The Beats X: A Hybrid Wireless Headset for 2017

Hey what's up guys? MKBHD here and so the Beats X are brand new, they're now the cheapest wireless Beats that you can buy and even cheaper than EarPods now, and they supposedly actually sound better too. So that means they're definitely worth the money right? Well, let's break that down.

The Beats X are another new pair of wireless Bluetooth buds for 2017, it's two earbuds connected by a wire with an inline battery and a bunch of little controls and tricks and features that make them work. In that way, the Beats X compare really well to some other wireless audio options we've gotten recently like the JBird X2 and X3 and of course the AirPods. I'd say the Beats X are pretty much a hybrid exactly in between those two. The Beats have a little bit of a different shape and a different functional layout but obviously they're still pretty recognizable with the logo and everything as Beats to anyone looking for them now.

Wireless earbuds have a bunch of different ways of sitting, cable management you know, some are retractable, some have some sort of a wire clip like the JBirds, some have no wires at all. These Beats have no cable management at all except for the magnet in the head of each earbud which turns out to be just enough. The wire is a little bit longer obviously and it's meant to basically sit on your neck which isn't too bad and you can barely feel it. And when you're not listening to them anymore, you can take them out of your ears and basically clip them together and then that makes this sort of a Beats necklace. I guess if you thought Beats were out of the fashion game, they're totally not but you still have all the functionality of a normal pair of headphones which is good.

You have the inline controls so you can skip forward and backward, you have the volume up and down, a play/pause button, and even an inline microphone for using phone calls. Since it's now 2017, they're also now completely wireless and use Apple's new super low-powered super awesome W1 chip. So, same thing as the AirPods, you power them on and your iPhone immediately recognizes them and pairs them to that, and every other Apple device have but also unlike the AirPods, you can connect these to an Android phone via Bluetooth no problem, and they keep all of their functionality. You can connect AirPods to an Android phone if you want but if you do, you lose like all the cool features and functions, like you lose the play/pause when you take it out your ear, you lose Siri, you lose the whole thing.

The Beats X are made for iPhone users first, if you're an Android phone person, you have a USB cable so you need to carry two different Chargers, one for your headphones, one for your phone, not really meant to do that. It's made for the iPhone and of course, they are portable too, that's like a big point, so they come with this case that looks like a mouth and you can just crumple them up and shove them in to this case, it's not very clean, it's not super elegant, I just ended up shoving them in a sweatshirt pocket or in my backpack more often than not but yeah, they're definitely still portable.

The battery life is pretty solid, you're looking at about 6 to 8 hours tops of charge but then they also have this awesome quick charging if you pick them up and they're dead, you can plug them in for 5 minutes and add 2 hours of listening time which is dope. They charge via a lightning cable so no dock or pouch or cradle needed just literally plug them directly in with the same cable you charge your iPhone with and you're good to go.

