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Review: Beats 360 are the closest Apple headphones to AirPods Max, with one caveat
The highly anticipated Beats 360 are now available for purchase. After being teased prior to the World Cup, Apple’s latest pair of Beats headphones are now on the market. I got an early hands-on with them, and they’re quite an interesting product offering that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed using – though they have one key flaw: no wired connectivity, which will bother some more than others.
First things first, the Beats 360 come in at $349.99. At that price, they’re leaning towards the high end of the market, though they still fall well below the AirPods Max at $549. Alongside this launch, the existing Beats Studio Pro are being permanently reduced to a new price of $299.99. Of course, you can find them much cheaper at retailers: they currently run $169.95 on Amazon.
If you’ve been following Beats launches, you’ll know that they sometimes use Apple H1 or H2 chips, and sometimes they use custom Beats silicon. The Beats 360 do use Beats silicon, however there’s one key upgrade here: they now finally support automatic device switching with your Apple Account, Hey Siri support, as well as proper Find My integration. If you’re an Apple fan who’s been eyeing Beats as a more affordable version of AirPods Max, the Beats 360 are closer than ever to providing a true Apple experience. I was certainly pleased when I learned this.
There is one loss compared to most high-end headphones: there’s no automatic pausing when you take them off your head. You learn to live with it, though it takes some time to get used to.
Compared to Beats Studio Pro, the Beats 360 get 12dB louder, and offer 1.75x more active noise cancellation. They also support Adaptive EQ in iOS 27, and are the first Beats headphones to be IPX4 sweat and water resistant. Both offer spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and the Beats 360 last around 8 hours longer than Beats Studio Pro with ANC turned on.
Beats 360 come in four colors: Cloud, Sky, Black, and Pink. I’ve personally been trying out the Sky’s, but they’re all pretty elegant colors.
The headlining feature of Beats 360 is their customizable design. You can easily swap out the ear cushions and head cushion for different color options. The ear cushions also have two variants, UltraPlush and Performance Knit. The former will be more comfortable for everyday wear, whereas the latter is better for working out.
Each set of cushions is available for $49.99, though there’s a launch promo while supplies last where you can pick them up for just $9.99. This is an incredible promo for those who want to customize their headphones based on their outfit, or to match their mood. I’d personally take advantage of it.
Customization is really the name of the game with Beats 360. With the four base color options, as well as eight additional cushion options, there are 32 total ways you can mix up your Beats 360. If you mix headband cushions from the earcups, there are up to 256 different options.
You can truly make these headphones yours – which is quite fun. Another advantage to this is the fact that when your ear cushions wear down, you can easily swap them out instead of calling the headphones a loss.