Most headphone launches follow a fairly predictable formula. A flashy announcement, a few carefully curated press images and a long list of specifications telling you why your perfectly functional headphones suddenly belong in a museum. Beats, however, had other plans.
In May, a mysterious pair of Beats headphones appeared in an FCC filing. A few days later, Lamine Yamal casually turned up at Spain’s FIFA World Cup training camp sporting an unreleased pink pair around his neck. Soon enough, Lee Kang-in and Antonee Robinson were spotted wearing them too. Beats hadn’t officially announced anything, but some of football’s biggest names were already doing a fairly convincing job of selling them.
It was a clever little marketing exercise. After all, why spend months telling people your headphones are cool when you can just get Lamine Yamal to wear them? Fast forward to September, and those mysterious headphones finally had a name. Meet the Beats 360, the brand’s latest premium over-ear headphones, priced at ₹42,900 in India.
They’re also quite an interesting departure from what we’ve come to expect from Beats. Interchangeable cushions, sweat resistance, a completely redesigned silhouette and improved noise cancellation are all part of the package. On paper, there’s a lot to be excited about. But ₹42,900 is a rather substantial amount of money to spend on something whose primary responsibility is playing music into your ears.
I’ve spent some time with the Beats 360, using them with my iPhone and MacBook, including during my travels. And while they’ve managed to impress me in several departments, they’ve also left me scratching my head over a few rather questionable decisions.
What I Liked
1. The Design Is Rather Gorgeous
I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for a good-looking pair of headphones. And the Beats 360 certainly know how to make a first impression. There’s something rather satisfying about how clean the entire design looks. The headband is remarkably slim, the ear cups have a neat, almost sculptural appearance, and the overall construction feels considerably more premium than the Beats headphones I’ve encountered in the past.
At 294.5g, they’re not exactly featherweight. But compared to the 386g AirPods Max 2, there’s a noticeable difference. More importantly, Beats has done a good job distributing that weight across your head.
Part of this comes down to the clever engineering. Beats has moved much of the internal hardware into the ear cups, allowing the headband to remain thinner without compromising its structural integrity.
And then there are the colours. Black, Cloud, Sky and Pink. Personally, I appreciate that Beats hasn’t forgotten that headphones can also be fashion accessories. Not everything needs to come in fifty shades of corporate grey.
2. The Interchangeable Cushions Are Genuinely Clever
You know how buying headphones usually involves picking a colour and then living with that decision for the next few years? Beats has decided that commitment is no longer needed.
The Beats 360 come with interchangeable ear cup and headband cushions. Removing them is surprisingly straightforward. Twist the ear cushions off, twist the replacements back on, and you’re done. The headband cushion simply pops out and clips back into place. No elaborate instructions. No existential crisis over whether you’re about to break something expensive.
There are two cushion materials to choose from. Performance Knit, which comes standard, is breathable and better suited to workouts. UltraPlush uses a softer engineered leather finish and feels more luxurious, particularly for longer listening sessions.
With different colour and material combinations, Beats offers up to 256 possible configurations. That’s arguably more customisation than anyone reasonably needs for a pair of headphones, but I’m certainly not complaining.
The clever bit, however, is that the headphones can actually identify which material you’ve attached and automatically adjust the acoustic tuning, including noise cancellation and EQ, accordingly.
It’s a thoughtful feature with some genuine practical value. The cushions can also be removed and cleaned, meaning you’re not condemned to wearing the same sweat-soaked padding indefinitely.
3. The Clamping Force Is Just Right
Headphone comfort is a complicated business. Too loose, and you’re constantly adjusting them. Too tight, and wearing them for extended periods starts feeling like a particularly elaborate punishment. Fortunately, the Beats 360 have found a sweet spot. At least for my head.
There’s a reassuring firmness to the way they sit. Whether I’m walking around or moving my head, they stay exactly where they’re supposed to. And while some reviewers have complained about the clamping force becoming uncomfortable after a few hours, I personally quite like it.
The snug fit also helps maintain a consistent seal around the ears, which is particularly important for passive isolation and active noise cancellation. Of course, your experience might differ depending on the size and shape of your head. One man’s comfortable fit is another man’s slow-developing headache.
4. They Get Along Beautifully With My Apple Devices
One of the great advantages of living inside Apple’s ecosystem is that, occasionally, everything just works. The Beats 360 are a good example.
Pairing them with my iPhone takes little more than a tap. Once connected, they’re available across my Apple devices through iCloud, making it easy to move between my phone and MacBook.
This becomes particularly convenient when I’m travelling. I can go from listening to music on my phone to watching something on my laptop without spending an unreasonable amount of time navigating Bluetooth menus. And if you own an iPhone with a TrueDepth camera, you can set up Personalised Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking.
Fortunately, Android users haven’t been completely forgotten either. You get Google Fast Pair, Audio Switch, Find Hub support and a dedicated Beats app. It’s a surprisingly democratic approach from a company owned by Apple.
5. They’re Finally Sweat- and Water-Resistant
Here’s something that has always bothered me about expensive over-ear headphones. Brands will happily market them as everyday companions, show people wearing them at gyms and on morning runs, and then quietly admit that a little sweat might not be particularly good for them.
The Beats 360 finally address that problem. They’re the first over-ear Beats headphones to come with an IPX4 rating, meaning they can withstand sweat and splashes of water.
