Beats Studio 4: release date, rumours, price, features and what we want to see

As a fashion-forward brand, Beats knows how to stand out. Over the years, the company has collaborated with the likes of Lebron James and Kim Kardashian, cementing the brand’s celebrity status. The Studio headphones are known as the company’s most iconic line and it’s been almost five years since a new release. With the Beats Studio 4 Wireless rumours, we’ve rounded up everything we know about Beats’ upcoming over-ear headphones.

Will there be a Beats Studio 4 series?

This is evident from a line of code that Twitter user @aaronp613 spotted in macOS Ventura 13.4, new Beats headphones arrive with model number A2924. The headphones will likely be called the Beats Studio Pro and will build on the Studio 3.

Beats Studio 4 curiosities skyrocketed in 2022 because 2021 was such a big year for the company. In 2021, Beats released the Fit Pro, Studio Buds and Flex. Coincidentally, Beats also discontinued its Solo Pro headphones in November 2021.

With all these updated earbuds in the Beats stable and the silent discontinuation of the Solo Pro, we thought the Studio 4 would hit the market in 2022. That didn’t happen, but it looks like we’re getting closer and closer to seeing the Beats Studio 4 materialize. That said, Apple owns Beats and neither company has made an official statement about the Studio 4.

• Beats Studio (2013): August 2013
• Beats Studio Wireless: December 1, 2014
• Beats Studio 3 Wireless: October 31, 2017

Based on previous Beats releases, the Beats Studio 4 is sure to make its way to our ears in Fall 2023. Since the Studio 3 Wireless, Beats has released a handful of earbuds and headphones. The Studio Buds and Studio Buds Plus were June and May releases respectively. Meanwhile, the Beats Powerbeats Pro and Fit Pro were released in May and November respectively.

Beats also released and discontinued the Beats Solo Pro. These on-ear headphones were available on October 30, 2019, but Beats stopped selling them on November 1, 2021. Suffice to say, Beats is trending toward fall release dates for its headphones and summer releases for its earbuds.

Here’s everything we gathered from the rumors and what to expect based on industry trends.

Design

The Beats Studio 4 will almost certainly have a familiar silhouette that’s almost indistinguishable from the Studio 3 Wireless. We expect the headphones to be available in black, brown, navy and ivory. Historically, Beats has teamed up with sports teams and musicians to release limited colorways, which will likely be the case for the Studio 4. As before, the Studio 4 will likely have folding hinges for easy transportation.

The Studio 3 Wireless has a micro USB charging port, but we should see a USB-C port on the Studio 4 Wireless.

Beats Studio’s headphone line is known for its noise cancellation and bass sound profile. Frankly, there’s no reason to believe Beats will deviate from that. If anything, we can see a more subdued bass response than the Studio 3. Beats wireless earbuds have recently drifted towards a more palatable sound profile than in the company’s early days.

We know there will be button controls. The same code @aaronp613 found states that double-pressing the system button toggles between noise control modes. With that, we can assume the Studio 4 will have a transparency mode, like the more recent offerings from Beats and the AirPods Max. If you’re unfamiliar, the transparency mode channels background noise through the headset. This allows you to hear your music and surroundings at the same time.

The code does not indicate whether the headphones have Apple’s W1 chip or the newer H1 chip. Seeing how the Beats Fit Pro packs the newer H1 chip, it’s not hard to think the Beats Studio 4 will house it too. This chip offers improved efficiency and supports spatial audio with head tracking for immersive audio and video playback.

We’ve seen Beats add more Android-friendly features to its earbuds in recent years. The Studio 4 Wireless will undoubtedly work just as well on Android as it does on iOS. We expect options for noise control and control customization via the app. Like the Beats Studio Buds Plus, don’t be surprised if the Studio 4 are compatible with Google’s Find My Device app – and if they work with Audio Switch on Android.

Even with extensive Android functionality, chances are the Beats Studio 4 will support more than the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. Android users may still experience audiovisual lag when streaming videos if we don’t see aptX on the Studio 4 Wireless.

