Beats Pill portable speaker review: Little red

Beats is a bit of an odd animal. Even if we're just talking about the world of consumer-grade audio hardware, its rarely top of mind. It doesn't have the cult following of Sonos nor the mass market appeal of Sony and Bose. It's always been the distant third of fourth choice and its rarely escaped the definite dissonance between its uniquely urban origins and the fact that its now part of one of the richest companies on earth.

Given that, it's perhaps less of a surprise that that the new Beats Pill speaker is as good as it is. Even if the lack of gimmicks or halo features here goes a long way towards reminding you why the brand doesn't sit on the pedestal it might, the winning combination of sound hardware and striking design here make it easy to recommend to those in the market for a portable Bluetooth speaker.

In Australia, the revamped Beats Pill speaker starts at $249. That's more than a cheap portable speaker might cost you but not that far out of line relative to what you can expect from dedicated audio brands like JBL and Sony.

As usual, though, you might be able to find it for less if you look around. Check out the table below for the best deals for the Beats Pill speaker in Australia.

The new Beats Pill speaker looks like the old one. In both cases, it's in the name. The speaker is shaped like a big pill.

Where other portable speakers choose to stake their fortunes on either being rubberised or made of sterner stuff, the Beats Pill is a little bit of both. The majority of the portable speaker is covered is a smoothy and slightly squishy silicon. Then, the business-end of the speaker is made of cool metal. The sum total of this combination is a speaker that's rated IP68 for water and dust resistance and built to survive more than just a light scuffle or two.

The top of the Beats Pill is where you'll find the power, volume and a play/pause button. The right-most end is adorned with a fabric loop while the back of the speaker rounds things out with a USB-C charging port.

Meanwhile, the underside of unit is supported by a quartet of legs. This is a small touch, but it does go a long way towards making setting the Beats Pill up for success later down the line. A little bit of elevation ensures you're getting the most out of the hardware here.

It's to the credit of the Beats Pill that is as simple as it as and yet manages to look and feel nicer than most of its competition. While the speaker is available in a more mundane black, the color variants give a definite sense of character that's nicely  completed by high quality material design.  I wouldn't say that the hardware here feels more expensive than it is, but it doesn't feel cheaper. This is one of those speakers that feels as good as it looks.

Although Beats is owned by Apple, the brand has maintained a decent amount of  interoperability across both the Android and iOS ecosystems and that's very much the case here. Of course, since the Beats Pill relies on Bluetooth you can just pair to anything that supports the standard - from iPads to Steam Decks and more.

While the refreshed Beats Pill might be a dead-ringer for its predecessor on the outside, the situation is a little bit different on the inside. This revived version of the speaker features improved acoustic architecture plus a a re-engineered woofer and tweeter. The new Beats Pill is kitted out with stronger neodymium magnets that reduce distortion while delivering higher volumes of sound.

If this all sounds a little technical for you, fret not. You don't necessarily need to be an audiophile to reap the benefits that come out of this tinkering. In practice, the Beats Pill doesn't just sound good. It sounds great. Vocals came through with clarity and consistency, the bass had the requisite amount of bounce and the mids rarely got lost in the mix.

Despite its size, the Beats Pill offered up an impressive amount of sound at higher volumes. Factor in the 24 hours of battery life on a full charge and it's a great option for your home, car or anywhere else you want wireless audio. You can even pair the unit with a second one for stereo sound. Since we were only sent the one model to test I wasn't to test this for myself, but given that this feature is one found in most of the Beats Pill's competition it's nice to see it included here.