BUDGET BEATS

Apple’s new low-price buds punch well above their price tag

- Kieran Alger

The Beats Solo buds are what you get if you strip away all the fancy bells and whistles of high-end headphones and focus on the essentials. The latest launch from Apple-owned Beats shoots for ultra-portable simplicity with a compact design, super-secure fit, simple controls, big battery life and solid sound performance. But do they hit the mark? And can they out-punch pricier rivals?

Design, fit and controls

You can see that Beats went for streamlined, compact simplicity and I’m a big fan of just how small and neat the Solo Buds are. There’s something pleasingly basic about the whole thing.

The controls are very, very simple – which is a good thing in most cases, with physical buttons for simple functions like Pause/ Play, Skip and Back. I just wish there was a little bump to make them easier to find on the move.  I also had trouble hitting the three taps fast enough to skip back a track. But in general, the buttons are nicely responsive and the buds stay put when you play around with them on the move.

The limited control options force you to choose between summoning SIRI or volume controls. If you choose to use a long press to summon SIRI, you can also use SIRI to change volume. Otherwise you’ll have to rely on your phone or paired device to change volume. It’d be better to have these controls split across the buds.