Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Which Beats wireless sports earbuds should you buy?

This Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro face-off compares two of the best wireless earbuds, helping you decide which Beats model best suits your needs and budget.

New to market, the Beats Fit Pro can be best summed up as the AirPods Pro in a Studio Buds design, but with wingtips thrown in for optimal fit. That means you’re getting most of Apple’s high-end features, including active noise cancellation, Ear Tip Fit Test, Spatial Audio, and much more. Not to mention, the stronger specs elevate sound to the highest level heard on a pair of Beats in-ears.

But before being anointed the brand’s top dog, it must go up against a critic and fan favorite: the Powerbeats Pro. These buds rank highly on every best sport headphones list for many reasons. The two that stand out most are the vibrant soundstage and secure fit, thanks to the series’ iconic earhook design. Solid durability, H1-powered features, and some of the longest playtime in the category show why it’s still a hot seller among avid exercisers and casual listeners.

As for which is the better overall model, read our full Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro breakdown to find out.

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro specs compared

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Price

The Beats Fit Pro carries a higher price tag: $199. That’s a steal when factoring in the amount of functionality Beats stuffed into these buds. You can purchase it in four colors: Black, Sage Gray, Stone Purple, and White.   

The Powerbeats Pro has been out for a while and has seen numerous price drops over the year. It originally launched for $249, the same price as the AirPods Pro, but can regularly be found for less at Amazon. To call this an enticing deal would be an understatement. Color options include black, cloud pink, glacier blue, ivory, lava red, moss, navy, and spring yellow.  

Bookmark our best headphone deals page for all the latest discounts to help you bag a bargain.

Winner: Tie

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Design

Beats is no amateur at crafting aesthetically appealing audio hardware. The brand’s line of headphones and earbuds have become fashion accessories among millennials, Gen-Z, and Gen-Alpha. When comparing the two models, we favor the Powerbeats Pro for its more original design, granted it carries over the signature earhook look of past Beats earbuds. Even certain details like the logo and volume rockers give it some flair. The only thing we don’t like is the massive charging case, which is weighty and creates unflattering pocket bulge, if you can even fit it into a pocket.

The Fit Pro is chic and stylish, but it’s basically the Studio Buds with affixed eartips. That’s not a bad thing at all. The tiny oval design sits discretely on your ears and doesn’t t stick out. Build quality is durable, and to see it come with IPX4 sweat and water resistance like the Powerbeats Pro is fantastic. At the same time, it feels like Beats put in less of an effort to develop a more unique design.

Winner: Beats Fit Pro

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Comfort and fit

Both might look different, but they’re equally comfortable and fit-ready for workouts. The Fit Pro’s eartips feel gentle on the skin and mold into the cymba, while the silicone tips produce a tight seal around the canal to keep the buds locked in. We experienced slippage maybe once or twice during testing. Apple included its Ear Tip Fit Test to measure your ears once inserting the Fit Pro for proper sizing, but the feature isn’t as accurate as on the AirPods Pro.

The Powerbeats Pro offer you similar peace of mind, with the ear hooks again providing excellent stability no matter what you're doing. The angled sound port makes it easy to insert into the ear, but it also applies pressure to the concha, which can cause a little discomfort after workouts.

Winner: Tie

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Controls

One major selling point about Beats wireless earbuds is that they come with solid control schemes, despite lacking touch controls. The Fit Pro and Powerbeats Pro each have multifunctional buttons, on-ear detection for auto-pause/play, and “Hey Siri” voice activation to fire up Apple’s AI bot via wake word. All three operate flawlessly, especially “Hey Siri” with the mic arrays on each model demonstrating superb speech recognition to execute voice commands with ease. 

The differentiator in this round would have to be the volume rockers, which are placed atop the Powerbeats Pro and make raising/lowering volume a breeze.

Winner: Beats Powerbeats Pro

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Sound quality

Warm sound is usually favored for workouts and the Powerbeats Pro has plenty of it. The low end knocks hard, increasing liveliness when listening to contemporary music genres like alternative rock, EDM, and hip-hop. Vocals are also prominent on acoustic tracks. The trade off with having such powerful bass at the helm is that highs take a hit.

