The best workouts I have used on Android are made by Apple

What originally drew me to the pixel buds A was their wingtip design – they remained, no matter how intense training. But PowerBeats Pro 2 takes it security to another level. The redesigned ear hook may look bulky at first glance, but when they are first on, they do not call. Ever.

I have clocked almost 100 miles of running in these, and not even have I had to push them in again or adjust the fit in the middle of the race. The flexible, lightweight hooks lock only in place without feeling uncomfortable or tongue. Even during high intensity lift or fast -paced cardio, I didn’t feel a single shift. It’s huge. This was my first real experience with earplugs in ear hook style, but I think it is safe to say that I am a convert.

Another small but underrated improvement is the ear tip insulation. With most buds, sweat tends to mess with the harness, but not here. Pro 2 also has a relocated valve that helps relieve the pressure inside the ear. Usually I start to feel that pressure builds up in my ears after about 25-30 minutes of running, but the PowerBeats Pro 2 did much better. For the first time, I really forgot I was wearing a couple of earbuds. This level of comfort in a pair of exercise phones is outstanding.

The highlight feature of Beats PowerBeats Pro 2 is the built -in Pulse tracking. It is not a first for real wireless earphones, but it is a first for beats, and the company made a big deal of working with athletes to make it. It is also the feature that really attracted my attention when exploring new alternatives on the market.

I’m not a big fan of breast straps, and never so often I don’t want to use the heavy Apple Watch Ultra on a run. The idea that I can just pop in my earbuds and get HR data right to apps that Strava Or training poles via Bluetooth appeal to me.

Sounds good on the paper, but in practice it doesn’t quite deliver. On Android, heart rate data is sent well to Strava while streaming music. On the iPhone, strangely enough, just don’t. But the bigger problem is accuracy. In smooth workouts like long runs, HR data is quite spot. But the moment you throw in intervals or hiit, the tracking fakes. After all appearances, it seems that the earphones are designed to just stop broadcasting HR data when it experiences poor accuracy. It is a nice idea in theory, but it happens too often to make the data consistently useful.

This means that the heart rate tracking only works well for certain types of workouts. If you do a regular run, you get good insight. But if your workout includes intensity spikes, you will probably be left without much usable data. Also, you need to activate the feature every time you want to use it. This means that I did not use the HR tracking feature almost as much as I expected.

On the plus side, you can also broadcast heart rate to compatible gym equipment using standard Bluetooth protocols. If the treadmill or bicycle machine supports Bluetooth HR input, the data only appears on the screen. It is a nice feel, but again it suffers the same pitfalls that I mentioned earlier. Any aggressive shifts in workouts cause the heartbeat to fall out.

If you are a double phone and double operating system like me like me, there is another pitfall to keep an eye on. You can have PowerBeats Pro 2 streaming music from an Android phone while connected to gym equipment just fine. But if you use an iPhone, this feature simply doesn’t work. I thought it could be dud equipment on my end, so I walked around testing the earphones with other gym equipment, but it’s a no-go. Maybe it’s a solution I haven’t found yet. But the problem seems to be consistent enough among users that this is probably a hardware restriction. All in all, if earbud -based pulse tracking is a major criterion in your purchase decision, I will give these a passport.

If you are something like me, music is not just a training company – it’s the backbone of your training. And that’s where Beats deliver. If you expect untouched, well -balanced audio file sound, you may want to skip this section completely. That’s not what you get here. Instead, as expected, Pro 2 leans into the signature bass-heavy sound with a little more processing. There is still plenty of tricks, but the mids and highlights are clearer and sharper-accurate what I want in the middle of the training. I have run to metal playlists, EDM sets and even some soft synth tracks, and they all sounded good on these.

Even the active noise reduction surprised me. It’s not quite on Sony WF-1000xm5Levels, but interconnected with the dense fit and passive insulation, drowning the chaos in the gym’s Bollywood playlist for a comfortable brum. I don’t usually care much about transparency mode on earphones, but I thought it was quite useful here. It’s not as natural sounding as on AirPods, but it comes close, and I had no trouble using it for quick conversations with my coach or turning it on while I ran outdoors.

The big case about Beats PowerBeats Pro 2 also ensures that battery life does not suffer. While the earphones themselves last up to 10 hours on a single charge, the case offers another 40 hours. It has been good enough that I never have to worry about charging your earphones. I just plonk the case on a wireless charger once a week and call it one day.

If you are deep inside the Android ecosystem, it may feel strange to consider an Apple-made product as your next training. But PowerBeats Pro 2 really displaced pixel buds A and earned their place in my training bag. With an incredibly safe fit, excellent sound and marathon -worthy battery life, it checks almost every box for exercise -focused earplugs. The pulse tracking is not perfect, but it is a nice bonus – and at worst, something I can completely ignore. There is everything else about the earphones that notice all the right boxes for me and make them a top competitor for some of the best training phone phones around.