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Beats Pill speaker goes 'XL' but specs stay distinctly 'M'
Since no-one's brave enough to ask which University gave Dr. Dre his PhD, he's continuing to prescribe pills at his whim. The latest to emerge from his cabinet is the Beats Pill XL, which we've just spotted being tested for sale at the FCC. The Bluetooth speaker comes with NFC pairing and a 4,400mAh battery, the latter of which you can use to charge your smartphone -- although if you've got something beefy like a Galaxy Note 3 or HTC One Max, don't expect to get more than one charge out of it.
Get down with Dr. Dre's Beats Pill (and take business calls too!)
'Tis the time of the year to get funky at Christmas parties you'll regret having gone to the next day. And who better to get funky with than Dr. Dre? Well, not the real Dr. Dre, but one of his speakers from his line of audio products. The Dr. Dre Beats Pill is an apt little Bluetooth speaker system that makes you music sound good -- and it's a good business write-off as it also functions as a speaker conference calling system. Using Bluetooth, pair any iPhone or Android phone directly to the speaker system. Since it's using Bluetooth, your phone needs to be within 30 feet of the speaker, but that's not a problem for most as we usually have our phones on us all the time. The Pill pumped out sounds that were better than most other portable speaker systems I've tried and the bass was particularly rich. The pill-shaped Pill is a relatively tiny speaker. It's only 19 cm long and 4.5 cm high. On the bottom is rubber girding so it stays in place even when pumping out loud bass. On the back you'll find an audio in and out port, and a USB 2.0 port that you use to plug the device into the provided AC power adapter. But the best thing about the Pill is its dual ability to function as a conference call speaker. If you get a call while your iPhone is paired to the Pill, simply press the "B" button on the front of the speaker to pause your tunes and take the call. The Dr. Dre Beats Pill is US$199 and available in Apple stores, Amazon, Best Buy, HMV and more.
Beats by Dre Pill portable Bluetooth speaker officially drops, we take one per the Dr. and go ears-on (video)
It's official. Aside from letting loose its first set of headphones post-Monster for the Executive types, Beats Electronics has set its sights on nabbing the portable Bluetooth audio crown from Jawbone's Jambox. You'll recall this hitting the FCC a bit ago, but today the Dr. is officially ready to offer you his remedy for on-the-go wireless audio with the $200 Pill, an NFC-equipped portable Bluetooth 2.1 speaker. Coming in your choice red, black or white, the cylindrical system is loaded with a quartet of 1-inch drivers, and supports codecs including Apt-X and AAC. An internal battery is said to provide about seven hours of listening at around 75-percent volume (80 decibels), and the unit can be charged via its Micro-USB input. Notably, an auto-off feature turns the unit off after 30 minutes if no audio is streamed to it. As you'd expect, the Pill features a front-facing on-board mic for use as a speakerphone, physical volume buttons and power button, as well as a 3.5mm input if you'd like to play sans Bluetooth. We're also pleased to notice that the diminutive system also features a 3.5 output if you'd like to send the audio out to another audio ware. The Pill comes with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, a USB to Micro-USB cable for charging with an included wall adapter and, lastly, a carrying shell case that can be hooked to a bag. We've been able to spend about an hour with the system, and we've frankly come away very impressed. The unit feels very sturdy, with a stiff metal grille and soft-touch coating around the rest of its exterior. It feels very comfortable to hold in a hand, and will easily fit in a jacket pocket. Actually, one of our only initial complaints is that the included carrying shell doesn't leave any room for the included cables. All of the buttons have a soft, slightly clicky tactility, which also aids to its premium feel. Using it initially alongside one of Beats' on-hand Jamboxes in a wired A/B comparison, the Jambox came out sounding like a distorted, rumbling mess up against the Pill -- we even had a rep bring out a second unit confirm that it wasn't a dud. If that wasn't enough, the Pill also managed to get much louder, staying fairly clean (in comparison), and without rumbling on the table as the Jambox did very slightly. As a triple-check measure, we later came up with a similar outcome with our in-house unit of Logitech's $99 UE mobile boombox -- a speaker we find comparable in sound, if slightly better, than the Jambox. %Gallery-168433% In what could be viewed as slightly ironic, the Pill has a voicing that edges toward the flatter side of things, rather than pumping out exorbitant amounts of bass. It's not to say that it can't reproduce bass at all, it's just not the focus here. This flatter output seems to be a big part of what keeps it from distorting, but we should be clear, that the audio here is many times better still on the Pill. Pleasantly, the speakers are also angled up slightly, which makes for a noticeably more natural listening experience. Our only other concern for the time being is that the Bluetooth connection with our iPhone 5 did crackle occasionally like a vinyl record, but it's too early to say if the issue will be consistent during future use. We're still a ways off from being able to definitively give you a thumbs up on the Pill, but -- at least, initially, it seems like it's easily blowing the Jambox and similar speakers out of the water. Like the Executive headphones, the Pill is available today at Beats stores and other retailers -- check out our video hands-on after the break for a better look.
Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker spotted at FCC and HMV: take one and call Dr. Dre in the morning
The Beats by Dr. Dre badge has usually been attached to headphones and the occasional laptop or smartphone. We've never really seen it attached to dedicated speakers, however, and that's where both an FCC filing and a sighting at UK retailer HMV's online store raise a few eyebrows. The House that Dre Built appears on the edge of launching the Beats Pill, a Bluetooth wireless speaker with four drivers and a shape that more than explains the medicinal name. While we don't know just how much of that signature Beats thump we'll get, we do know from the FCC that the Pill can serve as a speakerphone, carries an aux-in jack and will last for a typical 8.5 hours on its USB-rechargeable lithium-ion battery. There's also signs of a red version of Beats' Mixr headphones coming at the same time. HMV has publicly scoured its pages of any trace of a ship date or price for the Pill, but cached copies point to a £170 ($276) price and a release around September 28th -- not necessarily trustworthy figures, but they may be in the ballpark. Our only question is whether or not we'll get a dose of the Pill in the US. [Thanks, Germaine]
