battery life: 10 hours (buds); 30 hours (case)
Driver: 11mm dynamic
Weight: 4.8g (buds); 48g (box)
The JBL Live Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds punch their weight in the most important ways. Noise cancellation is excellent, ideal for busy, noisy environments and commuting. The sound is good, the EQ customization is great, and while call quality could be better, most people won’t notice unless they do a lot of it regularly.
to
- Great noise cancellation
- Powerful and powerful sound
- Good companion app
against
- On-ear controls are a bit limited
- No sound for audiophiles
- Calls can be muffled
battery life: 8 hours (buds); 16 hours (case)
Driver: 8.2 mm dynamic
Weight: 5.1g (buds); 48g (box)
The Beats Studio Buds are the best headphones Beats has ever made at this price. They’re comfortable to wear, they look great, and there’s effective ANC. It comes with some smart features for both iOS and Android, too, including some JBLs can’t match, like Find My Support on both platforms. JBLs stand out for their ANC sound quality and sound.
to
- Good sound quality
- Stylish and compact
- Great smart features
against
- The ANC is just fine
- Battery life is weaker
- The call quality is poor
Several major tech companies have true wireless earbuds that represent the best in audio technology. But let’s not overlook the buds that populate the affordable portions of our products The best true wireless earphones list – high performance at a mid-range price.
Two of our favorite wireless speakers that fall firmly into this price category are high-quality, mid-range headphones from affordable audio technology brand JBL and Apple-owned speaker brand Beats. So what’s better: the JBL Live Pro 2 and the Beats Studio Buds?
We’ve thoroughly reviewed both, so in this guide we’ll put these two noise canceling headphones head to head to see how they compare in terms of sound quality, battery life, and comfort. Make sure to take a look The best wireless headphones And The best noise canceling headphones Guides for more suggestions. Otherwise, read on to find out which JBL Live Pro 2 and Beats Studio Buds are right for you.
JBL Live Pro 2 vs Beats Studio Buds: Price and availability
The Beats Studio Buds were released in June 2021 and the JBL Live Pro 2 released a full year later in June 2022. At the time of their respective releases, both earbuds cost the same: $149.99 / £129.99 / AU$199.95, making them an excellent comparison. In terms of specifications, features and sound.
Since the Beats Studio Buds have been around longer, you’ll likely find them permanently discounted from many third-party retailers, and at deep discounts during sale events.
So there isn’t much here between these two true wireless headphones in terms of price. But are both of them a good value overall? The short answer is yes. They may not be able to compete with the best true wireless earphones on the market, but if you don’t want to spend more than $150 / £150, they are some of the best options out there. In fact, unless you want high-end sound and features, you’ll be more than satisfied with the levels of noise cancellation, sound quality, and comfort offered by both headphones.
JBL Live Pro 2 vs Beats Studio Buds: Design
The JBL Live Pro 2 earphones have the trunk-like, true wireless earbud design we’ve seen from a lot of brands over the past few years – like AirPods Pro 2 And LG Tone Free T90Q. We like the JBL Live Pro 2’s understated stems, though they have a glossy finish that stands out in brightly lit environments.
By contrast, the Beats Studio Buds almost flush with your ear—though the Beats ‘b’ logo sets them apart from other similar earphones. Neither is necessarily better in terms of design, but which one you choose will come down to personal preference — do you like AirPods-esque stems or do you prefer something more compact?
In terms of comfort, we handled both pairs of buds well when we reviewed them. The JBL Live Pro 2 earbuds come with small, medium and large silicone ear tips so you can get the perfect fit. Similarly, in our review of the Beats Studio Buds, we called them “extremely comfortable.”
The JBL Live Pro 2 has an IPX5 rating, which means it’s resistant to splashes and light splashes of water and is perfect for a sweaty workout. The Beats Studio Buds have an IPX4 rating, which makes them less water resistant, but they should still be fine for light exercise — just don’t accidentally take them to the shower.
JBL Live Pro 2 vs Beats Studio Buds: Features
In our review of the JBL Live Pro 2, we rated the JBL app highly, which is easy to navigate and packed with handy features — but not so much as to be overwhelming. We also like the gesture controls on these buds, which use the capacitive touchpad in the stem and can be customized.
