Apple‘s upcoming Powerbeats 4 earbuds have appeared in some leaked images on WinFuture, with the German site also revealing some purported features of the next sports-centric pair of headphones from the company. A headlining feature is Apple’s H1 wireless chip powering the new Powerbeats—the same one used in the AirPods Pro, as well as the Powerbeats Pro.
This could mean support for features that have already been seen on Apple’s other premium wireless headphones—namely, Siri.
Additionally, we could also be seeing better stability as far as wireless connectivity is concerned, thanks to Class 1 Bluetooth technology. But one of the biggest upgrades—at least, to me—is the 15 hours of battery life that WinFuture is claiming for the Powerbeats 4. That’s an upgrade of 3 hours from its predecessor, the Powerbeats 3. Charging is pretty quick, too: 5 minutes of charging should be enough for 60 minutes of use.
Based on the pictures, there’s a new design that includes modified cable routing where the cable will hang behind your ear now—which makes sense. We’re also seeing water-repellent housing, and WinFuture says that the new Powerbeats should also be able to “withstand more stress” due to the durable nature of the plastic used.
Sadly, it appears that you’ll need to charge the Powerbeats 4 via a Lightning cable. That’s a hugely disappointing, albeit expected, choice from Apple—especially if you look at the AirPods Pro. Still, I’m tired of carrying around a Lightning cable for just one or two devices, when almost everything else uses USB-C. And this isn’t something that Apple doesn’t know either; we could be seeing USB-C make its iPhone debut with the 2020 lineup, and the current generation iPad Pro already sports a USB-C port.
There are 3 colours of Powerbeats 4 seen in the leaked images: black, white, and red (although I’m sure they have cooler official/marketing names). WinFuture says that it’s possible that the Powerbeats 4 will retain the price of the Powerbeats 3: EUR199.95 (about RM960), although there is “no confirmation” of anything with regards to RRP.
As for availability, we aren’t sure when the new Powerbeats will be officially released. While it theoretically could happen alongside upcoming launches of the 4th-gen iPad Pro and “iPhone SE 2”, large scale events have been cancelled/postponed in recent times due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In fact, plenty of Apple’s employees might already be working from home.
Update: The upcoming event is rumoured to be cancelled. Read more here.
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