56 Macworld • December 2019REVIEW
Battery life and charging
The Beats Solo^3 were renowned for their epic
40-hour battery life, and the Solo Pros continue
to deliver that same longevity. But turn on noise
cancelling or transparency mode and you’ll lose
almost half your play time.
22 hours with noise cancelling enabled is still
quite good. That’s multi-day battery life even on
a long trip. In my testing, I was able to use them
for a few hours a day for about a week before I
had to plug in.
Speaking of plugging in, when your headphones
are nearly dead you can get three hours of play
time with a 10-minute charge. I went from nearly
dead to about 35 percent in half an hour, which
would be enough battery to last an entire trans-
continental flight with noise cancelling enabled.Noise cancelling performance
Noise cancelling technology has come a long way
from the days where you could say “there is Bose
and then there’s everyone else”. Other brands have
been able to deliver top-quality noise reduction
and impressive sound quality at the same time,
and we can add the Beats Solo Pros to that list.
On-ear headphones are always going to
have a bit of a disadvantage over the sound-
isolating capabilities of over-the-ear headphones
or in-ear buds that create a good seal, but the
noise cancelling on offer here is top notch. It
successfully dulled my lawnmower and leaf
blower to a quiet background whirr, and turned