Beats 360 review: Premium ANC headphones with a fun, fitness-friendly twist

Beats once made headphones as much a fashion statement as audio equipment, but they gradually evolved into a polished part of the wider Apple ecosystem. That's hardly a bad thing, but somewhere along the way, some of the attitude that originally made Beats such an interesting brand became less obvious.

With the Beats 360, it feels like the pendulum is swinging back in the right direction. The brand’s latest premium headphones come with adaptive noise cancellation, Personalised Spatial Audio, automatic device switching and a fourth-generation proprietary Beats chipset.

On top of that, they're unapologetically fun and customisable, with ear cushions that twist off and headband cushions that pop out, letting you customise your headset any way you want.

More importantly, Beats has designed the 360 around something plenty of people already do, despite most manufacturers seemingly pretending otherwise. The cans are the brand's first over-ear model with an IPX4 sweat- and water-resistance rating, built from the ground up for workouts.

I’ve been wearing them all day for a week now for work and exercise, on the train, in the office and at home. And guess what? The Beats 360 are my new favourite headphones from the brand. They aren’t perfect – I dearly miss the cabled-in option that made the Beats Studio Pro so excellent for long-haul flights – but the new headphones are a lot of fun to wear and listen to audio with.

Beats 360 review

Price and availability

The Beats 360 launches at £299.95 in the UK, $349.99 in the US, €349.95 in Europe and AU$499.95 in Australia. Beats is simultaneously dropping Studio Pro to £249.95 / $299.99 / €299.95 / AU$479.95.

The price is almost identical to Bose's QuietComfort 2nd Gen and below Sennheiser's £329.99 Momentum 5 and the £349 Sonos Ace. Sony's WH-1000XM6 sit higher again at their standard pricing, while my all-time favourite cans, Apple's AirPods Max 2, remain significantly more expensive at £499.

Additional cushion kits normally cost £49.95, but Beats is running an introductory offer that drops them to £9.95 in the UK from 22 September until 31 October 2026, while stocks last. That’s a huge discount that I would seriously consider.

Even if the headphones’ price drops eventually – which is likely – getting two pairs of ear cushions will save you £80, and that’s quite something!

Design and comfort

Beats’ chunky new headphones were teased for months before the reveal in September 2026, which gave us a clear idea of how they will look. In most photos and videos, the bright colours and interchangeable ear cushions were evident, and while these are a key part of the Beats 360’s appeal (see below), they have much more to offer.

With the Beats 360, the company has moved to what it describes as a true wireless architecture, with each earcup containing its own battery, antenna and processing components. This approach reduces the hardware running through the headband and supposedly let designers make it thinner while shifting more weight to the cushions.

The finished headphones weigh 294.5g, which isn’t exactly lightweight in absolute terms, but it's competitive for this kind of premium over-ear headphone. The Beats are heavier than Sony’s and Sennheiser’s top-of-the-range plastic cans, but lighter than Sonos’ Ace and Apple’s AirPods Max 2, which comes in at a whopping 386.2g.

Despite the lighter construction, the Beats 360 feels light on the head without feeling flimsy in the hand, and I think that distinction matters.

Beats is famous for its headphones’ grip strength, and the 360 continues that tradition. That makes sense, especially since the brand wants people to use the over-ears for workouts. I've found the 360 stays reassuringly planted during exercise, from cycling to strength workouts and beyond.

The trade-off is pressure on the ears, of course, especially during and after long listening sessions. During testing, I wore the Beats 360 for hours on end, and I could certainly feel the cans pressing on the lower ends against my ears and neck.

It’s not the end of the world, and if I had to choose, I would probably say pressure on the lower side is better than pressure at the top, because that would press my glasses into my skull too much.

Beats launched the 360 with two types of ear cushions. The standard Performance Knit cushions use memory foam wrapped in a diamond-knit textile made from 36 micro-threads, which Beats says creates a softer, more breathable surface. The brand recommends these for workouts.

The UltraPlush cushions use engineered leather over the same memory foam. These are softer to the touch and lend the Beats 360 a more premium look and feel. I found both comfortable enough to wear, but I preferred the feel of the UltraPlush cushions more.

Sadly, neither completely solves the heat problem for me. Both ear cushion options seemingly provide a good enough seal for heat to build up. This forced me to take them off for a few minutes after a couple of hours to let my ears cool down. It goes to show that there isn’t a perfect solution: you either get a good grip and seal or better airflow around the ears.

Customisation

The large, interchangeable cushions not only give the Beats 360 its easily recognisable silhouette but they also expand the cans’ versatility. They release with a twist, and the padded headband, included in the box, snaps in and out using three attachment points. It’s all very straightforward.

Better still, the sensors identify which cushion type you've attached, and the headphones automatically adjust ANC, Transparency and EQ tuning to compensate for the different acoustic properties of Performance Knit and UltraPlush. Neat.

There are four frame colours – Black, Cloud, Sky and Pink – while additional Performance Knit kits come in six colours, and UltraPlush comes in Black and Cloud. Start mixing different ear and headband cushions, and Beats says there are theoretically 256 combinations.

(This would obviously involve mixing different colours for the two ear cushions and the headband, which I don’t think looks good, but it certainly is an option.)