That leads us to the more balanced Fit Pro. Bass is still emphasized on these buds, but it isn’t as dominant over the soundscape as what you’ll hear on the Powerbeats Pro. We actually prefer the Fit Pro for working out, as it not only pumps out impactful lows, but also offers up crisp mids and detailed highs, which makes it great for casual listening too. 

The inclusion of Adaptive EQ mode is a game-changer, adjusting frequencies in real time so you can hear music more precisely. Another killer feature that gives the Fit Pro this round is Spatial Audio, Apple’s 360-degree sound tech that delivers an immersive listening experience for select content. It works well and is a sweet bonus for music lovers who want more out of their music.

Winner: Beats Fit Pro

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Special features and apps

Part of operating on Apple’s incredible ecosystem is that both AirPods and Beats headphones get to enjoy many of the same software perks. With both models running on the H1 chip, the Fit Pro and Powerbeats Pro share lots of functionality. This includes aforementioned features like audio sharing and “Hey Siri” voice activation, along with others such as automatic switching, one-touch pairing, and FindMy for locating misplaced earbuds.

On top of Adaptive EQ and Spatial Audio, the Fit Pro comes with two other features not found on the Powerbeats Pro: ANC and Transparency mode. These are the only Apple wireless earbuds to come with noise neutralization other than the AirPods Pro. We found the technology blocked out background interference at a high level, which made for peaceful listens during runs and recovery periods. Transparency mode helps you gain greater awareness of your surroundings, and it works well to let you hear ambient noises loudly and distinctively. Simply put, the Fit Pro is one of the best noise-cancelling earbuds available.

Both models support the Beats Android app.

Winner: Beats Fit Pro

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Call quality

These are two of the best headphones with a mic for voice and video calls. The Fit Pro uses five mics and a voice accelerometer to minimize background noise for loud, clear calls, while the Powerbeats Pro comes with its own beamforming mics that do just as good of a job for voice calls. You’ll hear crisp vocals, especially on FaceTime calls, though the wind resistance on these two sets of buds isn’t as strong as on the AirPods Pro.

Winner: Tie

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Battery life

Longer playtime on a full charge goes to the Powerbeats Pro at 9 hours. This is another huge selling point for fitness fanatics doing two-a-days without worrying about the buds dying between workouts. The Fit Pro gets you 6 hours of ANC playtime and can extend to 7 hours with ANC off.

However, the Fit Pro has the higher battery life overall when factoring in the charging case, which holds between 27 to 30 hours. The Powerbeats Pro case reaches a max of 24 hours, though it has stronger quick-charging capabilities: 5 minutes equals 1.5 hours of use. That is 30 minutes more than what the Fit Pro generates in the same charging time. 

We find 9 hours per charge to be more sufficient for weekly use.

Winner: Beats Powerbeats Pro

Beats Fit Pro vs. Beats Powerbeats Pro: Overall winner

An effective design update combined with newer technology gives the Fit Pro the edge over its elder sibling. We can’t overstate the importance of having the Adaptive EQ and Spatial Audio, especially for exercisers who want energetic sound when indulging in their workout playlists. The wingtips are clutch for keeping the buds in place when performing lateral movements. Then there’s ANC, which performs just as well as it does on the AirPods Pro and provides listeners with control over how much noise they want to block out or hear when running outside.

We’ve held the Powerbeats Pro in the highest regard for several years, and we’ll continue to do that based on its sporty features alone. The earhooks will never go out of style and are the best thing for on-ear stability. IPX4 water resistance and sturdy construction keep these bad boys from falling apart. Serviceable functions like the volume rockers, along with the fact that these buds share many of the same features as the Fit Pro, should not go overlooked either. However, not having ANC or premium sound features ultimately keeps the Powerbeats Pro from winning this battle.

More: Check out our Beats Studio Buds vs. Jabra Elite Active 75t comparison next.