Product1 publisher3 min readPublished
Apple's Beats VP says the 360 was built for a different purpose than the Studio Pro
Oliver Schusser said the Beats 360 came out of watching how people live with headphones all day, and the specification follows that brief at 295.4 grams, with cushions you can machine wash and IPX4 water resistance.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Oliver Schusser, Apple's VP of Music, Sports, and Beats, told TechRadar the 360 was made for a different purpose, aimed at people who live an active lifestyle and are on the go.
- TechRadar reports the Studio Pro is staying in the range, and the 360 is sold as a new direction for the brand.
- The headband and earcups swap across four launch colors and two cushion materials, the breathable Performance Knit and the engineered-leather UltraPlush used on the Studio Pro and Solo 4.
- IPX4 sweat and water resistance is a first for a Beats over-ear headphone.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- decision Beats is pitching the 360 on a use case, so the purchase question becomes where the headphones will spend the day.
- capability Cushions that survive a washing machine make a gym-worn over-ear serviceable, and turn cushion grime from a reason to buy a second pair into a laundry step.
- constraint The all-day comfort case has to come from fit and cushion choice, since Sony's flagship is still the lighter headphone on the shelf.
- precedent With a major brand now rating an over-ear for sweat, which TechRadar says is uncommon in the wider market, fitness claims on unrated over-ears get harder for rivals to hold.
The moment this headphone is designed around is a pair of sweaty cushions after a workout class. Either cushion pulls off entirely to be wiped down or put in the washer, TechRadar reports [17].
Then the weight. At 295.4 grams the 360 comes in 90.8 grams under the AirPods Max and 41.4 grams over Sony's WH-1000XM6 [6][9][10]. TechRadar's reviewer says it falls somewhere in the middle of the two but feels far more streamlined than the number suggests, and that he needed about 20 to 30 minutes of break-in before he stopped noticing the headphones on his head [22][11].
Schusser was direct about the brief. "We wanted to create a new ID, a new look, and a new over-ear headphone for a different purpose. And that purpose is for people who live a very active lifestyle who are on the go," he told TechRadar [4]. He added: "We wanted it to look cool, sound amazing, but also be really light, be really comfortable, be water and sweat resistant." [5]
He is pleased with the latch, too. "Our engineers have come up with this really cool, simple way to sort of swap out the cushions, and it takes literally seconds, and it just makes the headphones so versatile and so flexible, and you can customize and personalize, and it's amazing," Schusser said [19]. Modularity is sold here as personalization, and the swap works across four launch colors [15].
The acoustics are new as well: a bespoke platform with custom drivers, three-layer diaphragms and dual neodymium ring magnets in each earcup [20], with the drivers sitting slightly farther from the ear than you would expect at this size [12]. Controls are split, power and listening modes on the left cup, volume and playback on the right, and USB-C charging on the left [13]. TechRadar's reviewer says that layout became second nature after a few weeks [14].
TechRadar's account does not include a price. So the case that Beats is now dividing its over-ear range by use case instead of by tier rests on the interview and the spec sheet, and both point the same way. Beats has sold over-ear headphones since the first Studio launched in 2008 [1], and it calls the 360 "the next chapter" of its headphone story [3].
The buying test is narrow. The three places TechRadar names in the brief are the gym, the office and a plane [23]. Cushions you could not clean is the failure this product was built against. A pair you pulled off at hour four with a sore neck is a fit problem, and the 360's answer to fit is which cushion material you put on it [16].
What to watch
- Whether Beats publishes a price and states which cushion materials are included in the box.
- An IP rating on the next Studio refresh would fold the 360's use-case split back into a price ladder.
- Owner reports on the cushion latch and headband after months of swapping and washing.