Beats Pill

Stylish Bluetooth speaker with good sound and modern features

In a nutshell

The Beats Pill has a lot of features, some of which you won’t get from the competition and some of which you’ll immediately like. These include lossless music playback via USB-C, a ‘Where is?’ feature to help you find your speaker after partying the whole night, and excellent voice quality when making calls. On the downside, there is no app for iOS, no equaliser and no auto-off.

Pros:

Design and feel
Battery life
Power bank function
Hands-free function
Lossless audio option
IP67 protection

Cons:

No auto power off
No EQ
Few app controls

The Beats Pill is robust, runs for up to 24 hours, comes in signal red, champagne and matte black and is a real eye-catcher, but lacks a bit of sound.

What comes with it

In true Apple style, the Beats Pill comes in a high-quality, sustainable box with a beautiful photo and embossed name, including a USB-C cable and a strap that matches the colour of the box. There is no power supply, however.

The box, which measures 21.9 x 7.1 x 7 cm and weighs 680 grams, looks like an oversized pill (which makes sense, after all, Beats used to belong to a ‘doctor’) and, with its silicone coating on the back and fine grill on the front, is a real hand-flatterer that radiates a lot of solidity. It is dust and water resistant to IP67, which means it can withstand showers and brief immersion in water – but only fresh water, not soap or alkaline solutions.

The Beats Pill is easy to use, with four recessed buttons on the top and an LED to indicate when it is in use. The unprotected USB-C port is on the back. The two-way system consists of a Racetrack neodymium woofer and a tweeter that also handles the mid-range. Both drivers are angled 20 degrees upwards, which gives the listener sitting directly in front a more accurate sound.

Beats Pill for iOS or Android

The Beats Pill emphasises the importance of providing a good functional experience for both the iOS and Android worlds. That means pairing via Bluetooth 5.3 with 1-Click on iOS and Google Fast Pair is equally simple. All devices registered in iCloud or with the same Google account can then instantly connect to the Beats Pill. Beats calls this ‘iCloud pairing’ or ‘systematic pairing’. This isn’t multipoint, but it’s still handy because you can just switch the speaker to whichever device you want. And if you lose your Beats Pill, you can find it using the last reported connection, either through ‘Where is’ on iOS or ‘Find My Device’ on Android.

The main difference between the two worlds is that on iOS you manage the pill in the system settings, while on Android there is an app to download. But there is not much to manage either. The options are updates, the name changing of the box and call control. No multi-band equaliser. No sleep timer. This means that if you don’t disconnect the speaker, the Pill won’t turn itself off. All other functions are controlled or activated by the four buttons on the speaker. And because there are so many of them, we strongly recommend you take a look at the manual.

: You can control music and calls using the four buttons on the top of the Beats Pill.

Other features of the Beats Pill

In addition to the usual music control functions, you can call up the voice assistant on the speaker, check the battery status and set the charging behaviour on the USB-C port: Either the Pill acts as a power bank, or a device powers the speaker, or the speaker decides. The USB-C port also supports lossless audio streaming, which we tested with an iPhone 15, an iPad and a Macbook Air. If you have two Beats Pill, you can either link them together for a true stereo pair or use an amplifier mode to make more noise.

The sound of the Beats Pill

The sound is powerful at low to medium volumes, with a strong bass that is very powerful and driving with electronic music, and slightly muffled and spongy with rock music. The highs are clear and free, but become a little sharp the louder the music. There is something lacking in the mid-range, where vocals and analogue instruments spread out, which takes away from the speaker’s penetration and makes it sound incomplete at high volumes. However, if you’re not looking for maximum volume, the Beats Pill delivers a good, room-filling sound for its size, although it is a little too bassy. You will also notice a difference whether the music is compressed via Bluetooth or transferred losslessly via USB-C. Via cable, the Pill sounds more transparent and the sound is more pleasant and rounded.

Hands-free calling with the Beats Pill

Phone calls through the speaker work perfectly and without any problems. Several people on the other end have assured me that my voice is clear and present. Noise is effectively suppressed without cutting off my own voice.

Conclusion

The Beats Pill is a successful portable Bluetooth speaker in terms of feel, look and function, and it also has a convincing sound, albeit with some compromises in the mid-range and a little too much bass. The power bank function, good voice quality during hands-free calls, long battery life and the ability to listen to lossless audio content make the Beats Pill a good choice at a price of 170 euros. The lack of an equaliser and the incomplete auto-off function are almost forgotten.