By comparison, the Beats Studio Buds have a clickable button on the buds, which controls playback. This may be more reliable than some touch controls, but it means you don’t get onboard volume controls here.
The JBL Live Pro 2 earphones offer multi-point pairing, which is good news if you use a lot of devices throughout the day. The Beats Studio Buds are not headphones, but they work with both Apple and Android phones very easily. This is good news for Android users, as there is a dedicated Beats app that we enjoyed using, as well as support for some great features, like Find My in iOS and Find My Device in Android. But Apple users won’t get multi-point pairing with other Apple devices and hands-free Siri — you’ll need Apple headphones like AirPods 3 For this.
It may seem like a small blip, but we didn’t like that the Beats Studio Buds didn’t have automatic ear detection. So if you take them out, the music won’t pause. The JBL Live Pro 2 has this feature, which if you’ve been downing your buds a lot throughout the day will make a real difference.
JBL Live Pro 2 vs Beats Studio Buds: Sound Quality
When we reviewed the Beats Studio Buds, we paired them with our iPhone 11 Pro and played Apple Music, which supports spatial audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio. We couldn’t get the full effect of Lossless Audio with the Beats Studio Buds (the pressure of Bluetooth ruins the lossless nature of the music), but we did use them to play songs with Spatial Audio, which sounded great. These speakers have a lively sound quality, which elevates the high and low ends of the mix, resulting in music that is toe-tapping, head-shaking, and engaging for extended periods of time.
The sound quality on offer from the JBL Live Pro 2 is also impressive for the price. There’s a good balance across the full range and a fairly spacious sound stage out of the box as well – especially when the volume is pumped up really high. They handle the bass very well and the vocals are, for the most part, clear. There was some richness of detail here, but not on par with the best-in-class buds, such as Apple AirPods Pro 2.
JBL Live Pro 2 vs Beats Studio Buds: Noise Cancellation
The JBL Live Pro 2 earbuds are great for noise canceling. They’re some of the best noise-canceling earphones under £150 / $150, and for a significantly better experience you’d have to shell out upwards of £200 / $200 for something like the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2. We liked how Adjust ANC based on your environment, perfect for a range of scenarios.
In comparison, we found the Beats Studio Buds’ noise cancellation to work fairly well. We can imagine they are solid office companions, minimizing the roar of office conversation, but perhaps not muzzling the sounds of planes or trains. Although, like JBLs, they adapt to your environment with two distinct listening modes.
We found the call quality of both buds to be lacking. The JBL Live Pro 2 and Beats Studio Buds are good enough if you’re on a call indoors but when you’re competing with traffic, wind, and general background noise, they can be hard to hear, and according to the people we’re talking to, it was hard to be heard, too.
JBL Live Pro 2 vs Beats Studio Buds: Battery Life
The JBL Live Pro 2 boasts 10 hours of battery life in the buds, but there’s an extra 30 hours in the Live Pro 2’s case, giving you 40 hours in total. That’s about as much as you can get out of any of the best wireless earphones.
In return, you get 8 hours of Beats Studio Buds and 24 hours of playback with the case. So the JBL Live Pro 2 significantly outperforms Beats headphones in this regard, although Beats isn’t bad at all.
JBL Live Pro 2 vs Beats Studio Buds: The Conclusion
The JBL Live Pro 2 and Beats Studio Buds are an excellent pair of true wireless earphones and give pricier headphones a run for their money. If you want good sound quality, maximum comfort, and decent ANC they both deliver, but there are some areas where one set of speakers outperforms the other.
For example, if battery life is important to you because you need to listen all day and don’t want to pause your music to charge it up, the JBL Live Pro 2 outperform the Beats Studio Buds. In terms of design, it’s largely down to personal preference and whether you like or hate the stump-like look of the JBL Live Pro 2.
Some people really enjoy the sound of Beats, and we loved listening to the Beats Studio Buds. Although the JBL Live Pro 2 also delivers great sound, the quality of the Beats is fun and lively. However, audio pros may want to look elsewhere—you’ll need a higher-quality pair of speakers at a higher price point to get better sound.
If we had to choose, we’d probably go with the JBL Live Pro 2, they’re newer, some of the specs are a bit better, noise cancellation is more effective, and we liked the stem design with a high-gloss finish. But given the same price, you can’t go wrong with any of the mid-range earphones.