Overall, as $150 as a total pack package are the Beats X, I'd say they're pretty good. But that doesn't mean you should get them, you got to know who beats are made for, people who want beats, people who work out with their headphones who are really active, sweat a lot do Fitness sports activities, they'll want like sweatproof headphones, they'll find stuff like the JBird X3 much better. But if you just want like no wires at all, you want totally wireless then they'll spring for something like the AirPods but people who want beats can now justify getting these Beats, thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys MKBHD here and so the Beats X are brand new they're now the cheapest wireless Beats that you can buy and even cheaper than earpods now and they supposedly actually sound better too so that means they're definitely worth the money right well let's break that down so the beatsx are another new pair of wireless Bluetooth buds for 2017 it's two inar buds connected by a wire with an inline battery and a bunch of little controls and tricks and features that make them work so in that way the Beats X compare really well to some other wireless audio options we've gotten recently like the jbird X2 and X3 and of course the airpods in fact I'd say the Beats X are pretty much a hybrid exactly in between those two the Beats have a little bit of a different shape and a different functional layout but obviously they're still pretty recognizable with the logo and everything as beats to anyone looking for them now wireless earbuds have a bunch of different ways of sitting SL Cable Management you know some are retractable some have some sort of a wire clip like the jbirds some have no wires at all these beats have no cable management at all except for the magnet in the head of each earbud which turns out to be just enough I think the wire is a little bit longer obviously and it's meant to basically sit on your neck which isn't too bad and you can barely feel it and then when you're not listening to them anymore you can take them out of your ears and basically clip them together and then that makes this sort of a Beats necklace so I guess if you thought beats were out of the fashion game they're totally not but you still have all the functionality of a normal pair of headphones which is good you have the inline controls so your song forward and backward you have the volume up and down a play pause button and even an inline microphone for using phone calls but since it's now 2017 they're also now completely wireless and also use Apple's new super low powerered super awesome W1 chip so same thing as the airpods you power them on and your iPhone immediately recognizes them and pairs them to that and every other Apple device have but also unlike the airpods you can connect these to an Android phone via Bluetooth no problem and they keep all of their functionality you can connect airpods to an Android phone if you want but if you do you lose like all the cool features and functions like you lose the play pause when you take it out your ear you lose Siri you lose volume control it's just like a very basic headset at that point but if you connect beats X to an Android phone you still have the physical inline controls here so you still have volume you still have a microphone it all still works so inline controls are good uh but there are some downsides of these headphones too durability wise these aren't sweatproof or water resistant at all like in any way now I haven't had any problems with mine and I haven't heard about any problems yet but it's kind of weird that they're lacking even the most basic protection pretty much just don't take these out in the rain or if you work out and you sweat a lot then you can't use these for working out either which isn't that kind of the point of wireless headphones like this uh it seems like a glaring emission but people smarter than me will tell you that that's just so beats can point you towards another pair of headphones they sell just for working out so okay if you're not using them for working out then you're just you know you're walking the dog walking to class just very casual use around how do they do with that well first of all they sound pretty decent uh they sound like a lot of other Premium Bluetooth earbuds which isn't a super high bar to clear but they're not garbage at all uh they definitely are a lot heavier and on the Bas of your side for sure they're beats uh but that's fine for a lot of people volume is good and they managed to make a really good seal in my ear even better than the jird x3s thanks to the wing tip so the seal makes the noise isolation that it creates really really good at least with my ear shape it's excellent I know some people can just like put air pods in their ear and run around no problem and they don't fall out I'm not one of those people my ears don't work with that so having the wing tip like the x3s really works well with the Beats X stays my ear seals really well the little wire around your neck when you're first wearing them is a little Annoying at first especially since they have these little batteries in line as well but it was really easy to get used to now I could never quite forget it was in my ear like the jbirds which go around the back of your neck but beats do still get points for Comfort here and then the battery life is pretty solid you're looking at about 6 to 8 hours tops of charge but then they also have this awesome quick charging if you pick them up and they're dead you can plug them in for 5 minutes and add 2 hours of listening time which is dope and they charge via this lightning cable so no dock or pouch or cradle needed just literally plug them directly in with the same cable you charge your iPhone with and you're good to go so this is obviously further reinforcement that this is made for iPhone users first if you're an Android phone person you have a USB cable so you need to carry two different Chargers one for your headphones one for your phone not really meant to do that it's made for the iPhone and of course they are portable too that's like a big point so they come with this case that looks like a mouth and you can just crumple them up and shove them in to this case it's not very clean it's not super elegant I just ended up shoving them in a sweatshirt pocket or in my backpack more often than not but yeah they're definitely still portable so as 150 bucks as a total pack package are the Beats X the best beats ever sure yeah I'd give it that I'd say I mean at least in the bang for the butt category in the bang for the buck for Beats category yeah these are pretty good but that doesn't mean you should get them like you got to know who who beats are made for people who want beats people who work out with their headphones who are really active sweat a lot do Fitness sports activities they'll want like sweatproof headphones they'll find stuff like the jbird X3 much better but if you just want like no wires at all you want Totally Wireless then they'll spring for something like the airpods but people who want beats can now justify getting these beats thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace\n"