Now, that doesn’t mean you should take them swimming or wear them in a torrential downpour. But a sweaty workout, a long walk or some unexpected drizzle shouldn’t send you into panic mode.
6. The Call Quality Is Surprisingly Good
I’ll be honest. When buying over-ear headphones, call quality is rarely the first thing I look at. But when you’re spending ₹42,900, you’d expect the person on the other end of a call to hear something other than a distorted interpretation of your voice. Fortunately, the Beats 360 deliver.
They pack nine microphones, with three used for voice pickup. These work with beamforming technology and noise suppression to separate your voice from the surrounding chaos. The results are genuinely impressive. My voice comes through clearly, and background noise is handled rather well.
What I Didn’t Like
1. I Expected Better Battery Life
Here’s where my relationship with the Beats 360 starts getting a little complicated. Beats claims up to 32 hours of playback with active noise cancellation enabled. On paper, that’s respectable. It’s also better than the 24 hours claimed by the older Beats Studio Pro with ANC turned on.
But here’s the thing. Respectable and impressive are two very different propositions, particularly when you’re paying ₹42,900. Sennheiser’s Momentum 5 Wireless, for instance, promises up to 57 hours with ANC enabled. That’s a fairly substantial difference.
And while the Beats 360 manage 32 hours in ANC mode, switching to Transparency brings the claimed figure down to 24 hours. What’s more annoying is the absence of automatic wear detection. Take the headphones off, and your music doesn’t automatically pause. It keeps playing unless you manually stop it.
Not exactly ideal when you’re trying to conserve battery life.
There’s Fast Fuel charging, which gives you approximately an hour of playback from a five-minute charge. Useful, certainly. But I’d much rather have a battery that doesn’t make me think about charging quite as often.
2. The Noise Cancellation Could Have Been Better
Beats proudly claims that the 360 offers up to 1.75 times more noise cancellation than the Studio Pro. Which sounds fantastic until you remember that the Studio Pro isn’t exactly the benchmark for industry-leading noise cancellation.
In fairness, the Beats 360 do a reasonably good job of dealing with consistent background noise. The steady hum of an air conditioner or the low rumble of a train gets pushed into the background rather effectively.
It’s the less predictable sounds that cause problems. Conversations, voices and sudden bursts of noise have a habit of finding their way through. During flights, the headphones reduce the constant cabin hum, but I found myself relying on medium-to-high music volumes to make the outside world feel sufficiently distant.
And even then, the overall experience isn’t quite as convincing as what I’ve experienced from the best noise-cancelling headphones. Sony’s WH-1000XM6, Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) and Apple’s AirPods Max 2 all set a higher benchmark here.
There’s also another small issue. Because the ear cushions use a twist-and-lock mechanism, it’s possible to attach one without getting the seal quite right. And when that seal is compromised, noise cancellation takes a noticeable hit.
3. The Complete Absence Of Wired Audio
This one genuinely baffles me. The Beats 360 don’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack. Fair enough, I suppose. We’ve been living in an increasingly wireless world for years. But here’s the kicker. The USB-C port doesn’t support audio either.
It’s exclusively for charging. Which means there’s absolutely no way to use these headphones through a wired connection.
Want to connect them to an aeroplane’s entertainment system? Tough luck. Want to listen to lossless audio over USB-C? Not happening. Battery completely dead? Your ₹42,900 headphones are now a rather expensive head accessory until you find a charger.
It’s a particularly strange omission when the considerably cheaper Beats Studio Pro supports both analogue and USB-C audio. I understand the appeal of a wireless-first design. I just don’t understand why that requires completely eliminating the option of plugging in a cable.
4. Finding The Buttons Is An Unnecessary Adventure
I appreciate physical buttons on headphones. Touch controls can be temperamental, particularly when you’re moving around. But I also appreciate being able to find those buttons without conducting a miniature search operation.
The Beats 360 place their controls along the rear edges of the ear cups. It’s a neat design decision visually, but not the most intuitive one in practice. Several buttons sit almost flush with the surface, making them difficult to distinguish by touch.
The power and pairing button is particularly annoying. On the black model, it almost disappears into the body, especially in low light. Eventually, muscle memory takes over. But I can’t help feeling that something as basic as adjusting your headphones shouldn’t require a learning curve.
5. A Soft Pouch? At This Price?
There’s something mildly insulting about unboxing an expensive pair of headphones and discovering that the only thing standing between them and the contents of your backpack is a soft fabric pouch. That’s exactly what you get with the Beats 360.
Now, to be fair, the woven ripstop case isn’t badly made. It’s lightweight, compact and perfectly fine for keeping dust and minor scratches away. But protection against pressure or accidental impacts? Not particularly reassuring.
And considering Beats is positioning these headphones as companions for travelling, working out and generally moving around, a proper hard case would have made considerably more sense. Especially when you factor in the interchangeable cushions, which also need somewhere to live.
The Verdict:
The Beats 360 get plenty of things right. They’re stylish, beautifully built, comfortable and work effortlessly with my Apple devices. The interchangeable cushions are a genuinely clever addition, while sweat resistance makes them more versatile than most premium over-ear headphones.
Yes, the noise cancellation and battery life could be better, and a few missing features are difficult to ignore at ₹42,900. But the overall experience is still rather enjoyable.
If you’re looking for headphones that combine style, comfort and everyday convenience, the Beats 360 are certainly worth considering. And honestly, it’s hard not to fall for those looks.