The Powerbeats Fit are the successors to 2021’s Beats Fit Pro. They are the latest true wireless earbuds from the Apple-owned Beats by Dr. Dre brand, and part of the company’s Powerbeats lineup, which also features the Powerbeats Pro 2 that we looked at earlier this year.
Much like the Powerbeats Pro 2, the Powerbeats Fit are focused entirely on providing optimal fit and peace of mind when used during workouts. While they lack the overt loop design of the Pros, they do have integrated wingtips to keep them securely tucked in your ears.
The Powerbeats Fit are built on Apple’s older H1 chip and are compatible with Apple as well as Android devices. They feature active noise cancellation, sweat and water-resistant design, and up to 7 hours of continuous playback. And it all comes with a $200 price tag.
Let’s see how they perform.
Design and comfort
The Powerbeats Fit have a similar overall design to the Beats Fit Pro. The earbuds have a chunky design with integrated wingtips that stick out the top. However, the design of the Fit is more rounded than the flat surfaces of the Beats Fit Pro.
The wingtips are meant to sit within the concha, or more specifically, the cymba concha part of your outer ear. At first, I couldn’t get the wingtip to go in naturally, but then I realized you need to twist the earbuds in your ears, and the wingtips slide into place automatically. Beats claims the wingtips have been made 20% more flexible than those on the Fit Pro.
The wingtips blend into the large Beats button on the outside. Much like on the Powerbeats Pro 2, this button is way bigger than it needs to be, which causes you to accidentally press it all the time while inserting or removing the earbuds from your ears. On a Mac, this also causes the default Music player to launch if nothing else is playing, which is doubly annoying. On the plus side, the large button makes using the controls easier during workouts.
Much like the earbuds, the charging case has a similar design to its predecessor and is also smaller, this time by about 17%. Also, for the first time for a Beats product, both the earbuds and the case are sweat and water-resistant.
However, as nice as the case looks and feels, opening and closing it is genuinely frustrating. The lip on the front is almost non-existent and provides no real leverage. Meanwhile, the case texture is also incredibly smooth. This leads to situations where you are fighting for your life, trying to get inside the case while your fingers are cartoonishly sliding all over the place, looking for anything to hold on to. I ended up dropping the case on more than one occasion because of this entirely avoidable ridiculousness.
In terms of comfort, the Powerbeats Fit fared reasonably well for my ears. Ditching the painful ear hooks of the Powerbeats Pro 2 is generally a win in my books, and the wingtips on the Powerbeats Fit provide adequate levels of security with no real risk of falling out.
Having said that, the wingtips do put some pressure on your outer ear to be able to hold on, and this will eventually be felt. I am talking upwards of 2 hours in my case, after which I could feel some discomfort. It doesn’t help that the earbuds are rather chunky and seem to take up too much space inside your ears. However, compared to the 20-odd minutes I can go with the Powerbeats Pro 2 before having to adjust the ear hooks, this is definitely an improvement for my ears.
Considering the design is geared towards working out, I find the Powerbeats Fit to be comfortable enough for typical workout lengths while also feeling secure.
Software and features
The Powerbeats Fit are compatible with both Apple and non-Apple products, with a dedicated app being available for Android devices. On Apple devices, the software features are accessible natively within their respective Settings apps.
The Android app gives you access to all of the basic features. This includes changing the ANC modes, customizing the functions for the Beats button, and updating the firmware. It also matches the color of the app to that of the paired earbuds. However, if you do pair with an Apple device, you have access to additional features, such as Spatial Audio with head tracking, one-touch pairing on iOS and iPadOS, Audio Sharing, hands-free Hey Siri, and Find My.
Regardless of the platform, you can change what the Beats button on the side can do. By default, the buttons are set to trigger the usual set of features, including playback controls, ANC mode switching, and call controls. However, you can switch the press and hold functionality from ANC modes to changing the volume. I wish you didn’t have to choose between them as both seem like practical options to have, but ultimately I decided that the ANC/transparency mode toggle was of more use to me.
iOS settings
Aside from that, there really aren’t that many features available on the Powerbeats Fit. These earbuds also lack the heart rate monitoring found on the Powerbeats Pro 2 and the AirPods Pro 3. It’s possible this is due to the use of the older Apple H1 chip on the Powerbeats Fit, whereas the other two use the newest H2 chip.
However, by far the biggest omission when used with non-Apple devices is Automatic Switching. Introduced first with the AirPods, this feature will let your Powerbeats Fit transition seamlessly between all your Apple devices, provided they are all on the same Apple ID. I could be playing a video on my Mac and then click play on a podcast on my iPhone, and the audio will automatically transition to the other device. This also works if I get a call either on the iPhone or on the Mac. The process is painless and, to quote a cliche, “it just works”.
Android app
However, the moment you step out of this ecosystem, the feature no longer exists. Much like the AirPods, none of the Beats products support traditional Bluetooth multi-device pairing, so if you have an Android and Windows device, or even one non-Apple and one Apple device, you cannot transfer between them without doing the typical pair/unpair dance.
This is not an issue with AirPods, which really should only be purchased for use with Apple products. However, Beats markets its products for use with Android, so it really should be providing multi-device pairing for those devices, especially considering this is a standard Bluetooth feature that is available even on budget wireless audio products.
Performance
Audio quality
As is typical for Apple-made audio products, the details are scant when it comes to audio-related features and specifications. We know the Powerbeats Fit use single dynamic drivers in each earbud and that they use Class 1 Bluetooth (that’s the best one with a claimed 100m range), but that’s about it. The earbuds do support AAC, as reported on Android, but that’s about it. Since the Powerbeats Fit don’t use the newer H2 chip, they don’t get the low-latency lossless audio when paired with the Apple Vision Pro headset like the Powerbeats Pro 2.
