Beats Pill+ Review

Beats has been gaining a lot of attention lately for its mobile music products, and the Pill+ Bluetooth speaker makes it clear why. It was one of the best sounding speakers in our testing, has sleek looks, and has plenty of juice to power an all-night party.

Performance Comparison

Sound Quality

The Pill+ earned a 9 out of 10 in our sound quality testing, this put it just one point shy of the top score of 10, and well distanced from the low score of 3. It has deep rich bass and crisp treble. However, it just lacks some of the depth of the top scoring Bose SoundLink Revolve. Where the music from the SoundLink feels exceptionally well rounded with crystal clear clarity from the deepest to the highest notes, the Pill+ loses some clarity at the extremes. The midrange sounds great, but things like stand up basses and high pitched snare drums can get just a bit muddled. The Pill+ still sounds great, but the SoundLink is a clear step up.

Portability

The Beats Pill+ scored a 5 out of 10 in our portability testing. This put it in the middle of the pack where scores ranged from 2 to 10. The Pill+ weighs 27 ounces or about 1.7 pounds. This isn't terribly heavy, but you'll most likely notice it when you're carrying it around. The rounded edges make it fairly easy to slide into a backpack, but it is slightly larger than most of the speakers we tested, so it will take up a bit more room. The speaker itself feels fairly durable, but does have some bare metal sections that could be susceptible to scratching, so you'll probably want to use the included carrying sleeve if you're going to be traveling with it. The Pill+ does not have any sort of waterproof rating.

Volume

The Pill+ can produce a fair amount of sound and scored a 7 out of 10 in our volume testing, which saw scores ranging from 4 to 9. At its maximum volume, the music starts to sound a bit thin and shrill. When we brought it back down to a volume where the music was sounding good again our entire testing apartment was filled with sound. The music could still easily be heard over a large group of friends talking but may get drowned out a bit if you were looking to throw a large, noisy party.

Battery Life

The Pill+ lasted 13 hours in our testing, which was slightly better than the manufacturer's specification. 13 hours is most likely plenty of juice unless you're taking the Pill+ on an extended camping trip where you'll be away from an outlet for multiple days. In the grand scheme of our testing 13 hours was towards the middle of the pack, thus the Pill+ earned a score of 5 out of 10 in this metric.

Other Features

The Pill+ is the only speaker we tested that has a built-in USB port that can be used to charge a phone, so it effectively doubles as a portable battery pack. The Piil+ also charges via Apple's lightning cable, which is convenient if you already have an iPhone.

Value

The Beats Pill+ is a bit more than its main competitor, the Bose SoundLink Revolve. However, street prices have fluctuated, so it is likely you'd be able to buy these speakers at approximately the same price. The Pill+ is a great speaker, but if we had to choose one we would go with the SoundLink Revolve, so in comparison, the Pill+ is a somewhat mediocre value.

Conclusion

The Beats Pill+ is a great choice if you're looking for a portable speaker that can produce high-quality audio. However, the Bose SoundLink Revolve fills that niche a bit better.