The new Beats Pill is a fantastic speaker with a questionable control scheme

The new Beats Pill Speaker is the perfect Bluetooth speaker Apple has ever made. It sounds crisp and the soundstage that comes out of its small body is nothing to scoff at. Combine that with a lot wanted enhancements like waterproofing and multi-day battery life, and this Pill is not solely bettering on the older Pill and Pill+, but it surely’s additionally lastly making a play to be the perfect Bluetooth speaker in the marketplace, bar none.

That’s to not say it’s excellent, although. There are too many options packed inside this little speaker for all its buttons to deal with, so it’s extra complicated than I’d like. That stated, for its $199 worth level, the new Pill beats out most of its class.

Great first impressions

Out of the field, the new Pill is smooth and smaller than I anticipated. It’s nonetheless fairly near the identical measurement as a commonplace UE Boom 3, however because it sits horizontally, it feels a little smaller. It additionally feels nice within the hand with a soft-touch silicon wrapping round a lot of the gadget. It additionally suits into my hand actually properly. The grill on the entrance is steel and feels powerful sufficient to not crack off dropped. My assessment unit is the Black mannequin, however you can additionally get one within the enjoyable Gold Champagne color or traditional Beats Statement Red. From what I’ve seen within the advertising supplies the Champagne Gold choice is probably the most trendy trying, however I’m certain most individuals will find yourself with the non-descript black choice.

The most stunning a part of the speaker is truly how enjoyable it sounds. Like many different Beats merchandise, the sound profile you get from the new Pill is extremely bass-forward. This brings a good punch to a lot of music, however I’ve discovered as you get above 50-70 % quantity, it kicks actually onerous. My first response was, “This is awesome.” But after utilizing it for a few extra hours, I discovered the speaker a little overbearing for songs that already push the bass excessive. Balanced rock and roll songs or one thing classical sounded higher, with good however noticeable bass hits for such a small speaker. For instance, one thing like ‘Boys in the Better Land’ by Fontaines D.C. performed actually properly with the new Pill, however ‘Liquor Store’ by Remi Wolf, a newer rap/pop track, pushes the bass so excessive that it overshadows different components of the observe.

You can hear a nice instance of this overshadowing impact by listening to ‘Confessions, Pt. III’ by Toronto’s personal BADBADNOTGOOD. This track is an instrumental saxophone-based observe, however on the Pill the bass overshadows the sax each as soon as in a whereas. It ought to really feel extra even with the sax entrance and centre. At the top of the day, this comes down to private choice, and I’m fairly break up on it. Sometimes, I discover it to be a tad distracting after I’m sitting and listening to music at my desk. Other instances, it fills a room with sound, and the punch of the bass simply makes me wish to dance. Either method, after a extended listening session, I discovered myself in a position to get misplaced within the music actually simply, so I feel most individuals will take pleasure in this speaker. Just be warned when you hate when the bass EQ is pushed up a  new notches.

The cause the new Pill is so bass-heavy is as a result of Apple has re-engineered it with a bigger woofer. Most speaker units truly use two speaker items to supply a big selection of sounds. The ‘woofer’ handles the low-end frequencies like bass, whereas the ‘tweeter’ handles all the pieces else. Other audio system on this measurement vary may use two tweeters or a passive radiator to assist even out lower-end frequencies, so including the woofer can produce a wider soundstage. This is undoubtedly true with the new Pill, however as I discussed above, the bass can really feel a little scorching. That stated, it has a highly effective room-filling sound, and the bigger the house and the additional you might be from it, the extra balanced the bass feels.

Other options

Beats has additionally packed the new Pill with a ton of cool software program options and different enhancements exterior of the realm of sound high quality.

The upgrades that make me completely happy are the 24-hour battery life with the power to fast cost. The press information states that 10-minutes on the charger ought to lead to round two hours of music playback. You also can use the speaker as a moveable battery in case your telephone dies earlier than the Pill does.

