Beats Pill Bluetooth Speaker Makes a Comeback With Improved Sound, Water Resistance, and a Lower Price Tag

Launched in 2012 before Beats was acquired by Apple, the original Beats Pill shook up the portable Bluetooth speaker category with fun colors and well-regarded sound quality. The speaker got an upgrade in 2015 with the launch of the Pill+ under Apple's ownership, but over time it appeared to become an afterthought for Beats compared to headphones and earphones, and the Pill+ was eventually discontinued in early 2022.


After several months of teasing, Beats is officially announcing the return of the Beats Pill today with a host of upgrades and a lower price point of $149.99. The new Pill features a completely redesigned speaker system consisting of a single tweeter and a single racetrack woofer, a removable lanyard, USB-C and Bluetooth connectivity, 24 hours of battery life, and IP67 water and sweat resistance.

Available in Matte Black, Champagne Gold, and Statement Red color options, the new Beats Pill features a soft-touch silicone housing with a metal speaker grille and a Beats "b" logo, with several subtle physical buttons along the top for on-device controls. The new removable lanyard slips easily around the wrist to help secure it while being carried or even to let the speaker dangle from, although it can't be tightened up for additional security.

beats pill 1
Compared to the previous Pill+, the reengineered single racetrack woofer in the Beats Pill uses stronger neodymium magnets to drive 28% more motor force, allowing the woofer to displace 90% more air volume, while radial ribbing around the edges minimizes low-end distortion. The new Pill also moves from dual tweeters to a redesigned single tweeter in its own housing for extra stability and to similarly reduce distortion. Both speakers are aligned to give the Pill a 20º inclined tilt, which provides better sound projection with less reflected sound.

If you have two Beats Pill speakers, you can pair them up in either Amplify Mode, which gives you bigger overall sound for larger spaces, or Stereo Mode, which separates the sound output into left and right channels sent to the different speakers.

beats pill 2
The Beats Pill can serve as a speakerphone for your connected devices, with a noise-learning algorithm that suppresses ambient sound to target the user's voice, and full duplex support helps ensure your conversations are intelligible to both sides. Voice assistant support for connected devices is also include, so you can activate Siri or Google Assistant with the press of a button.

USB-C comes to the Beats Pill for the first time, allowing for lossless audio over a wired connection, easy recharging, and the ability to charge other devices from the Pill's internal battery. The Pill itself has up to 24 hours of battery life, and a 10-minute Fast Fuel delivers up to two hours of playback. A black USB-C to USB-C cable is included in the box.

beats pill 3
The new Pill has four buttons along the top edge, a Power button, a Center button, and Volume Up/Down buttons. Each of the buttons serves multiple purposes, so you can control a fair amount of features without needing to dig into your iPhone. A press of the Power button turns the speaker on or off, while a brief tap lights up an adjacent LED for battery status, a double tap activates ‌Siri‌, and a triple tap reverses the charging direction when connected via USB-C. Pressing and holding the Power button while plugging the Pill in via USB-C activates wired audio input.

The Center button is for your usual media controls, with a single press playing or pausing your audio, a double press skipping forward, and a triple press skipping backward. The Center button is also used in combination with the Volume Up/Down buttons to configure the paired speaker modes. Holding the Center buttons on two speakers activates Amplify Mode, and holding Center and Volume Up on one of them then activates Stereo Mode with that speaker becoming the left channel. The same combination returns to Amplify Mode or holding Center and Volume Down can be used to break the speaker group entirely.

A proprietary chip platform from Beats offers seamless access across both Apple and Android platforms, with one-touch pairing, automatic setup across all devices connected to an iCloud or Google account, and support for Find My and ‌Find My‌ Device tracking based on the speaker's last connected location.

beats pill 4
The new Pill does have some heft, weighing in at 24 ounces (~680 grams), although that is 10% lighter than the Pill+. It measures a little over 8.5 inches (~22 cm) long by 2.8 inches (~7 cm) deep and high, just fractionally larger than the Pill+. It's certainly portable and you can easily toss it in a bag, but you're not going to want to carry it in your hand wherever you go.