If you want to use the Beats 360 for workouts, having a spare set of ear cushions is almost essential. Sweat and dirt will build up in these contact points, and trust me when I say that you don’t want to walk around with sweaty, smelly headphones on your head when you aren’t in the gym.

Having one set of cushions and headbands for workouts and another for everyday use makes the Beats 360 a truly “360” headphone option you can wear all day, every day. Beats says the Performance Knit cushions can be hand-washed in warm, soapy water, so having a spare set is great in the sense that it lets you wear the headphones for work while the other dries at home.

Controls and connectivity

The Beats 360 uses physical controls, something I prefer over the touch variety. Along the edge of the earcups, you’ll find four push buttons to turn the headphones on and off, switch between listening modes, adjust volume and start/stop playback. Beats says the rear placement is designed to make everything accessible with your thumbs.

And while it’s true, the button design is far from ergonomic. They are simply too flush, so I have to feel around the earcup to figure out where my thumb is supposed to go. Apple's AirPods Max 2 is considerably more expensive, but its prominent Digital Crown and separate noise-control button demonstrate how much easier headphone controls can be to identify without looking.

The Beats 360 is also notable for returning to the company's own silicon. Inside is the fourth generation of Beats' proprietary chipset, a welcome departure from Apple’s H-series chip. Don’t get me wrong, I have no qualms with Apple’s chips, but I’m glad Beats is pushing its own technology.

Thankfully, you don’t miss out on any native Apple features. There's one-touch pairing, iCloud pairing, Automatic Switching, Audio Sharing, Find My, hands-free Siri and Personalised Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking. Android gets Fast Pair, Audio Switch, Find Hub and additional controls through the Beats app.

That platform-agnostic approach remains one of Beats' biggest strengths. You can use an iPhone without feeling like you've bought a second-rate Apple product, but switching to Android doesn't suddenly strip half the useful features away either.

Sound quality and noise cancellation

Thankfully, none of that personality comes at the expense of sound quality. The 360 uses a completely new acoustic platform built around 40mm dual-magnet drivers, a high-dynamic-range amplifier and triple-layer (!) diaphragms. Beats says the new transducer produces 12dB higher output than the Studio Pro driver while keeping distortion low.

This isn't the aggressively bass-heavy Beats tuning people might remember from years ago. The new setup has plenty of low-end weight, and the overall presentation feels powerful, but it’s far from muddy, with impressive clarity and separation (alongside the punch you'd expect from the brand, of course).

That said, the Beats 360 are enjoyable headphones and not analytical ones, but in all fairness, that's exactly how I'd want a pair of Beats to sound.

Active noise cancellation is another strong point. Beats claims the 360 delivers up to 1.75 times more total noise cancellation than Studio Pro, using eight ANC microphones and substantially more processing power.

It goes without saying that I can’t tell if the ANC is exactly 1.75x stronger than the Beats Studio Pro – what does that even mean? What I do know is that isolation is excellent, even in noisy environments like trains and offices.

Ambient noise barely comes through, which is great news as the Beats 360 lets you listen to music at lower volumes even in public. I appreciate good ANC, as I feel it helps preserve my hearing by letting me avoid high volumes.

The Transparency mode isn't quite as convincing. External sounds occasionally seem to arrive a fraction of a second later than I expect. It almost feels like the algorithm needs a bit more time to think about the noise before acting on it. As a result, the effect is slightly less immediate and natural than the best implementations I've used.

It's hardly disastrous, and it strikes me as something Beats could potentially improve through a software update, but right now it's one of the few areas where the 360 doesn't feel as polished as its ANC performance.

Battery life and charging

Beats says the headphones can last up to 32 hours with ANC and Personalised Spatial Audio enabled, which is not mind-blowing but still above average. Strangely enough, Transparency mode drains the Beats 360 faster and can fully deplete the battery in just 24 hours.

Fast Fuel provides up to one hour of playback from a five-minute charge. Thirty-two hours is competitive even before you remember that Beats is quoting that figure with ANC running.

Sony's WH-1000XM6 offers up to 30 hours with noise cancellation switched on, as does the Sonos Ace. Bose's new QuietComfort 2nd Gen manages 24 hours, while AirPods Max 2 is rated for 20 hours with ANC. Sennheiser remains the battery monster of this part of the market with the Momentum 5 promising up to 57 hours with ANC enabled.

So the Bats 360 isn't the outright endurance champion, but 32 hours puts it comfortably towards the stronger end of the premium ANC category. Better still, it works like a dream (see above).

It's hardly a major criticism when the overall battery lasts this long, but Beats' fast-charging figures no longer look especially fast. I’ve been listening to the Beats 360 for a week, and I only had to top it once. The quick charge function is particularly handy when you forget to charge the cans overnight.

Verdict

The Beats 360 is one of the most interesting headphones the brand has made in years. Sound quality is excellent, battery life is strong even with ANC running, and the comparatively lightweight construction combines with a secure fit that genuinely works for exercise.

They aren’t perfect, though, with their high clamp force and overheating issue. I also really miss the Studio Pro's wired listening option. Oh, and there are the issues with the buttons. However, the 360 feels like Beats returning to its roots by producing premium, cool-looking headphones that remain attainable for a wider audience. And I like that.