Beats Powerbeats Fit Earbuds Review: Winged Migration

One of the new earbuds I’ve been looking forward to is the Beats Fit Pro 2. I imagined some design tweaks, upgraded drivers, an Apple H2 chip replacing the H1, along with improved sound, noise canceling and voice-calling performance. But wait — queue the screeching sound of a record going backward — the Beats Powerbeats Fit, with their redesigned winged tips and 17% smaller charging case and no other significant upgrades, are what we’re getting instead of the Fit Pro 2 for the same $200 list price?

Yep. That’s the situation — at least for now. Perhaps in 2026 we’ll get the real Fit Pro 2 with all the upgrades I listed above. But the Powerbeats Fit seem to be sort of a transitional Beats product that doesn’t really get in the way of Apple’s excellent new AirPods Pro 3, leaving them plenty of room to run in the marketplace (Beats’ sporty H2-powered Powerbeats Pro 2 are presently more of direct competitor to the AirPods Pro 3).

Read more: Best wireless earbuds of 2025

Usually I don’t quote company executives in my reviews, but I think it’s worth hearing from Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Music, Sports and Beats, on how the buds are being positioned. “Reintroducing Beats Fit Pro as Powerbeats Fit — alongside Powerbeats Pro 2 — unifies our lineup under a name synonymous with athletic performance and gives customers a clearer choice between two distinct, fitness-first form factors,” Schusser said. “Powerbeats Fit combines the best of Beats Fit Pro with next-level comfort, durability and portability — making it a worthy addition to the Powerbeats family.” 

Marketing spin and name changes aside, I will say the design upgrades to the wingtips and case do improve the buds, which remain quite appealing for those looking for secure-fitting earbuds for workouts and everyday use, even though their main components are technically four years old (the Beats Fit Pro were released Nov. 1, 2021). Let’s get right into those design changes, as I’m going to focus the bulk of my review on them as they’re the only thing that’s really new about the Beats Powerbeats Fit except for the more compact charging case.

More comfortable with softer, more durable wingtips

Beats engineers have done a few things with the wingtips to improve their design. The material they’re made out of feels different, with a soft-to-the-touch finish and a slimmer, more pliable design. The wingtips are a tad shorter and rounded off and no longer have an edge (it was a soft rubber edge previously but it was still an edge). Apple has clearly done its research in terms of ear designs and how the original Beats Fit Pro wingtips fit in people’s ears and made the adjustments to make them fit a little better and more comfortably. 

I personally didn’t have any real issue with the previous wingtips but I know folks who found that they started to get uncomfortable over longer listening sessions. And they didn’t fit inside people’s ears equally well, with the wingtips not quite fitting into the concha (or more specifically the cybma concha) in some ears. Or, they fit but created a pressure point.

Beats also told me the wingtips are more durable and they seem so in my three days of testing them. I didn’t have an issue with the Fit Pro’s durability, but my son managed to completely rip the wingtips off both of his Fit Pro buds. It was unclear how he did it, but he continued wearing them without the wingtips, which made them look like Beats Studio Buds Plus buds with a damaged finish.  

The other small addition Beats made was to add an extra small ear tip, bringing the total number of ear tips included up to four sizes instead of three (XS, S, M and L). I would have preferred an extra large tip because the included large tip doesn’t get me the perfect seal to optimize sound quality and noise canceling, so I have to bring my own tips to the party (Sennheiser’s large ear tips work best for me).

I would like to see Apple redesign its ear tips like it has done with the AirPods Pro 3. While most of you should get a tight seal from one of the included ear tips, I suspect a small fraction of people won’t get an optimal seal. And, as I said, that can impact the sound quality and noise canceling performance.

Read more: Best earbuds or workouts and the gym in 2025

Smaller charging case was one other key improvement

As Beats says, the charging case is 17% smaller, and I certainly appreciate a smaller charging case, though it still doesn’t support wireless charging, just USB-C charging. The other design upgrade to the case is to the lid’s hinge. The lid was a little floppy on the Beats Fit Pro and Beats has tightened the spring up on the lid so it opens and closes more smoothly and the lid feels more sturdy. The new case is also also IPX4 splash-proof like the buds themselves. And note that the Bluetooth pairing button is still on the inside of the case. 

