Wireless earbuds make people nervous, especially during workouts. Spend a few hundred bucks on tiny headphones, and it’s understandable you’d tense up a bit when jogging past a storm drain.
Of all the wirefree earbuds to sweat in, I feel the safest wearing Beats’ Powerbeats Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends). They have cozy hooks that wrap around the ear, and though they look a bit wonky they keep the earbuds firmly clutching your head. Still, when doing anything really strenuous, I can’t help but prefer earbuds like the recently redesigned Powerbeats, which are wireless in that they connect to your phone via Bluetooth, but there’s a cable between each earbud.
For one thing, I like the security: If one of the “banded” earbuds comes off, the other keeps it on. I also like how you don’t have to search for a pocket to put one in when you have a (socially distanced) conversation with a neighbor—they can simply hang around your neck.
In fact, day by day I’m liking the regular Powerbeats more than the Pro model. They’ve got the same sound, better battery life, and cost $50 less. As far as I’m concerned, these are the best workout headphones for people with an iPhone.
The Powerbeats will seem familiar to anyone who’s seen the wirefree Pro model; other than the cable, they’re essentially doppelgangers. That’s OK—the Powerbeats Pro are a relatively new design, and form follows function. I love the sleek, rounded edges, the big easy-to-find multifunction button on the outside, and the comfortable around-ear design. They feel weightless.
Even the added cable doesn’t feel annoying or lopsided when moving around, which is a problem on many other earbuds. In this case, the light, rounded cable stays perfectly in place during runs and at-home workouts, even when I was doing exercises with lots of movement like crunches.
In both comfort and performance, the addition of the cable isn’t much of a compromise; it allows for more room inside the headphones for bigger batteries. These Powerbeats will do 15 hours between trips to the charger, which is awesome for the forgetful. But they’re annoying in how they charge: Apple’s Lightning cable, the same one used for iPhones. I wish it had a USB-C port, which is used in so many more devices, from Android phones to laptops (including Apple’s MacBooks!).