Mikey Campbell
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday published testing results for the as-yet-unannounced Beats Solo2 Wireless headphone, a Bluetooth-enabled version of the Apple-owned company's mid-tier Solo2.
As seen in the image above, an illustration of regulatory label positioning, the Solo2 Wireless will take on the same general teardrop shape as Beats' current wired Solo2 headphones.
The FCC's radiation testing documents show the Solo2 Wireless will use a variety of legacy Bluetooth protocols, as well as Bluetooth 4.0, the same low-energy technology used in Beats' high-end Studio Wireless headphones. An internal battery will be charged via Micro USB, though specifications and runtime were not evaluated.
In addition to device labeling, a packaging sample is marked with Apple's Cupertino, Calif., address. The company is also listed in FCC documents as the device's developer and contact for testing.
Apple purchased Beats for $3 billion, netting the firm's hardware and software arms as part of the deal. Beats by Dre has so far been kept a separate brand from Apple's own headphone products, as the company promised after inking the deal in May.
Pricing and availability is not yet known, but as part Beats' mid-tier lineup, the Solo2 Wireless is expected to cost between $199 and $379, respective current pricing for the wired Solo2 and Studio Wireless headphones.
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Oliver Haslam
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
31 Comments
Looks good
sweet
Depends on PRICE.
I didn't think BT had enough bandwidth to stream BT at 256kibps. And I was sure that BLE couldn't do it. I also assumed the ?Watch having WiFi was likely for using wireless headphones since I assumed BT wasn't good enough for their iTS content to be streamed. I guess I need to go look at the capabilities again. Application throughput is 0.7–2.1 Mbit/s for Classic Bluetooth technology and 0.27 Mbit/s for Bluetooth Smart technology. Classic BT is fine but that's pushing it for BT Smart. Would this include a buffer?
I sure hope Apple has plans to improve the sound quality in Beats headphones. As of now, all their models sound terrible.
As long as Apple still continues to keep regular mini headphone jacks on their devices, so that I can hook up whichever headphones that I want to the device, then I'll be happy, and it won't really matter what I think of Beats headphones.