Beats Fit Pro vs. Powerbeats Pro: Which earbuds are for you?

If you want a great pair of earbuds that will stay in your ears in the midst of a wildly sweaty workout, you’re going to want either the Beats Fit Pro or Powerbeats Pro. Both of these earbuds sound great, offer strong battery life and are designed specifically to remain secure when you’re active. And since they’re both Apple earbuds, they’ll pair especially well with your iPhone, and come with no shortage of useful extra features.

So which one should you get? We’ve spent extensive time with the compact, high-tech Beats Fit Pro and the over-ear, long-lasting Powerbeats Pro, and are here to make that decision easy for you.

You should get the Beats Fit Pro if…

You want a compact pair of earbuds
The most obvious difference between these two earbuds is that the Beats Fit Pro are a fraction of the size of the Powerbeats Pro — in terms of both the buds themselves and the charging case. The Fit Pro have a fairly low-profile design that uses a rubber wingtip, which nestled softly and securely in our ears and was comfortable to wear for hours on end. They’re far easier to put on than the massive ear hooks of the Powerbeats Pro, and still feel more secure than your typical AirPods.

It also helps that you can actually put the Beats Fit Pro charging case in your pocket. While the Fit Pro’s case is big by wireless earbuds standards, it’s much more portable than the comically large case that houses the Powerbeats Pro. If you want to travel to the gym or track without bringing along an extra bag just for your earbuds, the Fit Pro are the way to go.

You want lots of special features — including active noise cancellation
The Beats Fit Pro also edge out the Powerbeats when it comes to functionality. These are basically the AirPods Pro in everything but name — which means you get active noise cancellation (ANC) for silencing nearby chatter during a workout, and a handy Transparency mode for amplifying the outside world when you need to stay alert. There’s also Spatial Audio for immersive 360-degree sound on supported content, and an Adaptive EQ mode that optimizes your music on the fly when you’re not using one of the two noise modes.

The Powerbeats Pro are more basic by comparison, but they still have all of the same core benefits of any pair of Apple earbuds. Both the Powerbeats Pro and Beats Fit Pro will pair instantly to your Apple devices, thanks to the Apple H1 chip packed inside, and both support features such as Find My tracking and Audio Sharing for listening to music with a friend. They also both work well with Android, though the Fit Pro have more features that you can toggle in the Beats Android app.

You want the best possible sound quality
Both of these earbuds sound great, but the Beats Fit Pro take the win here. The newest Beats sound fuller, have deeper bass and offer a more detailed soundstage based on our testing, which could be chalked up to the fact that they have a “custom acoustic architecture” built to make things sound as balanced as possible. The aforementioned Adaptive EQ doesn’t hurt either, adding just a little extra oomph to our tracks when we didn’t need ANC or Transparency mode. The Powerbeats Pro still pump out quality audio, but the Fit Pro make them sound just a bit thin by comparison.

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You should get the Powerbeats Pro if…

You want the added security of ear hooks
The Powerbeats Pro feature an ear hook design that wraps around your outer ear, all but eliminating the chance that they’ll fall out of your ears during an intense workout. They also manage to feel impressively lightweight and unobtrusive despite their over-ear fit. While we’ve found the Fit Pro’s wingtip design to be perfectly secure for our daily routine, we also recognize that all ears are different. If you want as much security as possible during rigorous activity, the Powerbeats Pro will give you exactly that.

You want as much battery life as possible
Both of these earbuds are absolute champs in the battery life department, but the Powerbeats Pro are the way to go if you want the most endurance possible. We were able to use the Powerbeats for a whopping nine consecutive hours on a single charge, which edges out the still-fantastic seven hours (with ANC on) we got from the Beats Fit Pro.

The Fit Pro may get you more long-term endurance when you factor in the charging case — they’re rated for up to 30 total hours of juice compared to 24 on the Powerbeats, which largely proved consistent with our testing. But if you’re planning on spending a long day out on the trail or at the gym and want to leave that gargantuan case behind, you’ll get more battery from the Powerbeats Pro on a single charge.

You’re looking for a deal
While the Powerbeats Pro are technically more expensive than the Beats Fit Pro at $249 versus $199, they’re almost never at full price. As of this writing, you can snag the Powerbeats for $179 on Amazon, and we’ve seen them drop to as low as $149 in the past. Since the Beats Fit Pro are still very new, you’ll probably have to wait a little while for them to go on sale.

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Bottom line

You can’t go wrong with either of these buds, but there’s a reason the Beats Fit Pro are our pick for the best true wireless earbuds for Apple users. Compared to the Powerbeats Pro, the Fit Pro are more comfortable, sound better and come with a litany of useful features, including active noise cancellation and Transparency mode. Plus, you can actually fit their charging case in your pocket.

That said, there are still a few good reasons to pick up the Powerbeats Pro instead. If you prefer the added security of ear hooks, few earbuds make them feel as comfortable as the Powerbeats do. They’ll also last slightly longer on a single charge, and since they’re a bit on the older side, they tend to go on sale pretty often. Just make sure to carry a backpack for that case.