No performance improvements but still strong-performing buds

In the past four years I’ve sporadically used the Beats Fit Pro, particularly for running and working out at the gym, although I also used them for my commutes to the office, always appreciating their locked-in fit so I didn’t have to worry about them falling out of my ears as I walked over a grate on the streets of New York and disappearing underground (that’s always something of a concern when I wear the standard AirPods, which don’t fit my ears as well as the AirPods Pro). I often compare the Fit Pro to other sports buds and tend to come away liking them better, even four years later. And I still like that they have a physical button instead of touch controls to control playback.

They basically feature the same technology as the original AirPods Pro, which came out in late 2019 and were also powered by an H1 chip. In my review of the Beats Fit Pro, I called them “the sportier AirPods you’ve always wanted” and said they appeared to sound slightly better than the AirPods Pro. I thought they had a touch more clarity and the bass packed a little more punch and went a little deeper.

While they don’t sound as good as the AirPods Pro 3, which offer better overall clarity and bass performance along with a more spacious soundstage and airier sound, the Beats Fits’ sound holds up well all things considered. The Powerbeats Pro 2’s sound is arguably slightly better with better overall clarity and slightly more dynamic sound. But the Powerbeats Pro 2’s fit may be an issue for some folks and they are larger earbuds with ear hooks that have a larger case. 

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As you might expect, the Powerbeats Fit’s noise canceling and transparency aren’t as good as the AirPods Pro 3’s (the Pro 3’s noise canceling is a big step up), but both are respectable. I feel the same way about the voice-calling performance: it’s good but not top-tier. Callers said they heard more background sound than when I was calling with the AirPods Pro 3, but they said my voice sounded relatively clear when I was calling with the Powerbeats Fit. 

Same features as Fit Pro, plus support for Android users

The Beats Fit leave off several features available to AirPods that are powered by the H2 chip, including the AirPods Pro 3, AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Noise Canceling and the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 (although the Powerbeats Pro 2 don’t have Apple’s Live Translation feature or Hearing Aid mode). You don’t get all the new features that Apple brought to the AirPods Pro 2 and Pro 3, including Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness and the aforementioned Live Translation and Hearing Aid mode. While they do have spatial audio with head-tracking, auto-switching between devices on your iCloud account and hands-free Siri, they certainly fall well short in the features department compared to what you get with AirPods Pro 3. 

On a more positive note, like other Beats buds, they’re more Android friendly than AirPods, with Android users able to download the Beats app on their devices to unlock “one-touch pairing, customizable controls, battery status, Locate My Beats and a Fit Test for Android users.” And because they don’t have that many features to begin with compared to the AirPods Pro 3, Android users aren’t really missing out on much except for spatial audio.

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Battery life is the same as the Beat Fit Pro, Beats says. It’s rated for up to 6 hours with noise canceling on at moderate volume levels, with an additional 18 hours of juice in the charging case. A five-minute charge gets you 1 hour of battery life.   

Beats Powerbeats Fit final thoughts 

If you want a deeper dive into what the Beats Powerbeats Fit are all about, you can read my Beats Fit Pro review (which is a little dated because I wrote it four years ago). But in a nutshell, these are still very appealing wireless earbuds for the same reason I stated in that review and why I awarded the Beats Fit Pro a Editors’ Choice award in 2021: Not only do they offer a comfortable, secure fit that’s been slightly improved thanks to the redesign of the wingtips, but they sound very good and offer respectable noise-canceling and voice-calling performance along with a good transparency mode.

Even with their disappointingly limited upgrades, I still like them quite a bit and prefer their fit to the Powerbeats Pro 2’s (Beats did make some improvements with the design of the Powerbeats Pro 2, and they fit my ears better than the previous model, but I think the Powerbeats Fit are a safer bet fit-wise for more people than the Powerbeats Pro 2). But I like the AirPodsPro 3 better. They’re just superior earbuds overall, and their new ear tips and design changes have helped me get a more secure fit so I don’t need the wingtips as much as I used to.  

The big question, of course, is how much will the Beats Fit really sell for. I can’t recommend you buy them for $200, but their street price at Amazon will likely be significantly lower, though you never know with the Trump administration tariffs how pricing will play out. Hopefully, they’ll follow a similar pricing path to the Beats Studio Pro, which list for $350 but often sell for $100 to $150 less and cost as low as $140 for a refurbished model.

In June, the Fit Pro were down to $110 at Woot. I don’t think the Powerbeats Fit’s price will dip quite that low anytime soon, but there’s certainly room for significant discounting. As it stands, these buds make a lot more sense — and easier to recommend — at less than $140.