Beats by Dr. Dre PowerBeats with ControlTalk review

Great headphones are those that you are not even aware of that you are wearing. The PowerBeats has that property because of a design that distributes force across a wide area. It combines the in-ear design with an on-ear hook. It might look like an advanced hearing aid, and considering on-ear hearing aids are made to be worn 8-12 hours a day it is easy to understand the comfortable fit.

The PowerBeats is promoted as a sports headset made for use in the gym or out running in the woods. The materials used make for a light highly flexible product. If dropped there is low risk of anything breaking. Up close the fake metal pieces look cheap though, and when handling them I feel like I am playing around with a plastic toy. These are supposed to be rugged, and waterproof. The white set I have tried out has had no problems at all with failing components. There are quite a lot of customers reports about failing microphones, volume controls and general quality problems. I can`t confirm or deny these problems, but only say that I have had no concerns myself. Always make sure to keep your receipt when you buy gear, and especially when there are negative reports.

The sound the PowerBeats reproduce is excellent just like it has been with all headphones I have tried from Beats By Dr. Dre. Perhaps a bit less bass than what I found in the Studios, Solos and Tours. Cranking the volume up is pleasant, and it feels like the sound image widens as volume is added. As these also have good noise isolation it is really easy to become deaf to the world around you. When out running this is not ideal, as you want to keep traffic and especially sirens and horns audible.

The ControlTalk microphone looks really special, almost like a small piece of armor plating worn by an Elite in Halo, or a small futuristic flying craft. It works really well, and has a good placement next to the mouth on the left cord. When exercising outside it tends to pick up almost as much wind as non-sports headsets. Some aspects of the microphone design make it vulnerable to dirt, and moist. Worth noting is also that it is really easy to by mistake press the buttons. This is most evident to me when using the headset in a casual manner just sitting down.

The cord is short perfect for working out, but not ideal for usage with a computer or other fixed audio source. When exercising you can straighten the cord somewhat, but not tight against the chin since the straightening ring gets stuck on the microphone. Another issue I have had when exercising, and even walking, is a small click sound that is produced when I move. This can be quite annoying, and there is no way to get rid of it. The sound is produced because the individual parts in connection to my ear, and skin moves differently. The in-ear earbud is quite rigid, but the ear-hook moves creating slight friction that is releasaed with a click. It can easily be reproduced even when sitting down by simply tugging at the left or right cord.

Some aspects of the PowerBeats are truly remarkable such as the comfortable fit that makes it easy to wear when running. The cheap looking fake metal pieces along with a rather impractical microphone design lowers the overall impression. It is quite hard finding that perfect sports headset, and PowerBeats is another one of these that will be good for some, and bad for others. In the end I can only give it a limited recommendation, and keep searching for that perfect set of sports headphones.