If you have searched for the Beats Studio Pro this month, you will have noticed the price moved. Apple UK now lists the Beats Studio Pro at £249.95, down from the £349.99 it launched at, and the reason is sitting next to it on the same page: the new Beats 360 at £299.95. So the question has changed. It is no longer "are these worth £350", it is "is the old pair worth £250 when the new one is £50 more", and with Black Friday on 27 November, "should I pay either price today".
My short answer is no, not at £249.95. But the Studio Pro still does two things the newer Beats cannot, and for some people that makes it the right pair. Here is the arithmetic and who each one is for.
What the Beats Studio Pro costs in the UK now
The Beats Studio Pro on Apple UK is £249.95 in all four colours: Black, Navy, Sandstone and Deep Brown. At launch it was £349.99, so the official cut is £100.04, or 28.6 per cent by my arithmetic. Beats made that move on the day it launched the 360, which T3 reported in its launch-day review.
That new list price is not a bargain by Beats Studio Pro standards, though. This is a pair of headphones that has lived in UK sales for most of its life. Last November TechRadar logged it at £149 on Amazon on 17 November 2025, and ten days later T3 spotted it at £99 at Argos.
Put those side by side and the new £249.95 list price is still £100.95 above last year's Amazon low, and 2.5 times last year's Argos floor. Those are my sums on dated retailer prices, so treat them as history rather than a promise. But history is the best guide we have to what Black Friday will do to an outgoing model.
What UK shops are charging this week
On 9 November, Google's PriceRunner listing for the black Studio Pro showed £249 as the cheapest of seven stores, within a pound of Apple's price. Currys, Argos and PriceRunner block automated reads, so I could not check each shop directly, and stock and prices move hourly in November. A HotUKDeals listing for EE's logged-in Black Friday pricing showed the Studio Pro at £119, but I could not confirm its date, so I would treat it as a signal of where things are heading rather than something to bank on.
The point is the gap. Nobody is discounting yet, and last year the real cuts landed in the second half of November.
Beats Studio Pro vs Beats 360: what £50 buys you
The Beats 360 on Apple UK is £299.95, which is exactly £50 more than the Studio Pro's new list price, or 20 per cent. That is a smaller gap than I expected when I wrote about the Beats 360 leak in August, and it makes the full-price Studio Pro a harder sell.
Here is what the extra £50 gets you, taken from Apple's UK product pages for both:
- Battery: up to 32 hours with noise cancelling on, against 24 hours on the Studio Pro. That is a third more listening with ANC running.
- Water resistance: the 360 is rated IPX4. The Studio Pro has no rating at all, and MacRumors' launch report notes the 360 is the first Beats over-ear to get one.
- Apple features: Apple's 360 page lists one-touch pairing, iCloud pairing, automatic switching, Audio Sharing, Find My and hands-free Siri. The Studio Pro page lists one-touch pairing, Find My and Siri, but not automatic switching or Audio Sharing.
- Noise cancelling: Beats claims up to 1.75 times more than the Studio Pro, using eight microphones. That is Beats comparing against its own older model, not an independent measurement.
- Cushions: swappable ear and headband cushions, sold as £49.95 kits, with a £9.95 introductory offer at launch.
And here is what you give up by going new.
The Beats Studio Pro still wins on wires and weight
This is the part most comparisons skip. The Studio Pro ships with a USB-C cable and a 3.5mm cable in the box, and it can play lossless audio over USB-C from a compatible source. It also takes an analogue signal over 3.5mm, so it works with an aeroplane seat, a laptop with a headphone jack, or an old audio interface.
The Beats 360 does neither. Apple's UK box contents list the headphones, cushions, case and paperwork, with no cable of any kind, and T3's review is blunt that there is no wired listening. If you want to plug in on a long-haul flight, that settles it.
The Studio Pro is also lighter. Apple lists it at 260g against 294.5g for the 360, so the new pair is 34.5g heavier, or 13.3 per cent. On a three-hour train you notice that.
Battery cuts the other way if you turn noise cancelling off. The Studio Pro is rated for up to 40 hours with ANC and Transparency off. Fast Fuel is better on the Studio Pro too: ten minutes of charging gives up to four hours of playback, against one hour from five minutes on the 360.
A correction to my Beats 360 leak post
Back in August I said the catch with the then-unreleased Beats 360 was that no leak mentioned Apple's H2 chip, so you would probably miss the Apple conveniences you use every day. Half of that held up. The 360 runs on Beats' own fourth-generation chip rather than H2, according to T3.
The other half did not. Apple's UK page lists automatic switching, iCloud pairing and Audio Sharing for the 360 anyway, so the daily-use gap I warned about is much smaller than I expected. My £299.99 UK price guess was 4p out. The leaked $299.99 US price was not: the 360 launched at $349.99. I would rather say that here than leave the old post contradicting this one quietly.
Beats Studio Pro vs AirPods Max 2
If you are weighing the Beats Studio Pro against Apple's own over-ears, the maths is simple. AirPods Max 2 at £499 is £249.05 more than the Studio Pro's new list price, so it costs almost exactly double. AirPods Max 2 brings the H2 chip, Adaptive Audio and Live Translation, but it is rated for only 20 hours with noise cancelling on, which is four hours less than the cheaper Beats.
For most people buying their first pair of over-ears, I do not think the Max 2 is the comparison that matters this month. The Studio Pro at a Black Friday price is the one that will be a third or a quarter of the Max 2's cost.
Who should buy which
Buy the Beats Studio Pro if you fly long-haul, want to plug in over USB-C or 3.5mm, care about weight, or use an Android phone alongside an iPhone. But buy it at a sale price, not at £249.95. My personal ceiling is £150, which is last year's Amazon low, and I would hold out for nearer £120 if a retailer gets there.
Buy the Beats 360 if you want to wear your headphones to the gym, walk to work in the rain, or switch between an iPhone, iPad and Mac without thinking about it. At £299.95 it is the better buy than a full-price Studio Pro, because £50 is a small premium for IPX4, more ANC battery and automatic switching.
Wait if you are not in a hurry. Black Friday is on 27 November, and the Studio Pro is exactly the kind of outgoing product that gets cut hardest. If you only need noise cancelling and not over-ears, my AirPods 4 ANC guide covers the cheaper route.
Beats Studio Pro FAQ
How much is the Beats Studio Pro in the UK?
Apple UK lists the Beats Studio Pro at £249.95, down from £349.99 at launch. Retailers are around the same price this week. Last Black Friday it fell to £149 at Amazon and £99 at Argos, so expect deeper cuts in late November.
Is the Beats Studio Pro discontinued?
No. Apple kept it on sale alongside the Beats 360 and cut its price instead. It is still listed on Apple UK in Black, Navy, Sandstone and Deep Brown.
Is the Beats 360 better than the Beats Studio Pro?
For most people, yes: it has longer battery life with noise cancelling on, an IPX4 rating, automatic switching and stronger noise cancelling by Beats' own claim. The Studio Pro is better if you need wired or lossless listening, or want the lighter pair.
My take
The Beats Studio Pro's new £249.95 price is a list-price correction, not a deal. Beats has priced it £50 under its replacement so the 360 looks reasonable, and it does: at those two prices I would take the 360.
But the Studio Pro is the only Beats over-ear left with a cable in the box and lossless USB-C audio, and it is about to go on sale. If that matters to you, wait three weeks and buy it for a lot less than Apple is asking today.
Source: Beats Studio Pro Wireless Headphones, Apple (UK)
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