The Best Wireless Headphones for iOS Users

Prior to testing the Beats Solo 3 wireless earphones, my experience with most earphones was okay at best. It’s not that they didn’t deliver good sound, but it was everything else that made them somewhat frustrating. It didn’t matter how much I spent, the same problems were always there.

When I first took the Solo 3 out of the box, I was a little surprised at how nice they felt. They aren’t the most premium feeling headphones since they use a lot of plastic, but they certainly felt pretty good. That said, there is no flexing, and the headband seems reasonably reinforced. The earcups do rattle a tad, but they also swivel for a better fit, so it’s a fair trade-off.

Pairing them was by far the simplest experience I have ever encountered with any wireless headphones. As soon as they powered on, my iPhone, which was just a few inches away, prompted me to connect. I simply hit “connect” and boom, I could start listening right away.

But what blew me away, even more, was that once my iPhone was paired, it only took a few seconds before my Apple Watch and my Mac were paired. That’s because Apple uses iCloud to sync all of your devices running Apple software. If I want to listen on my Watch, I simply swipe up to reveal Control Center and right there I’ll see an option to switch the Solo3 over to my Watch. Do the same on an iPad or a Mac and you can quickly jump from one device to another. No need to pair again. It’s amazing.

When it comes to range, once again I can say that the Beats Solo 3’s are in a league of their own. To test, I left my iPhone in my apartment and I walked out into the hallway to see how far I could go. To my surprise, I was able to walk over 150 feet before I started to notice any interruptions. The Solo3’s also worked through multiple walls without skipping a beat (pun intended). It’s seriously amazing.

To put that in perspective, no other wireless Bluetooth headphones I’ve ever used or tested have ever been capable of such range, not even half that. Apple is basically redefining what it means to have a pair of wireless headphones. Before you needed to be somewhat close to your device. Now you can basically roam around without any issues.

Oh, and one other major bonus is that there’s no lag! Want to watch a TV show? No problem. I watched a few episodes of “Westworld” and the audio was perfect in-sync.

Another feature that made me fall in love with these Solo 3’s is something Beats calls Fast Fuel. Fast Fuel gives you an extra 3 hours of battery life from a short 5-minute charge.

Speaking of battery life, Beats claims you can get around 40 hours of listening on a single charge. I believe it. In fact, in the weeks of using these headphones a few hours a day, I have only needed to recharge them once. Yep, you read that right. Once.

The sound on these headphones definitely feels a little bass-heavy, but it’s not as bass heavy as many of the Beats headphones I’ve used in the past. The mids and highs sounded great, though you can tell that Beats still views bass as the most important selling point of these headphones.

I’m not saying these are the best sounding wireless headphones in the world. I’ve tried the Sennheiser PXC 550 wireless headphones and I think they definitely sound better. But it’s not like Solo 3’s are bad. Not even close.

That said, unless you’re an audiophile who takes sound very seriously, you’ll be extremely happy with the way theses Solo 3’s sound. The ranges are balanced and it feels like Beats has tuned the headphones to be great for most people, including myself.

All-in-all, between the easy pairing, switching, crazy range and battery life, and, of course, good sound, I can’t recommend these on-ear headphones enough. They’re just the perfect package of everything  I could ever want in a Bluetooth headphone. That’s why we’re calling the Beats Solo 3 the best Bluetooth headphones for iOS users.