Beats Pill review: A really good speaker that’s a firmware update from being great

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating
ProsIP67 ratingDecent volume and sound for the sizeFantastic battery lifeConsSome controls are a little unintuitiveYou just can’t expect great sound from a portable speaker this sizeOur VerdictIt sounds better than most portable speakers this size, but that’s not a very high bar to clear. Still, it sounds clipped at high volumes and some controls are a little opaque.

A little more than ten years ago portable Bluetooth speakers were having a moment, and the original Beats Pill (circa 2012, before Apple acquired Beats) was a big part of their surge in popularity. In the years that followed, we saw few updates to the line aside from the simplified Beats Pill+, which was discontinued a couple of years ago.

Now the popular portable speaker is back, entering into a market flooded with cheap competitors. While it is much improved over previous versions, it has a few faults that we’d love to see addressed in the next revision.

Beats Pill: Design

Beats’ iconic “pill” shape has been copied a lot in portable Bluetooth speakers and there’s a reason. It’s handy to carry around, fits anywhere a water bottle would go, and sits well on a table or similarly flat surface. You can get one in classic Beats colors—black, red, or champagne.

There’s nothing surprising about this new 2024 model—it’s definitely a Beats Pill. When at rest the speakers are tilted 20 degrees upward, which is a great way to project the sound more directly at you–these things tend to sit on tables and benches and beach towels where straight-forward sound projection is a waste.

A silicone outer wrap surrounds the sides and back and helps prevent bumps and dings, while adding some weatherproofing. The Pill is IP67-rated, so you don’t have to worry about it being ruined by beach sand, pool splashing, or getting caught in the rain. Along the top, you’ll find volume buttons, a center multi-function button, and a power button. They all present fingertip-sized dimples in the silicone, but they’re far enough apart and labeled clearly enough that it’s easy to hit the right one without paying close attention.

In the back is a single USB-C port that can be used for charging or as an audio input, with support for lossless audio (not that the Pill has the sound quality to do it justice). It even reverse-charges with a triple-tap of the power button so it can be a sort of power bank for your phone.




The USB-C port supports audio in and reverse charging. Neat!



The USB-C port supports audio in and reverse charging. Neat!Foundry

The USB-C port supports audio in and reverse charging. Neat!Foundry


Foundry

Speaking of battery, Beats rates it at 24 hours. We didn’t do a full rundown test, but after spending a full afternoon listening to it at a mid-to-high volume, I can confirm it can easily run all day without recharging.

Beats Pill: Audio quality

With a single “racetrack” (read: oval) woofer capable of 90 percent more air displacement than the woofer in the Beats Pill+ and a paired tweeter, the new Beats Pill sounds… well… OK.

Like all portable speakers with a cylindrical design, it really lacks low-end oomph. There’s more bass than you’d expect, but still less than you need. The audio processing is meant to reduce distortion, but at higher volumes, there’s a noticeable clipped or limited feel to everything. It does get pretty loud, and still sounds pretty good about four or five clicks down from top volume, but look, there’s only so much a little lightweight portable speaker of this shape can possibly do.

There’s a microphone to enable speakerphone or voice assistants, and it works in a pinch but doesn’t have much in the way of noise reduction–those I called could easily hear strong wind or nearby highway noise in a way they couldn’t on when I called on a pair of AirPods Pro.

While I appreciate the iconic shape, I have to wonder if a narrow oblong pill is the best shape for one of these things. It’s reasonably stable but can be rolled over when you bump a picnic table too hard, and the shape means compromises in sound engineering that are hard to get around. Something more of a “paint can” shape between HomePod and HomePod mini, would probably allow for a better woofer design that wouldn’t need such heavy processing to avoid distortion. Some pills are round, aren’t they?

Beats Pill: Controls

Some of the Pill’s controls are intuitive enough. The volume buttons do what you expect, and you can tap the center button once to play/pause, twice to skip forward, or three times to skip back.

After that, it gets a little unintuitive. Simply powering off the Pill is a little confusing–we’re all used to pressing and holding the power button for a few seconds to power down something like this. On the Pill, that enters Bluetooth pairing mode. But if you just tap the button you get the battery status. Double-tap it? No, that triggers Siri (or other voice assistant on Android phones).

Rather, you have to press and hold the power button for longer than 0.8 seconds but less than 3 seconds to power it off. You’d never have guessed it.

If you have two Pills you can use them in Amplify mode–playing simultaneous audio that is excellent for covering a larger area or adjacent rooms–or stereo mode where one Pill plays the left channel and one plays the right.




The buttons are simple enough but their function isn’t always intuitive and lacks feedback.



The buttons are simple enough but their function isn’t always intuitive and lacks feedback.Foundry

The buttons are simple enough but their function isn’t always intuitive and lacks feedback.Foundry


Foundry

Entering these modes is not intuitive either. There’s no option for it in the settings on iPhones (the Beats app on Android is a bit more helpful). To enter Amplify mode you bring two Pill speakers close to each other then press and hold the center button on both of them. For Stereo mode, you hold the center button and volume up. There’s no indication of which one is the left or right channel. To end Amplify/Stereo, press the center and volume down.

It would help a lot if these modes had some sort of easy interface in the iOS settings or at least a clear audio confirmation, but neither is present. A firmware update could improve both the unusual and unintuitive power button function and the opaque two-pill pairing modes. But as long as you stick to the basics–volume and play/pause/skip–the Pill controls work fine.

Should you buy a Beat Pill?

I have issues with the sound quality from the Beats Pill but it’s not like other portable Bluetooth speakers of this size deliver the sound I want. It’s a necessity of the form factor, it seems, and a good reason to consider perhaps a different shape for the Beat Pill 2.

The weatherproofing, relatively loud volume, and fantastic battery life all make this a really great affordable speaker for hanging out by the pool, listening to some tunes while grilling, or improving the vibe inside your tent the next time you go camping.

The $150 price is reasonable, too. You just need to manage your expectations for getting great sound quality out of a little portable speaker like this and hope that a firmware update makes the controls a little more intuitive.

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