Combine that with the new cloth deal with and the IP67 water/dustproof ranking, and this little speaker is able to go on any weekend journey you throw at it. Plus, when you’ve got two, you may join them collectively for ‘Amplify mode.’ This mode is for establishing a defacto multi-room audio setup at a get together. Both audio system will output mono sound collectively, letting you play music in a number of locations without delay. If you’re having a smaller get-together or wish to hearken to music in stereo, you may allow ‘Stereo mode,’ which assigns the left and proper channels to every speaker for a extra immersive listening expertise.

To sweeten the deal, the speaker also can plug into your telephone and play lossless audio and work as a moveable battery. Smaller units like a telephone or wi-fi earbuds will robotically get charged. Larger units like laptops and tablets will use logic to find out if the speaker ought to cost off them or if it ought to act as a battery. You also can triple-tap the facility button to reverse the charging path. This is actually helpful, and one thing I’ve used on my Sonos Move many instances.

One of my details of competition with the new Pill is how few buttons it has for its plethora of controls. For occasion, the facility button has six totally different features.

• Power on/off (maintain for greater than 0.8 seconds, however lower than three)
• Pairing (press and maintain for over three seconds)
• Voice Assistant (double faucet)
• Battery standing (fast faucet, lower than 0.8 seconds)
• Change charging path (triple faucet)
• USB-C audio cross by way of (press and maintain button whereas plugging in USB-C cable)

This is method an excessive amount of for one button. I’m even a big nerd who’s studied these controls, and written them down on this article, and I do know I’m going to neglect. Even over the 2 days I’ve been testing the speaker, I’ve discovered it actually annoying to activate/off, and I’ve unintentionally set it into pairing mode many instances. Sonos had this identical downside on its Sonos Roam from 2021 and it lately up to date that speaker so as to add a devoted pairing button.

That’s not all, both. There’s a button in the midst of the speaker that works equally to buttons on most headphones/earbuds, however extra complicated.

• Play/pause (faucet as soon as)
• Skip forwards (faucet twice)
• Skip backwards (faucet 3 times)
• Enter Amplify mode (press and maintain the center button on two Pills without delay)
• Enter Stereo mode (press and maintain the centre button and quantity up after pairing in Amplify mode)
• Break aside speaker group (Press and maintain centre button and quantity down)

Again, this is too many controls for one button. I might forgive this if there was some kind of app we may use to allow all these settings with out a cheat sheet helpful, however there’s no actual app for the new Pill.  There is a model of the Beats app on Android, but it surely solely means that you can tweak some button instructions, like muting your self throughout a name. You also can change the title of the speaker and add the speaker to the Android Find My Device community. On iOS, these options seem within the Settings app like AirPods. There is nowhere within the speaker settings web page to regulate the EQ.

I might like to see extra buttons added to a future Pill for pairing and for Amplify/Stereo modes. Hiding these cooler (but admittedly area of interest) options behind a cryptic button combo is too difficult for most individuals to even keep in mind, and too finicky for nerds to even wish to allow them.

Almost the proper Bluetooth speaker

At the top of the day, there’s a lot to like in regards to the new Pill – it sounds nice, the battery life is stellar and it has a lot of area of interest options for individuals trying to get probably the most out of their buy. Which is why it’s so bizarre that there is no app for straightforward control of the additional options. Hiding all the pieces behind complicated button presses is not a nice approach to make an accessible speaker. Even turning it on and off requires extra thought and timing than it ought to.

It’s additionally price stating that the bodily handbook the speaker comes with is pitiful. It’s a tiny piece of folded paper with a QR code on the skin. When you unfold it, there are a few fast controls laid out, but it surely doesn’t even point out flip the speaker off, which as I came upon, is extra complicated than it must be.

The different main factor holding me personally again from the Beats Pill is the truth that it doesn’t float. This is a small factor, however I spend a lot of time tenting and canoeing within the summers, so I actually just like the UE Boom 3 and Wonder Boom 3 since they each float when you unintentionally drop them in water. This is actually helpful while you’re in deep water like a lake. The Pill could be fantastic for many situations since it may well take a few splashes, however the peace of thoughts realizing that if my boat flips, I gained’t lose my speaker has at all times been reassuring to me.

At the top of the day, this is a actually nice Bluetooth speaker, and when you’re the kind of individual that normally cranks up the bass while you get control of the EQ, this speaker is for you.