The revamped Beats Pill is priced at $149.99 and is available to order today in all three colors, with shipping beginning this Thursday, June 27.

Tag: Beats

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Five Features Coming to AirPods Pro 3

Friday June 27, 2025 10:52 am PDT by
Apple hasn't updated the AirPods Pro since 2022, and the earbuds are due for a refresh. We're counting on a new model this year, and we've seen several hints of new AirPods tucked away in Apple's code. Rumors suggest that Apple has some exciting new features planned that will make it worthwhile to upgrade to the latest model. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Heal...
iPhone Car Key WWDC 2025

Apple Announces 13 Automakers Planning to Offer iPhone Car Keys

Friday June 27, 2025 11:42 am PDT by
In 2020, Apple added a digital car key feature to its Wallet app, allowing users to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle with an iPhone or Apple Watch. The feature is currently offered by select automakers, including Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and a handful of others, and it is set to expand further. During its WWDC 2025 keynote, Apple said that 13...
anker power bank recall

PSA: Anker Recalls Multiple Power Banks Due to Fire Risk

Friday June 27, 2025 4:16 pm PDT by
Popular accessory maker Anker this month launched two separate recalls for its power banks, some of which may be a fire risk. The first recall affects Anker PowerCore 10000 Power Banks sold between June 1, 2016 and December 31, 2022 in the United States. Anker says that these power banks have a "potential issue" with the battery inside, which can lead to overheating, melting of plastic...
Chase Sapphire Reserve Apple Perk Feature

Chase Sapphire Reserve Card Introduces New Perk for Apple Customers

Wednesday June 25, 2025 2:08 pm PDT by
Chase this week announced a series of new perks for its premium Sapphire Reserve credit card, and one of them is for a pair of Apple services. Specifically, the credit card now offers complimentary annual subscriptions to Apple TV+ and Apple Music, a value of up to $250 per year. If you are already paying for Apple TV+ and/or Apple Music directly through Apple, those subscriptions will...
A18 Pro Chip

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options that include silver, blue, pink, and yellow. MacRumors...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in a Few Months With These 12 New Features

Thursday June 26, 2025 2:00 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are around three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
macbook air spacegray purple

Apple Planning to Launch Low-Cost MacBook Powered By iPhone Chip

Monday June 30, 2025 3:20 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an article published on X, Kuo explained that the device will feature a 13-inch display and the A18 Pro chip, making it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. The A18 Pro chip debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. To date, all Apple silicon Macs have contained M-series...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:40 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...

Top Rated Comments

AdonisSMU Avatar
13 months ago
JBL won that battle. Apple needs to redesign Beats and improve it to make it competitive. Right now it's dead weight.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JapanApple Avatar
13 months ago
No ty, I don't want. for that much LAUGHS
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mlrproducts Avatar
13 months ago
I bought a JBL flip 2 at garage sale the other day for $5. While not USB C, I just don’t see the value in these expensive BT speakers. They’ve become a commodity.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oneMadRssn Avatar
13 months ago
Decent price if the quality is there. But I find Bluetooth to be super annoying for speakers. Whenever you walk out of the room, you have to decide whether to leave your phone or take the speaker with you, so the audio doesn't cut out.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fuzzball84 Avatar
13 months ago
Wasn’t really several months of teasing… it was more like several months of nonsense then getting certain celebrities to carry the device in public. Celebrities that most people, on this forum anyhow, weren’t impressed with. I’d wait for reviews instead of an endorsement from a celebrity with unknown expertise in portable audio. Let’s see what the reviewers have to say.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
machpost Avatar
13 months ago

Decent price if the quality is there. But I find Bluetooth to be super annoying for speakers. Whenever you walk out of the room, you have to decide whether to leave your phone or take the speaker with you, so the audio doesn't cut out.
My thoughts exactly! Sonos makes a really nice portable speaker with AirPlay 2, so I don't know why Apple doesn't do it too. I use an Airplay speaker on my balcony and it's so nice to be able to roam around the house without the audio dropping out. I suspect the sound quality is better as well.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)