After several months of covert appearances in the hands of celebrities and athletes, the Beats Pill (2024) has been officially announced today (June 25), with a sticker price of $149.
Despite sporting some new impressive drivers for better sound excursion, the overall look of the speaker hasn’t changed much since its predecessor launched way, way back in 2012. The new model is slightly larger and heftier, however, and it comes with an IP67 rating for both water and dust resistance. Inside is a large new battery that purportedly offers 24 hours of playback and, like the rest of Beats’ 2024 lineup, uses USB-C for fast charging.
I’ve had the speaker in my hands for a little under a week now and had the chance to take it for a spin at home and outside in the nice summer weather. While my final opinions on the Beats Pill (2024) are still coalescing, here are the five things I’m liking about the speaker and the three things I’m not after spending some time with the speaker.
Here's what I like about the Beats Pill (2024)
Its IP67 water resistance
If you’re making an outdoor speaker, it needs to have some sort of IP rating. While most speakers settle for IPX4 water resistance, the Beats Pill goes all-in with the water- and dust-resistant IP67 rating. Does that mean you should take it into the ocean with you on vacation? Absolutely not. But IP67 does mean that you can have it outside during a party and a small spill or a little rain won’t ruin it forever.
Its cool color options
If I had a nickel for every mundane black portable speaker I've reviewed over the years, I'd probably be able to hang up my hat as a journalist and retire. Sadly, there's no extra bonus for spending time with the last umpteen similarly designed Bose, Sony and JBL portable speakers — it's just part of the job.
Despite lots of similar-looking products out there, not everybody coats their speakers in the same two color options, with Beats opting for a few new fun options like Statement Red and Champagne Gold. Yes, there's a Matte Black option for those that want to go for the classic look, but Champagne Gold is — in my opinion — the only real option to go for here.
Extra-long 24-hour battery life
This one is relatively self-explanatory. A portable speaker is only as good as its battery life, and the Beats Pill goes big here with a 24-hour playback time. That's more than enough for a full-day barbeque or a day at the beach without needing to stop and recharge.
But there's another hidden benefit here: Unless you run a small business where you constantly want music playing, it’s not uncommon to go weeks without using a portable Bluetooth speaker. You might bring it camping over a long holiday weekend in the spring, but then it could sit there until the 4th of July just waiting for another shot to be outside. Over time, most speakers will run out of juice.
With 24 hours of playback time, however, there’s a chance that the Beats could sit there for a few weeks and still hold a charge the next time you go to use it.
It can do left-right stereo pairing when you have two of them
This one's pretty niche, but should you decide to buy two Beats Pill speakers, you can use them together either as one really loud speaker or as a left-right stereo system. This isn't a feature that I've tested quite yet — I've mostly been focused on battery life and sound quality comparisons — but I'll definitely double up before my final review.
I also like its well-balanced tuning
A decade ago, Beats got the reputation for being so bass-heavy that most music outside of electronica and rap were almost unlistenable. But the Beats Pill isn’t remotely like that. In the dozen or so hours of listening I’ve conducted with the Beats Pill, I’ve genuinely liked a lot of what I’ve heard.
There’s a great balance between bass response and mids so bops of all genres — from glorious rap songs like “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar to melodic screeds like “Vampires” by Olivia Rodrigo — all sound great.
Here's what I don't like about the Beats Pill (2024)
I'm not a fan of its clarity or soundstage
Despite some cool cross-compatibility features with both iOS and Android devices, this is still a pretty basic Bluetooth speaker. There’s no room calibration technology at play here to improve clarity or soundstage. Stereo imaging will obviously help here when you buy a pair of them, but one Beats Pill on its own isn’t going to make it feel like you’re front-row at a show — a wide soundstage just isn’t there.
That’s not to say that the Beats Pill doesn’t get loud (it certainly does), but as far as clarity is concerned, the new-and-improved drivers don’t always present acoustics in the upper registers as clearly as I’d like. That can mean missing out on some small background details in your music that simply don’t get the same boost that lyrics and bass effects in the mids and low-end got.
I really don’t like its price of $149
In any other year, the Beats Pill would be an easy sell to a lot of folks — unfortunately it’s coming just a few months after the launch of the Sony Ult Field 1 speaker that’s cornered the sub-$100 market and the Sonos Roam 2 that feels a bit more premium for around $200. The Beats Pill is stuck in this awkward middle-ground between the two that can be hard to justify.
I'm sure prices will drop during the upcoming holiday season, they always do, but at its launch price of $149 and compared to the likes of the Sony Ult Field 1, I think the Beats Pill is just slightly over-costed for what it offers.
There's no H2 Chip for Spatial Audio support
I know this one's a long-shot, but could you imagine a speaker of this size being capable of Spatial Audio? Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons including its size, driver configuration and lack of an Apple H2 Chip, this simply isn't possible.
Still, if Amazon could do it with the Amazon Echo Studio, there's a shot that Beats could do it as well. Sadly, however, the new Pill won't be the product to break that barrier. Here's hoping that feature gets included when the next Pill launches sometime in the...checks notes...2030s. Oh dear.