The Studio 3 are the first studio headphones released after Beats became an Apple subsidiary. At Apple’s discretion, Beats has set the Studio 3 price at $349. Considering how Beats recently released the Studio Buds Plus with a $50 price increase over the original Studio Buds, the price of Studio 4 will likely be around $349. 399 rocking.

This expected price shouldn’t discourage you too much. During the holiday season, Beats earbuds and headphones are regularly on sale. We’ve seen the price of Studio 3 Wireless drop to $179 over the years. Today you can buy the Studio 3 Wireless for $169.99 from Amazon.

Beats Studio 4: what we want to see

While the Studio 3 Wireless are good noise canceling headphones, a host of features and improvements will make the Studio 4 more competitive today.

Like the Studio headphones before it, the Studio 4 is almost guaranteed to have improved active noise cancellation (ANC). To stay competitive with other flagship headphones, the Studio 4 needs to have better ANC than the Studio 3. With the Studio 3, airplane engines and train cars sound about a quarter as loud as they would without the headphones. This is good, but the Studio 4 should make these noises even quieter.

In the SoundGuys In the graph above, the cyan dotted line represents the Studio 4 Wireless’s noise canceling performance. The pink line indicates how well the Studio 3 blocks background noise without ANC. The noise-cancellation makes a difference compared to no ANC, but we’d like to see Beats step up its ANC game.

We also hope Beats improves the sound quality of its Studio 4 headphones. That’s not to say the Studio 3 sounds bad, quite the contrary, but the 200-500Hz bump is noticeable. It makes voices a bit louder than they should sound in a mix. Rather than following an identical frequency response to the Studio 3 Wireless, Beats could benefit from dampening the sub-bass and low-mid response. This kind of change would make the headphones even more versatile in different genres of music.

Custom EQ in the mobile app

While it’s unlikely we’ll see a custom equalizer in the Beats app, it would make the Studio 4 a much more versatile pair of headphones than the Studio 3 before it. This allowed listeners to freely adjust the sound to suit their media and music preferences. For example, when I’m listening to a podcast, sometimes it’s nice to cut off the sub bass so the speaker’s voices come through more clearly. Currently, a third-party EQ app is the only way to adjust the sound of Beats or Apple products.

When Beats released the Solo Pro on-ear headphones, I was disappointed that the company ditched the headphone jack. Hopefully, Apple and Beats reverse this step with the Studio 4 and keep the headphone jack. Keeping the headphone jack makes it easier to connect to laptops and other devices in a pinch. It is also suitable for audiophiles who want to enjoy lossless audio without any problems.

Better microphone quality

There’s a good chance we’ll see better microphone quality with the Studio 4 Wireless. Beats has only improved the microphone quality of its earbuds and the Studio 3 is almost five years old, so the bar for improvement is pretty low.

Our microphone demos below illustrate how the Studio 3 Wireless microphone sounds under different conditions. The Studio 4 mics will sound at least as good.

Better battery life

Like the microphone quality, we’d like to see better battery life from the Studio 3 Wireless. Today, flagship noise-cancelling headphones last anywhere from 30 hours to more than 50 hours. Considering how the Studio 3 Wireless has a battery life of 22 hours, it would be great to extend playtime on the Studio 4 to 30 hours.

Multipoint connectivity allows you to connect your headphones to two source devices at the same time. This may not seem appealing on first reading, but it comes in handy for work. You can watch a video from your laptop while staying connected to your phone when a call comes in.

Then the device is switched automatically. Not all Beats audio products support this on Apple devices, but some do. It would be great to switch seamlessly between an iPhone and a Mac with the Studio 4 Wireless, as the Studio 3 doesn’t. We’ll see this feature sooner than multipoint connectivity.

A water-resistant construction

This is another unlikely one on our wish list, but an IPX4 water-resistant rating would help set the Beats Studio 4 apart from the other flagship headphones on the market. Ensuring the Studio 4 Wireless are water resistant would make them excellent workout headphones. It would also reduce the anxiety of wearing headphones during mild drizzle.

That’s all we want to see from the Beats Studio 4, what do you want to see?