Apple - Powerbeats Pro

I love Powerbeats Pro - they sound really good, never fall out when running and have all the Apple functionality. Downside is that I'm on my third pair, mainly because they stop connecting with the case to charge properly after a while.

So, my PowerBeats Pro are dying at the mo (5 years old, battery generally lasts for 2-3 hours now, but the case can charge the headphones about 1.2x, so needs to be plugged in most of the time). Anyway, I have a pair of X20s arriving today as I thought I’d give them a shot. Will reply to this tomorrow or the day after when they’ve had a proper try out

Took a bit longer than I thought, but these are great headphones. I had soundbuds surge before Powerbeats Pro and they were alright - these are much better. Unfortunately the surges did not survive a sportswear cycle back in 2019. The X20's aren't perfect, but the sound quality is nearly as good as the Powerbeats at a much lower price point, for me. After a couple of days use, I'm really happy with them for the price (£69) and I'd recommend them as long as they last more than a couple of years. Hopefully they do. Sound detail is nice. I used HearIQ to set-up a custom EQ level, and found I could hear more detail in tracks - talking at the start of stray cat blues by the stones, and extra detail in firestarter by the prodigy. Isolation is good, and the fit is great. They only came out once when I was pruning a tree and a branch caught one of the headphones as I was feeding it into the (electric, turbine cut) garden shredder. The earbud stayed hooked on, or this would have been a shorter review. The ANC is alright. It's a bit strange, as whilst it can completely mask the noise of a dehumidifier, or nearly block the sound of a bean to cup coffee machine grinding and brewing, it struggles to cut out traffic noise, and i mean traffic noise of a busy road 100 metres away whilst I'm on a trail. It masked the noise of a high speed train 150 metres away though, which was neat. I will likely keep it on when on trails. An audiobook is easy to listen to when next to a quiet garden shredder (82 db) or when operating a small electric chainsaw (94 db), without ear defenders. I took the headphones out for a 13 km run, with ANC on for half of it, and off for half. I had transparency mode on for 5 minutes or so, but hated it - it's too sensitive (i.e. would play me the sound of a car driving 200 metres away) and sounds like it's being relayed through a tinny mic. It also cuts in and out for quieter noises. People on calls didn't complain though, so this may just be for transparency mode. The case design is good, with no contact problems or buds falling out like the powerbeats. The case is refreshingly small, but the plastic feels a bit cheap to me. My only issue with these headphones is the button design. It was 3 C when I was out running, so I had gloves on. The button position makes it very difficult to operate the button, or know when you have pressed it successfully.

Yeah, I’ve got Powerbeats Pro sweat and water resistant buds. Great to run with and the fit my ears better than my air pods.