The Powerbeats Fit perform well overall in the audio quality department. The sound is reasonably well balanced in terms of its frequency response, with a slight emphasis on the bass frequencies.
There are two ways to listen to the Powerbeats Fit. With ANC disabled, you get Adaptive EQ. This uses the microphones inside the earbuds to constantly monitor the sound and adjust it till it matches its reference frequency response. This helps the earbuds account for ear shape and potential leakages through the ear tips, and ensures you are always getting the intended sound. When ANC or transparency mode is enabled, the internal microphones are diverted to monitoring the noise, so you lose the Adaptive EQ functionality.
You could make an argument that the ANC off mode is the intended way to listen, and I also prefer how the earbuds sound this way. The sound is more balanced, with a more fleshed-out mid-range and a smoother, more neutral treble response. The bass is engaging and energetic, but that doesn’t really change with the ANC mode. The overall sound is warm, lush, and tonally quite pleasing with a very natural timbre and slightly thumpy but generally enjoyable bass response.
With the ANC enabled, the mid-range loses some of its footing and sounds hollower. The treble gets a bit sharper, which, combined with the aforementioned bass energy, gives the sound a more V-shaped tonality. The difference isn’t very big and can often be hard to notice, and it’s possible you would prefer the livelier presentation with ANC enabled.
In any case, I appreciate Beats using the ANC off mode creatively, as most other brands don’t even bother tuning this mode properly. In fact, since it is treated as almost a battery-saver mode, many earbuds will also disable some audio processing in this mode to further inflate the battery life numbers.
Microphone
The Powerbeats Fit have mediocre microphone quality. The audio isn’t bad per se, but it is very typical of what you usually find in Bluetooth earbuds, especially some of the more budget models. We also know that Apple can do so much better, as the models with H2, such as the Powerbeats Pro 2, have excellent microphone quality that barely sounds like it’s coming from a wireless set. Compared to that, the Powerbeats Fit get a passing grade and nothing more.
Noise cancellation
The Powerbeats Fit have good noise cancellation performance. There is good coverage in the low and mid frequencies, but some of the upper mid and high frequencies do seep in a bit, likely due to the somewhat shallow insertion depth of the ear tips. The overall performance here isn’t quite up there with the best, with Apple’s own AirPods Pro models doing better, but it still does quite well overall.
What’s more impressive is the transparency mode performance. This is something Apple and Apple-made products are really good at, and the Powerbeats Fit are no different. The transparency mode sounds very natural, to the point where you can often forget you are wearing earbuds and just hear normally. It doesn’t do some of the tricks that AirPods can do, such as suppressing background noise while prioritizing voices, but if you just want a general-purpose transparency mode, this works really well and is good enough to be used for outdoor workouts without having to invest in separate open-ear or bone conduction products.
Latency
The Powerbeats Fit have good latency performance. Even though these are not touted to be gaming earbuds, they do reasonably well with Apple products, which can enable a low-latency mode when a game is launched. For typical music playback or even workout videos, latency should not be a concern at all.
Connectivity
The Powerbeats Fit had good connectivity performance during testing. There were no connection dropouts in typical usage, and only when moving around solid brick walls did the signal occasionally falter. If you are just moving around the gym when the phone is nearby, then you should have no problems.
Battery life
The Powerbeats Fit have a claimed battery life of 7 hours with ANC disabled and 6 hours with ANC enabled. In my testing, I got 8 hours and 11 minutes with ANC disabled and 6 hours and 45 minutes with ANC enabled. That’s a fair bit higher, but in both cases the numbers were run twice and ended up being in the same ballpark.
Beats also claims 1 hour of playback after a 5-minute charge with ANC disabled. I got about 1 hour and 19 minutes, which is decent. Beats makes no mention of how much you can get with ANC enabled, and after about a 45-minute result in my testing, I can probably see why.
The Powerbeats Fit case can only charge over a USB cable. The lack of wireless charging is rather glaring for a $200 product.
Conclusion
The Powerbeats Fit are priced at $200. That’s not quite flagship but still premium earbud territory. The company’s own Powerbeats Pro 2 are priced at $250, as are Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3.
As a fitness-focused product, the Powerbeats Fit do quite well. They stay put in your ears, have a water and sweat-resistant design for the earbuds and the case, and are decently comfortable for typical sessions. Outside of workout-specific use-cases, the earbuds also have good audio quality, great battery life, and perfectly decent active noise cancellation with an excellent transparency mode in tow. The integration with Apple products is also perfect, and while Android is supported, you really do get a lot more out of these when used with an Apple device.
For $50 less, the Powerbeats Fit lose out on a few features, such as heart rate monitoring, compared to the Powerbeats Pro 2. However, this is not a major omission, as you are very likely to have something like an Apple Watch or a fitness band already tracking that for you. What you will miss out on is the microphone quality, which is quite average compared to its more expensive sibling, and also wireless charging. Also, if you’re on Android, then you also don’t get multi-device pairing or any of the other Apple-exclusive niceties.
Overall, the Powerbeats Fit are a very good option for those seeking a workout-centric pair of earbuds for their iPhone that provides the security that AirPods simply cannot, while still getting most of the features and conveniences that you have come to expect from Apple-made earbuds. However, Android users might want to look elsewhere for something more feature-compatible or cheaper.
