The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
Page 1 Showing 1-20 of 123 reviews
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
I love it!!!
|
|
Posted . Owned for 3 months when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I love it!!! Volume goes up very loudly. This device stays charged all day maybe 2 days most times. Great quality!
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This speaker is awesome. Between the iCloud pairing, the battery life, and the color I love it. I’m probably gonna pick up a second to run them in stereo pair mode.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I miss beats pill! highly recommend its great for the price and sounds Good for the price you get it for! It out performs the game for other brands bt speakers around this price!
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
When the Beats by Dr. Dre brand first came on the market, I was less than impressed with the sound signature of their products which to me seemed really bass heavy, to the point of sounding muffled and having no clarity. Apple purchased Beats back in 2014 (I had to look that up), but until now I had shied away from their products because of my initial experiences with their product line. I’m not sure how long it’s been, but this latest iteration of the Beats Pill proves my perceptions to now be completely wrong.
This current generation of the Beats Pill was released in June of 2024. Being a pharmacist, the name of the product has a special calling for me, as it looks like an oral medication capsule, especially when in the color red. The Pill comes with a generous 4.5 foot long USB-C to USB-C charging/data cable, a detachable, color-matched lanyard, and a minimal amount of printed documentation in the box. Note that there is no charging adapter, like with most modern rechargeable devices. The Pill is IP67 rated for resistance to water, sand, and dust exposure - this and the lanyard make it suitable for on-the-go use outside of the home or office. At 24 ounces, it is probably not something you will want to carry around for extended periods of time though. There is only one port on the Pill, a USB-C jack on the rear of the speaker. This jack serves a couple different purposes besides being how you charge the Pill’s internal lithium-ion battery. The speaker’s battery can also be used to charge other devices such as your cell phone. This USB-C port will also accept a lossless-quality music signal from your source device when using the cable rather than a Bluetooth connection.
For users that are part of the Apple ecosystem, pairing the Beats Pill to your products couldn’t be easier. Hold the “Power” button on the Pill for a few seconds and then tap the “Connect” button that appears in the window on your iPhone. Doing that also immediately added the Pill to the Bluetooth list on my MacBook which had Bluetooth turned on, without doing anything additional on the laptop. For Apple users the Beats Pill will also be seen in the “Find My” app. After pairing, you can use the “EQ” tab in your Music app to tailor the sound to your exact preference. Apple has designed the Beats Pill so that you are able to add a second Pill and use them both in “Amplify Mode” or use “Stereo Mode” to have the two Pills play distinct left and right audio channels from your music source. The Pill contains a single separate woofer (oval shaped for a larger cone area) and a single tweeter, meaning one Pill does not play in true stereo. This newest version of the Pill has the drivers angled up at a 20 degree tilt to better aim the sound waves produced to the listener.
While the instructions included in the package are a very rudimentary quick start guide, there is a QR code to scan for a link to a complete user guide. However, I could not find a way to download and save this guide for future use, so if you need to refer to it for any reason (and you will need the info in it for instructions on a couple of features), you need to have an internet connection available. Or you could save about 7 or 8 screenshots of the guide for later reference.
The controls on the top of the Pill are similar to other wireless speakers. There is a “Power” button, a “Function” button, and “Volume Down” & “Volume Up” buttons, four concave-shaped buttons in total, and all do exactly what you’d expect of them. To turn on the speaker, a simple quick push will not work, you have to press and hold it for a full 1 to 2 seconds before releasing it. Same with turning it off. Hold the power button too long though and it goes into pairing, or “Discovery” mode (the white light by the power button flashes). This same light is green when the speaker is plugged in and charging. When charging is complete, the light turns white for 10 seconds, then turns off. I find the choice of the color green when charging a little odd and confusing as green often indicates a device is fully charged.
Two functions that are not intuitive (hence needing the full user guide), are charging the Pill from another device rather than a charging adapter, and enabling lossless audio transmission from the music source. When you connect the Pill to another device, the Pill will charge the other device. If you want to charge the Pill from the device, you have to press the power button on the Pill three times after connecting the cable. If you want to use the included cable for lossless audio, three hands would make things easier as you have to hold down the power button on the Pill at the same time you plug the cable into the other device (such as your phone).
