Apple's audio brand Beats has just given its best-selling model - the Solo headphone series - a major upgrade.
The highlights of the fourth-gen Beats Solo: They can now handle 3D audio, they have a longer battery life and they work better with Android smartphones.
However, you will still be looking in vain for an IP rating for protection against water. The same goes for active noise cancelling. The price remains unchanged at $199.99 or €229.95.
A new 40-millimetre driver provides the sound in the Beats Solo 4. This was accompanied by a modification to the acoustics to avoid distortion.
The USB port can now also be used to play music directly in lossless quality - just like on its big brother, the Beats Studio Pro, which was released almost a year ago.
Clear sound and Dolby Atmos
The Solo 4 can also be used when the battery is empty using the classic headphone socket in the left ear cup. But you shouldn't need to resort to this often, since just 10 minutes of charging should provides enough energy for five hours of music playback.
In terms of sound, the new Solo model stands out with more clarity in the details as well as pin-sharp brass and keyboards with deep bass. There's also support for Dolby Atmos surround sound, and Beats owner Apple is going all in on the 3D music experience offered on certain tracks on its streaming service.
"We are now at 90% of the charts on Apple Music that are available in 3D audio," says Oliver Schusser, who is responsible for the music streaming service and Beats at Apple. It is the first breakthrough for a new format since stereo, he says.
Other streaming providers such as Amazon and Tidal also offer surround sound music. But Spotify continues to do without it, while some headphone manufacturers are betting that this audio feature turns out to be little more than a gimmick.
With Apple's W1 chip, the predecessor model Solo 3 was able to work seamlessly with iPhones, just like the parent company's AirPods - with advantages such as fast wireless pairing.
The Solo 4, on the other hand, has a chip that also makes these functions possible with Android phones. This makes Beats even more of Apple's outpost in the Android ecosystem.
The acquisition of Beats Electronics a decade ago was Apple's most expensive purchase at a price of $3 billion. The headphone brand founded by rapper Dr Dre and music producer Jimmy Iovine also brought with it a streaming service that gave the iTunes giant Apple a quick start in new territory.
The acquired streaming service was absorbed into Apple Music, but Beats headphones and speakers continue to lead a life of their own. "We have a lot of synergies within the group," says Schusser - in development, for example, and the dual chip is an example of this.
Bad around water?
At the same time, Beats as a brand is strongly linked to sport, culture and fashion and is supposed to appeal to "a very specific target group" beyond Apple headphones.
This makes support for the Android ecosystem important. Schusser says there is also the recognisable "Beats sound," which has not been lost. "Solo is our bestseller and always has been."
While Beats is positioning the Solo series as headphones for sports and travelling, the lack of an IP rating means that it remains unclear how much water and sweat the headphones can ultimately withstand.
It merely states that the Solo 4 have been designed and tested to withstand normal use, whatever that entails.
The headphones meanwhile also take a classic, more passive approach to suppressing ambient noise: Pads on the ears instead of high-tech electronics.
Schusser says that the range of functions is a balance between "what is important for the target group and how much technology we can pack in at the best possible price-performance ratio."
