Hands-on: The Beats Pill is back and better than ever

Following the recent debuts of the Solo Buds and Solo 4, Beats is back with one more thing. This time, it’s the return of the iconic Beats Pill wireless speaker. The new Beats Pill retains the iconic pill-shaped design and packs a few interesting surprises inside that make it worth the wait.

Head below for all of the details on the new Beats Pill, plus some first impressions from my first week with it.

Beats Pill specs and features

As a refresher, the Beats Pill+ was Beats’ last speaker until now. It launched in 2015 for $229 and was discontinued by Apple in 2022. Beats says that the new Beats Pill is “completely redesigned and reengineered” compared to previous versions.

The new Beats Pill measures 21.9 cm x 7.1 cm x 7.0 cm (8.62 in x 2.80 in x 2.76 in) and weighs 681 grams, which is 10% lighter than the Beats Pill+. Its design is IP67-rated for water and dust resistance. It’s available in three colors (gold, red, and black) and features a built-in lanyard for easy portability.

Apple says that the Beats Pill offers 24 hours of battery life and features Fast Fuel support. This means a 10-minute charge can add 2 hours of music playback. The new Beats Pill also charges with USB-C instead of Lightning. Notably, the USB-C port also lets you charge another device with the Beats Pill, such as your iPhone.

In terms of connectivity, the new Beats Pill features proprietary Beats silicon inside for cross-compatibility with iPhone and Android. Beats says that Apple users will get:

• One-touch pairing: easy, one-touch setup
• iCloud pairing: instantly pair with every device in your iCloud account
• iPhone/Apple Watch pairing: Automatically hand off audio to Apple Watch when iPhone is out of range
• Customize the product name or button configuration in the Bluetooth menu
• Find My: locate your lost Beats Pill on a map
• Updates: receive over-the-air software updates

Android users unlock many of the same benefits, including one-touch pairing, Audio Switch, and Find My Device integration.

Beats has some big claims about sound quality for the new Beats Pill. Here’s what the company says:

The Beats Pill is designed to sound incredible — both inside and outside of your home. The upgraded acoustic architecture delivers more powerful, room-filling sound, bigger bass and improved tonality across the audio spectrum.

The completely reengineered racetrack woofer with stronger neodymium magnets helps drive 28% more motor force and displaces 90% more air volume, while its innovative structure with radial ribbing helps minimize low-end distortion — even at high volumes. Secured in its own housing for extra stability to help reduce distortion, the redesigned tweeter delivers crisp highs and rich mid-range tones.

The streamlined Beats Pill features a 20-degree upward tilt for better on-axis sound projection, helping to minimize reflected sound.

The Beats Pill also offers lossless audio support via USB-C. Beats says this will offer a max sample rate of 48 kHz/24-bit, “so you can enjoy listening to better audio quality” with your Beats Pill.

9to5Mac’s Take

I’ve always loved the Beats Pill design, so I was disappointed to see Apple discontinue the Beats Pill+ without a replacement. After spending about a week with it, I feel confident in saying that the Beats Pill is back and better than ever.

I’m far from an audiophile, so I don’t have a whole lot to say about the Beats Pill’s audio quality. It sounds better and can get significantly louder than the HomePod mini. However, it doesn’t have the same room-filling sound as the full-size HomePod. It sounds on par with other Bluetooth speakers in its size and price class, if not a notch above most of them.

I’ve been testing two Beats Pills for the past week, which allowed me to also try out the Amplify and Stereo Mode features. Here’s how Beats explains those features:

• Amplify Mode: You can pair two Beats Pill speakers together for twice the audio experience and twice the party — simply hold the Center Buttons on two Pills simultaneously and each speaker will play mono audio output while connected to a single source device. Use this for bigger, better audio, or to extend the party to another room.
• Stereo Mode: Stereo Mode allows for left/right playback from a synced pair of speakers. To initiate Stereo Mode, hold the Center Button and Plus Button on one of the two speakers when they are synced in Amplify Mode. The Pill that you use to toggle into Stereo Mode will become the left reference speaker. You can use the same interaction to switch back to Amplify Mode once again.

If these features sound familiar, it’s because they existed on the Beats Pill+ as well. I can confirm that Amplify Mode gets plenty loud enough to cover a big chunk of your house.

For all of the improvements and features offered by the new Beats Pill, I can’t help but wish Beats had gone just a little bit further and added AirPlay support. To do this, the Beats Pill would need Wi-Fi connectivity, which it does not have.

In fact, when Apple first announced AirPlay 2 at WWDC 2017, it touted Beats as one of the brands that would support the feature. When the first rumors of a new Beats Pill surfaced, I had hopes that this would be the long-awaited portable Beats speaker with AirPlay support. That ended up not being the case.

Still, the new Beats Pill offers plenty of other unique selling points. Thanks to that custom Beats chip inside, it can offer deeper integration with Apple platforms than any other Bluetooth speaker on the market.

The Beats Pill gets almost everything right for a revival of an abandoned, fan-favorite product. It stays true to its iconic roots while also making several notable improvements. That includes better sound quality, improved battery life, improved connectivity, and USB-C.

And what makes those improvements all the more notable is the pricing. The Beats Pill costs $149.99, which is $80 cheaper than the launch price of the Beats Pill+ in 2015. That’s a pretty significant price drop, especially for a product that first launched nine years ago. It’s available to order starting today, with the first shipments beginning June 27.

If you’re in the market for a Bluetooth speaker, the Beats Pill is one to check out. The value of one-touch connectivity and pairing for Apple devices alone gives it a huge leg-up on the competition.

What do you think of the new Beats Pill? Are you planning to buy one? Let us know in the comments.