The Beats Pill has what I consider to be a great frequency curve for music reproduction and provides, in my opinion, excellent sound quality very close to what I am used to when using Apple AirPods. The Pill has been redesigned to give surprisingly loud music reproduction with a minimum of distortion. However, perceived bass response seems better to me at lower volumes than when the speaker is pushed to extreme volumes. Sound quality when used as a speaker for phone calls was excellent on both ends of the conversation. The center, “Function” button provides answer, mute, end call, and switch call controls, and there is allowance to make some alterations to the number of presses for these functions.
While Beats has designed the Pill to fit into the Apple ecosystem effortlessly, it is also compatible with Android devices and should be given serious consideration by those users looking for a wireless, portable speaker. With a metal grille and a rubberized body, this little speaker has a quality feel and heft that imparts a robust build perception to it. Nicely done, Apple.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Beats - Pill Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speake
Summary: High performance mobile speaker.
Use: We listen to music everywhere we go. We have had many mobile speakers over the years from low budget speakers to much higher budget speakers. We have this one unit from a competitor that has been in the sound and speaker space for a long time and make some of the best hardware out there. We thought we'd never find anything that matches its sound. Until recently, we haven't had a need to, either. We've purchased Beats products before for our nieces and nephews for Christmas. They always swear by them. So when the Pill came along, we decided to give it a go. I'm glad we did. This unit has remarkable sound featuring a very nice and deep bass and does so right out of the box without use of the app!
So not only mobile, we also use our speakers when task oriented while in the garage, or soaking in the tub, or cleaning a room where we don't want the whole home filled with sound. We've even taken it with us while on walks so that we can listen to music while sitting at a park and relaxing.
Pros:
* Svelte. This unit looks great! It won't have any problems fitting in because it is meant to pop!
* Well-built. Something I care about a lot and mention frequently. This unit has some heft. The unit weighs about as much as you'd expect and the material and feel seem well crated/selected.
* Controls. The controls are clear cut and pretty standard. Easy to pair and use quickly.
* Sound. The sound is amazing. These little units infrequently surprise me, but I really enjoy the audio from this unit. The bass is surprisingly present and rich.
* Portability. It is just large enough to carry around without difficulty and the lanyard makes that even easier.
* Brand. Beats has built up a brand over the years. I've only experience with it through gifting the brand to my family, but this unit definitely delivers. I hope they keep it up - it definitely gives competing brands and form factors a run for their money.
* App. The app seems unnecessary, but it does provide some value-add. You can link multiple Pills to create a stereo pair, setup a DJ mode to have multiple sources, and to check battery level. You don't need it, though, you can use your phone (if iOS, at least) equalizer to control audio.
Cons:
* Connectivity. The unit does disconnect randomly. I haven't found a reason for this yet. It's annoying, but it may also be something I'm doing and/or the number of Bluetooth devices I connect to (i.e. my phone is disconnecting from the speaker to favor another device rather than the Pill disconnecting from my phone).
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Amazing Sound! Beats Pill is a sleek and powerful speaker that delivers impressive sound for its size. It boasts a bigger racetrack woofer for deeper bass and a wider soundstage. The battery life is solid, and the speaker is easy to use with intuitive controls. While it's a bit on the pricey side, the Beats Pill offers a premium audio experience that's perfect for on-the-go listening.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Great sound quality, pairs easily with iPhone and sounds great on my screened in porch for happy hours! Lightweight and can go anywhere with you! Highly recommend!
Posted . Owned for less than 1 week when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I was skeptical because of the mixed reviews everywhere, but this little speaker packs a punch. I've been using JBL charge for a while now & it has the most complete sound so far just needed something smaller for traveling with my laptop & the Pill has more than surpassed my expectations. Great hi's, mids & bass in such a small package. I really don't need another but just might purchase a second one for that complete surround sound experience...
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is my second Beats Pill. The first I purchased years ago and loved it. However it quit charging not because it was faulty but it was just getting old. I had looked for another a few years back, but couldn’t find where they were even making them. When I saw this on sale just after Christmas, I replaced my old one and am extremely happy with the quality and sound. It’s almost double the size of the old one but I don’t mind that at all.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is a wonderful Bluetooth speaker with room-filling sound and excellent fidelity. It also has excellent and strong bass reproduction. The battery life can’t be beat.