceling deadens unwanted ambient noise by roughly 50-90%, attenuating some frequencies by as much as 53dB. Battery life lasts over 31 hours, allowing fans to stream a week’s music before topping up. When needed, the headphones yield four hours of listening time from a 10-minute boost. Most tantalizingly, the headphones sport a USB DAC, allowing you to listen to your favorite tunes wired over USB-C. Unfortunately, the small and shallow ear cups make the headphones a questionable purchase for anyone other than those with a smaller-than-average head.

Besides ANC, there is virtually nothing the Beats Studio Pro can do better than the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless ($289.23 at Amazon.) For the same price, fans receive exceptional sound quality with a bass boost that many listeners will enjoy. Microphone quality is significantly better than the Beats Studio Pro, capturing voices well with slightly better noise rejection. Battery life lasts an exceptional 56 hours with ANC enabled, and the cans use an Auto On/Off to preserve battery when not in use. The headphones use touch gestures to control playback and most other features, although there is one button for power on/ off, Bluetooth pairing, and muting the microphone. Most importantly, the MOMENTUM 4 wear a somewhat thick leatherette padding that is comfortable for long periods. The Sennheiser Smart Control app also unlocks many advanced features including vital firmware updates, “Smart Pause,” Adaptive ANC, and an equalizer.

Those in need of the best noise canceling and a bit of extra cash will enjoy the Sony WH-1000XM5 ($387 at Amazon.) These cans attenuate most fundamentals by around 30dB, making engines, trains, and streets sound roughly one-eighth as loud. As stated earlier, Sony’s flagship offering enjoys some of the best microphone quality on the market. The sound quality is excellent, and the headphones can connect via high-res LDAC, AAC, SBC, or wired with a TRS cable. Functions are controlled with an intuitive capacitive touch panel, and the Sony Sound Connect unlocks many compelling features. These include a native custom EQ, ANC optimization, 360 Reality Audio, and Google Fast Pair. Battery life lasts nearly 32 hours with ANC enabled, and the cans yield 180 minutes of playtime from a three-minute top-up. The WH-1000XM5’s ear cups are deep and wide enough to accommodate those with larger ears.

Price-conscious buyers should grab the Anker Soundcore Space Q45 ($149 at Amazon.) For substantially less than the Beats Studio Pro, the Space Q45 support Bluetooth multipoint, run Bluetooth version 5.3, and connect via SBC, AAC, and LDAC. However, those who prefer wires can hook up to their device with the included 3.5mm jack cable. The headphones should last over 55 hours with ANC switched on and profit four hours of playback time from a 5-minute boost. The metal-reinforced headband can accommodate larger head shapes, and the pleather padding makes the headphones comfortable for a couple of hours. It is worth noting that noise canceling and sound quality are not as good as the Beats Studio Pro. Likewise, the Soundcore app offers a finicky experience for controlling wind noise reduction, Bluetooth codecs, and adjusting the EQ. However, the Space Q45 are great value for money.

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