Beats Studio 4: Release date, rumors, price, features, and what we want to see

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

Will there be a Beats Studio 4 series?

According to a line of code that Twitter user @aaronp613 spotted in macOS Ventura 13.4, there will be new Beats headphones with the model number A2924. The headphones will likely be called the Beats Studio Pro and will build upon the Studio 3.

Beats Studio 4 curiosities kicked up 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 of these updated earbuds in Beats’ stable and the quiet discontinuation of the Solo Pro, we thought the Studio 4 would make it to market in 2022. That didn’t happen, but it seems we’re inching 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 are bound to make their way to our ears in the fall of 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 May and November releases, 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 by November 1, 2021. Suffice it to say, Beats trends toward fall release dates for its headphones and summer releases for its earbuds.

Here is everything we’ve gathered from the rumors and what we can expect based on industry trends.

Design

The Beats Studio 4 will almost certainly have a familiar silhouette that looks nearly indistinguishable from the Studio 3 Wireless. We expect the headphones will be available in black, brown, navy, and ivory. Historically, Beats has partnered 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 transport.

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

The Beats Studio headphone line is famous for its noise canceling and bassy sound profile. Frankly, there’s no reason to believe that Beats will deviate from that. If anything, we may see a more tempered bass response than the Studio 3. Beats wireless earbuds have recently drifted toward a more palatable sound profile than the company’s early days.

We know there will be button controls. The same code that @aaronp613 found states that double pressing the System Button cycles between noise control modes. With that, we can surmise that the Studio 4 will have a transparency mode like Beats’ more recent offerings and the AirPods Max. If you’re unfamiliar, transparency mode pipes background noise through the headset. With this on, you can hear your music and surroundings simultaneously.

The code doesn’t specify whether the headphones have the W1 chip or Apple’s newer H1 chip. Seeing how the Beats Fit Pro feature the newer H1 chip, it’s not a stretch to think the Beats Studio 4 will house it too. This chip offers improved efficiency and powers spatial audio with head tracking for immersive audio and video playback.

We’ve seen Beats add more Android-friendly features to its earbuds these past few years. The Studio 4 Wireless are bound to work just as well on Android as on iOS. We expect to see noise control options and control customization through 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 expanded Android functionality, there’s a ghost of a chance that the Beats Studio 4 will support more than the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. Android users may still encounter audio-visual lag when streaming videos if we don’t see aptX on the Studio 4 Wireless.

The Studio 3 are the first Studio headphones to come out after Beats became an Apple subsidiary. Under Apple’s discretion, Beats set the Studio 3 price at $349. Given how Beats recently released the Studio Buds Plus with a $50 price hike over the original Studio Buds, the Studio 4 price will probably hover around $399.

This expected price shouldn’t discourage you too much. Beats’ earbuds and headphones frequently go on promotion throughout the holidays. We’ve seen the Studio 3 Wireless price drop to $179 over the years. Today you can snag the Studio 3 Wireless for $169.99 at Amazon.

Beats Studio 4: What we want to see

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

Just like the Studio headphones before them, the Studio 4 are all but guaranteed to have improved active noise canceling (ANC). To stay competitive with other flagship headphones, the Studio 4 will need to have better ANC than the Studio 3. With the Studio 3, airplane engines and train cars sound about one-quarter as loud as they do without the headphones. This is good, but the Studio 4 should make these noises even quieter.

In the SoundGuys chart above, the cyan, dashed line represents the Studio 4 Wireless’ noise canceling performance. The pink line represents how well the Studio 3 block out background noise without ANC. The noise canceling makes a difference compared to no ANC, but we’d like to see Beats step up its ANC game.

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

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 much more versatile headphones than the Studio 3 before them. With this, listeners could freely adjust the sound to suit their media and music preferences. For instance, when I’m listening to a podcast, sometimes it’s nice to cut the sub-bass so the speaker’s voices come through more clearly. Currently, a third-party EQ app is the only way to customize how any Beats or Apple products sound.

When Beats released the Solo Pro on-ear headphones, I was disappointed to see the company ditch the headphone jack. Hopefully, Apple and Beats reverse this move with the Studio 4 and retain the headphone jack. Keeping the headphone jack makes it easier to connect to laptops and other devices in a pinch. It’s also suitable for audiophiles who want to enjoy lossless audio without a hitch.

Better mic quality

There’s a high 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 are nearing five years old, so the bar for improvement is pretty low.

Our microphone demos below illustrate how the Studio 3 Wireless mic sounds in various conditions. At the very least, the Studio 4 mics will sound this good.

Better battery life

Like microphone quality, we’d like to see better battery life from the Studio 3 Wireless. Nowadays, flagship noise canceling headphones last anywhere from 30 hours to 50-plus hours. Seeing how the Studio 3 Wireless have a 22-hour battery life, it would be great to see the playtime extended to 30 hours on the Studio 4.

Multipoint connectivity lets you connect your headphones to two source devices simultaneously. This may not seem appealing on first read, but it’s useful for work. You can watch a video from your laptop while staying connected to your phone if a call comes in.

Then, there’s automatic device switching. Not all of Beats’ audio products support this across Apple devices, but some do. It would be great to seamlessly switch between an iPhone to a Mac with the Studio 4 Wireless, as the Studio 3 lacks this. We’re more likely to see this feature than multipoint connectivity.

A water-resistant build

This is another unlikely one on our wish list, but an IPX4 water-resistant rating would help the Beats Studio 4 stand out 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 ease any anxiety about wearing headphones during a mild drizzle.

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