Powerbeats Pro 2 review: Are these the best workout earbuds of 2025?

Six years ago, the Powerbeats Pro stormed onto the field as one of our favorite wireless earbuds on the market. That said, a lot has changed in the market in the past half-decade, and the old Powerbeats Pro have been a benchwarmer lately. All these years later, Beats has finally added modern features like Active Noise Cancelling, as well as some unique features like heart rate monitoring to the Powerbeats Pro line. Does that mean that Beats once again reigns supreme in the fight for best workout earbuds? Find out in this detailed review of the Powerbeats Pro 2.

What’s it like to use the Powerbeats Pro 2?

If you’ve ever struggled with getting earbuds to stay in your ears, you’ll appreciate the hook design of the Powerbeats Pro 2. Just like their predecessor, the earbuds wrap behind your outer ear, to ensure they stay in place. During a workout, I didn’t experience any slippage from the earbuds. That said, I noticed the hook putting some pressure on the back of my ears after a few hours. I guess you may have to trade off a bit of comfort to get the most secure fit possible.

Beats include five different silicon ear tips for the Powerbeats Pro 2, ranging in size from XS to XL. To ensure you are using the right size of ear tips, you can take an ear tip fit test within the settings on your iOS device, or within the Beats app on Android. After switching on the right size of ear tips, the earbuds create a tight seal in my ear canal, which is crucial for blocking out external noise.

The charging case is smaller than the first-gen Powerbeats Pro (thank god). It’s still a much larger charging case than most other wireless earbuds, but at least this one can fit in most of my pockets. For reference, it’s roughly the size of two AirPods 4 charging cases put together.

Water resistance is important for workout earbuds, as they are likely to encounter a fair amount of sweat. The Powerbeats Pro 2 are IPX4 rated, which means they can handle some splashes of water, but you shouldn’t submerge them in water or wear them in the shower. This is a bit underwhelming when there are other workout earbuds with military-grade durability ratings like the Jaybird Vista 2, but it’s good enough for my workouts.

What are the best features of the Powerbeats Pro 2?

As with all earbuds made by Apple, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 work best with iOS devices. That said, Android users aren’t left empty-handed, as you can still download the Beats app on Android to customize the earbud’s controls and features.

I found using the Powerbeats Pro 2 with an iPhone and Macbook very similar to using AirPods. The earbuds instantly connect to all your iCloud devices, the controls you need are just a swipe away in the Control Center, and you can dive into the iOS Settings app to further customize the earbuds to your liking.

The headline feature of the Powerbeats Pro 2 is heart-rate monitoring. The optical sensors on each earbud pulse a green LED light over 100 times per second, and then measure the light reflected back to calculate your heart rate. Apple says they brought over the technology from the Apple Watch, and I get similar readings on both. Since I already workout with an Apple Watch, I don’t need this feature, but some athletes will appreciate it.

It’s important to note that the heart rate monitor only starts tracking when you start a workout, it doesn’t constantly monitor your heart rate throughout the day. The earbuds also don’t collect any other biometric data such as step count or distance, so the Powerbeats Pro 2 are not a true fitness tracker replacement. That said, you can share your heart rate data with third-party fitness apps, as well as third-party fitness equipment for real-time monitoring.

If you haven’t tried Apple Music yet, you get a free 3-month trial to the streaming service included with the Powerbeats Pro 2. The parent company also offers AppleCare+ coverage for the Powerbeats Pro 2 for $15 per year, which includes unlimited incidents of accidental damage protection.

How do the Powerbeats Pro 2 connect?

The Powerbeats Pro 2 have the Apple H2 chip inside. That chip enables instant connectivity and deep integration with Apple devices, including one-touch pairing, automatic switching, Audio Sharing, hands-free Siri and Find My. I appreciate the fact that I can seamlessly switch from listening to music on my iPhone to watching a video on my Macbook without ever needing the pair the earbuds to my computer, and I didn’t experience any stutters or dropouts in regular use.

