It felt like Beats disappeared from conversations for a decent period of time, but they have absolutely surged back this year, first with the fantastic Beats Solo Buds that provide fantastic value for money, and now the release of the Beats Pill, which is absolutely set to get people talking about this portable speaker again.
If you’ve ever seen a Beats Pill before, the design is fairly similar, although it’s quite a bit lighter than the Pill Plus. It looks super high-end with the back portion being a really sturdy silicon and the front having the iconic metal grille. It suits nicely on any surface, but also has a strap built in for carrying it around.
As far as buttons on the top, you’ve got an on/off button, an action button that lets you play/pause and skip/reverse as well as two volume buttons. There’s a USB-C port on the back for charging and to take advantage of lossless audio (more on that soon). It’s rated IP67 for keeping dust and water out and I feel like it’d handle drops pretty decently.
As far as connectivity goes, it only connects over Bluetooth and it’s an instant connection with both Apple and Android devices, and also has Find My support for both devices too. Whilst the connection was seamless, I was a bit upset to see that it didn’t have AirPlay as I’ve already got quite a robust line of speakers in my house so I’d love to be able to pair it with others.
Whilst you can’t pair it with others speakers over AirPlay, you can pair two Beats Pills together. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test this, but you can sync two in Amplify Mode which essentially doubles your volume and there’s a stereo mode to split the left and right outputs between two Beats, so it’s great to have both of these options.
Similarly, you can use the Pill to take calls and also activate your voice assistant directly from the speaker, which is handy for when you’re listening to music and have a call coming through, which you can then just use the speaker to answer it.
The audio quality that you get out of the Beats Pill is pretty phenomenal for the size. There’s a great amount of clarity, it can really get quite loud, although probably not loud enough for a party with the just the one, but the bass is super clear and even the most minor sound effects or backing vocals in songs come through really well.
The entire sound design of the Beats Pill has been redesigned with 28% greater motor force and an updated tweeter that allows for crisper highs and rich mid-range tones. Whilst it’s been a good few years since I’ve used a Beats Pill, I believe these claims as it sounds fantastic.
As far as battery life goes, you get 24 hours and two hours on a quick 10 minute charge with the included USB-C cable. You can also charge your phone through the Pill, but as mentioned, this can also be used for lossless audio. It’s a little bit clunky to get it connect over wire in the sense you have to hold down the power button and I also had to turn off spatial audio for it to work, and for most people, it probably won’t provide a hugely noticeable difference, but it works.
At $249, you’ll struggle to find a better portable speaker that works as well as this. The closest is probably a Sonos Roam 2, and the only reason I’d recommend that over this is if you’re deep in the Sonos ecosystem as unfortunately without AirPlay on the Beats Pill there’s no chance of syncing it up to other speakers.