Beats has been out of the Bluetooth speaker game since Apple discontinued the Beats Pill Plus in January 2022, but online leaks have left something lingering in the air and a Beats Pill speaker comeback is on the horizon.
If we’re being transparent, the Beats Pill Plus would’ve missed out on a spot in our picks for the best Bluetooth speakers if it were still in circulation today. However, that’s not to say we’re not looking forward to seeing the return of a well-known Bluetooth speaker with an element of nostalgia.
While an official announcement is yet to be made, there’s plenty of online leaks and even celebrity sightings that nod to a launch that could be imminent. Over the last few months, we’ve been keeping our eyes and ears peeled for all the juicy details of Beats’ return to the audio game, taking everything we know so far and putting it all in one place for you – right here.
Beats Pill: rumored release date
Instagram has been the epicenter for a majority of the Beats Pill leaks, and a recent reel heavily points to a possible announcement happening on June 25 – as does the X post, below…
6/25. @KingJames @LilTunechi pic.twitter.com/NkpLlTeVhJJune 17, 2024
The ad, featuring LeBron James and L’il Wayne, was uploaded to the Beats By Dre accounts on Instagram and X. At the end of the video the numbers 6.25 appear, which makes us believe we’re expecting an unveiling of some sort to occur next week. James had previously been spotted with a Beats Pill-esque speaker in April, which was shared to the Lakers’ Instagram feed.
Beats Pill: expected price
For a while, rumors of the new Beats Pill speaker had been left unwritten, but that’s all changed within the last few days with a pricing leak. It’s the first insight to how much the speaker will cost, and it’s all down to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
As well as leaking the possible color choices, Gurman mentioned that the next Beats Pill will come with a price tag of $149. This is a much lower price than what we were all expecting given that the Beats Pill Plus was $179.95, but hey, we’re not not at all complaining.
Beats Pill: news and rumors
In April 2024, rumors of a Beats Pill comeback were sparked in a Lakers Instagram reel showing LeBron James flaunting a mysterious device that had a striking resemblance to the Beats Pill speaker. This left a big question mark over our heads, but that faded as soon as another leak showed up in iOS 17.5 a few weeks later.
This leak unveiled images revealed that the next Beats Pill could come in three different colors; black, red, and gold. Along with a rumored price tag, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman confirmed in his X post that the Beats Pill will be available in the colors mentioned. Now that Apple has rolled out iOS 17.5, we assume that the update’s new features will support the upcoming speaker, meaning that a launch date could be imminent.
Luckily, we can point to June 25 as the launch date, or at least the day of the official announcement. This is all thanks to a post on the Beats by Dr. Dre account on X (formerly Twitter), where an ad featuring LeBron James and Lil Wayne included the number 6.25 at the end of the ad – presumably hinting at an unveiling coming next week.
The Beats Pill speaker, appears to be a relatively light-touch upgrade to the now-discontinued model (thank you to Mark Gurman, for leaking this recently), but it promises to be louder than before and with better bass. The charging port is purportedly now USB-C (of course) and it’s expected to weigh 1.5lbs.
One of the biggest claimed changes under the hood is still significant: the tweeters have reportedly been repositioned and now fire slightly upwards at an angle of 20 degrees in order to prevent the sound waves from being blocked by objects near the speaker.
Beats Pill: what we want to see
Because the leaks have left us with a fair few unanswered questions (the build up so far has been both ambiguous and anticipated) we can only expect the official announcement on June 25 to be nothing short of a tech spectacle.
There’s still a few nuggets of information left to unveil, but our impression is that it will be slightly bigger than the Beats Pill Plus, but lighter in weight. With all the leaks we have so far, we’ve developed a pretty solid vision of what the next Beats Pill speaker will have – or rather what we’d like it to have.
1. An improved battery life
When it comes to an upgraded battery life it’s not that big an ask, given that the Beats Pill Plus’ 12-hour playback time was standard for any Bluetooth speaker. In one of the more recent leaks a 24-hour battery life was promised, and compared to the previous model this is music to the ears.
2. Different color options
If Gurman’s post on X is true, then we can expect the next Beats Pill to come in three different color options; black, red, and gold. While audio quality is a must, when it comes to Bluetooth speakers there’s nothing more exciting than having a fun selection of colors to choose from. The Beats Pill Plus also came in three colors, black, white, and red, so while the new color options aren’t crazy different it’s nice to have the choice.
3. Refined audio
When we tested the Beats Pill Plus speaker in 2016, we called it out on its uncontrolled bass and tendency to distort at higher volumes. But when it comes to the next Beats Pill speaker we’re hoping that Apple has taken its time to refine its audio quality, and according to a 9to5Mac report, it sounds like we could be getting a rather serious audio upgrade.
For starters, the speaker could support Bluetooth 5.3 which already gives it the upper hand when connecting to devices. In the 9to5Mac article, the speaker will come with a redesigned racetrack woofer to displace “90% more air volume, while reducing low-end distortion”. The speaker is also speculated to have a new tweeter design to help refine crisp highs and mid-range tones, which would hopefully eradicate the piercing highs found in the Beats Pill Plus.
4. An IP rating – and a daisy-chaining function
It’s 2024 and today, unless your Bluetooth portable speaker comes with an IP67 rating (meaning its both dust- and waterproof) it cannot really compete – because so many options – yes, even budget Bluetooth speakers like those you’ll find in our recent best budget Bluetooth speaker mini roundup) offer this.
Next, consider JBL’s PartyBoost, Ultimate Ears’ PartyUp, or Sony‘s equivalent daisy-chaining tech, all of which let you wirelessly connect up to 100 similarly enabled speakers for beefed up party-grade sound. In short, we’d like to see that, please – and a stereo pairing option would be great too.
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
