Apple AirPods vs BeatsX Which one to Choose?

What all you want is a Good Sounding and Good Looking pair of headphones !

With Apple Airpods costing high as well as have some waiting time, its important to see if there are any cheaper alternatives delivering at par performance in the market.

Is your Headphone your Style Statement?

One important thing to remember before you think on switching over from Apple is that most of the time, your smartphone, smart watch and headphones are part of Style statement. And it is important to many as a part of their dress-code ! So if you don’t want to deviate from the Style statement, then forget about reading this blog-post further !

Anyway ! Since you are reading this post further I have something for you !!

So after some internet research I have found two headphones Treblab X2 & Beats by Dr. Dre  – BeatsX which are comparatively cheaper but quality alternatives for Apple Airpods.

Finally it will narrow down to Apples own two products … one headed by Beats .. .with 25% lesser price-tag … delivering its own sound signature …

Lets look into the details and compare Apple Airpods vs BeatsX

Design Approach

Obviously Apple follows unique design concept with having independent earbuds without any wired connection. With built-in intelligence to identify which one is in ear and automatically act on it.

BeatsX have traditional (and proven) in-ear neck-band design

Ergonomics and ease of operation

The AirPods with its unique design do not feature any physical control buttons,

Pause the audio by tapping on a pod and / or invoke Siri by double-tapping.

Typically this needs some skill to tap airpods “correctly”, so some learning is required (like the iPhone)

Built-in-intelligence : The audio pauses if you remove one of the AirPods from your ear, but this can be irritating too sometimes !!

BeatsX feature the microphone and controls in a small tablet shaped control housings, which are easy to access and more in the form of proven button controls, so no need to learn anything new! (But again style statement matters)

Further BeatsX are good in terms of fitment to ear canals, being designed to fit within the exterior meatus of the ear, they fit perfectly allowing to use them during exercise too. (Airpods on the other hand have some complaints of loosing during simple air-travel use !!)

So if you compare Style statement Airpods win, if you compare the usability BeatsX wins.

Sound Quality

Yes, this is one of the determining factor for choosing any headphone, you aught to be at minimum sound quality, else it is just buzz in the ear !

Well all knows that Beats are tuned to deliver Heavy Bass … with better fit in your ear it gives an excellence in performance at low volume levels .. so you need not crank the volume to max levels, which is safe for the ears.

And needless to say that AirPods offer crystal clear sound quality … they are like tuned to be listened quiet … but which means you may need to pump up the volume certain times …

In terms of microphone performance, specially on outdoor calls, AirPods perform much better than BeatsX (even though the microphone of BeatsX located onto the connected wires and more closer to the mouth)

So if you want high quality calls, go for AirPods … and if you wish to listen to the music go for BeatsX !

Music Playtime

I think this is one of the important factor for those who travel a lot, or even you go for cycling or running, the music playtime is a determining factor for choosing headphones.

Airpods with its W1 chip can deliver Music performance upto 5 hours

BeatsX delivers extra 3 hours i.e. run upto 8 hours of Music for you !

so if I simply say that you will be able to use both of them for a day with overnight charging it will be fair statement.

Airpods with charging case for a traveler :

Airpods are backed up by a small cute charging case, which can pour in juice till 24 hours of playtime !! wow !!! that’s great news !! So once you overnight charge both of them, you are free to go anywhere for a complete Week !

Surely Airpods wins in this CASE 🙂

Connectivity & compatibility

In this case since BeatsX and AirPods both are powered by Apple’s own W1 chip, they both provide highly reliable and long range Bluetooth connectivity with your device. Also W1 chip us tuned to last the battery longer.

Airpods offer auto pairing, wherein you just  flip open the top of the case next to your phone, a screen pops up offering to pair and you are ready to go

BeatsX uses traditional search and pair method, which is proven again, so no need to learn, how to pair!

Since both Airpods and BeatsX share W1 chip, they allow pairing with any iCloud device once set-up. And the switching between Apple devices is easy and quick.

Remember I talked about Airpods falling down case? here the Airpods give you a chance to find them up, using your iPhone’s “Find my phone” app, however the functionality is limited due to the distance Bluetooth can work with (33 feet typically) – BTW the same facility is also available with BeatsX.

Final words and recommendation:

At the time of writing this post BeatsX were 25% cheaper than Apple AirPods

How about selecting BeatsX? More BASS, less price, simple & functional

BeatsX has an edge over AirPods in delivering sound quality, specially the BASS (Although it lacks a little bit in mids).

With perfect fitment to the ears, there is very little possibility of drop-offs and losing them, so better during workouts and running.

BeatsX are more in the form of traditional headphone looks, ultra light weight, perfect to fit, good physical controls.

To me BeatsX strikes golden mean of Sound, Performance, Usability, Clean Smart design and 25% cheaper than AirPods.

How about going for AirPods? More battery time, Clear Phone calls – Designed for a traveler

Well first thing that goes well is the 24 hours of Music time with the chargeable case, which is a must for vivid traveler.

Second most important thing for a traveler is Clarity of Phone calls, where AirPods are clear winner over BeatsX.

They are slightly better than BeatsX for the Bluetooth range, but this can not be a selection factor at all !

AirPods are a more adventurous futuristic design and has the advantage of being Apple ! So for those who are careful about what brand they want to look with, its only an Apple !