You can also connect the earbuds to non-Apple devices over a standard Bluetooth 5.3 connection. The earbuds support SBC and AAC, with no support for higher-res Bluetooth codecs for Android users. Outside of Apple devices, there’s no support for Bluetooth Multipoint for connecting to multiple devices at the same time. I also found that in order to successfully pair the earbuds with a new device, I had to disconnect and forget the earbuds from my Apple account. This is an annoyance if you plan on using the Powerbeats Pro 2 with both Apple and non-Apple devices, or if you want to pair the heart-rate sensor to your fitness gear. Right now, it’s impossible to play music from an iPhone while sending heart-rate data to a fitness machine at the same time, but this could be fixed with a future firmware update.

How long is the battery life of the Powerbeats Pro 2?

The Powerbeats Pro 2 have a rated battery life of up to 10 hours on a single charge, with up to 45 hours including the charging case without ANC enabled. This is roughly double the rated battery life of most AirPods models. Our battery testing is currently ongoing, but so far the earbuds have been capable of making it through a day of heavy use.

There are a few upgrades when it comes to powering up the earbuds. The charging port is now USB-C rather than the obsolete Lightning port found in the older model, and there is now support for wireless charging. Combined with the long battery life, this means you should rarely be left in a situation where your earbuds are dead with no way of powering up the case.

How well do the Powerbeats Pro 2 cancel noise?

The Powerbeats Pro 2 do a great job of blocking out external noise. Our testing shows that the earbuds reduce the loudness of external noise by an average of 83%, which is in line with the AirPods Pro 2. In my experience taking the Powerbeats Pro 2 to the gym and out on the streets, I found the noise canceling does a great job of reducing most noise. Ambient noise is pretty much eliminated, while some incidental noise such as people talking loudly can slightly leak through. Turn on music though, and the rest of the world completely fades away.

If you’d rather stay aware of your surroundings, the Powerbeats Pro 2 have an excellent transparency mode. Apple has been the best at creating a realistic transparency mode for a while now, and the Powerbeats Pro 2 are no different. Turning on transparency mode sounds pretty much the same as not wearing the earbuds at all.

How do the Powerbeats Pro 2 sound?

Most casual listeners will be fine with how the Powerbeats Pro 2 sound. They aren’t designed to please audiophiles but rather have an energetic sound profile with amplified bass and treble for working out. Most people will find the earbuds sound better with ANC enabled than with ANC disabled.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics assesses the sound of the Powerbeats Pro 2. The sound quality is rated on a scale from 1.0 (very bad) to 5.0 (very good).

With ANC enabled, the Powerbeats Pro 2 sound quality scores well according to a simulated panel of listeners. An Overall Score of 4.6 is high for wireless earbuds, though not best in class. Immersiveness and distortion are the main shortcomings here, but even these scores are borderline good — so we don’t imagine many people will find the sound distasteful.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Can you use the Powerbeats Pro 2 for phone calls?

Microphone processing is handled on the iOS device that the Powerbeats Pro 2 is paired to, so the microphones work best when the earbuds are paired to an iPhone or other Apple device. Below you can hear our standardized microphone demonstration with the earbuds paired to a PC and while paired on an iPhone.

Powerbeats Pro 2 microphone demo (Ideal conditions – paired to PC):

Powerbeats Pro 2 microphone demo (Ideal Conditions – paired to iPhone):

Should you buy the Powerbeats Pro 2?

The Powerbeats Pro 2 are very good workout earbuds. They have a secure fit, a ton of features on both iOS and Android, and great noise canceling. While the Powerbeats Pro 2 are, without a doubt, among the best workout earbuds on the market, the price tag might be too hard to swallow for most. You can find other great workout earbuds for cheaper, but not with all the bells and whistles of the Powerbeats Pro 2.

What should you get instead of the Powerbeats Pro 2?

The closest competitor to the Powerbeats Pro 2 is the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport ($329 at Amazon). These pricey workout earbuds also have a heart-rate monitor, as well as a body temperature sensor. They have a very bass-heavy sound signature, but you can adjust it using the five-band equalizer in the Sennheiser Smart Control app.

If you want Beats, but don’t need a heart-rate monitor, consider getting the Beats Fit Pro ($159 at Amazon). These earbuds are a few years older, which means they have the outdated H1 chip instead of the newest H2 chip. That said, the Beats Fit Pro perform very similarly to the Powerbeats Pro 2 when it comes to sound quality and noise canceling.

Powerbeats Pro 2 review: Frequently asked questions