I compared the newest Beats 360 headphones with a $40 budget pair to see if they're worth the investment

Beats by Dre was kind enough to send me a pair of its newest Beats 360 headphones to try, and I’m nothing if not a thorough researcher, so I compared them to my trusty old faithfuls, a pair of $40 Sony over-ears I bought in January.

The Beats 360 advertising campaign revolved around its ability to swap out the ear cushions and headband cushions to match people’s ‘style, activity, or mood’.

While there was certainly no lack of customization options, whether the headphones fit into my lifestyle and delivered a great listening experience was another question.

So, come with me while I was basically Kendall Jenner for two weeks.

My initial thoughts on the Beats 360 headphones

Headphones increasingly play a big role in our lives, and as the world shifts more to retro wired ones and smaller in-ear EarPods, these new 360s had to really stand out from the crowd.

The advertising was led by Kendall Jenner, showing off her seriously versatile new 360s, as she had the ability to swap out her headband cushion and ear cups with ease, swapping from white to yellow to pink, matching her vibe.

When my pair arrived, I had chosen pink (of course), they also came with a Performance knit cushion kit in ‘Sky’ and an UltraPlush cushion kit in ‘Cloud’, so blue and white.

That meant I had a standard pink pair, and I could swap out the ear cups and headphones to sky blue in the same original material or white in a squishier leather-feel material.

Firstly, the gadget came with a handy snap-shut carry pouch, and after very minimal playing around, it was very easy to swap out the cups and headband.

They are a good-looking gadget, very smooth to extend to fit your freakishly-shaped head in my case and the ear cups go over the ears nicely.

Getting them set up was another story.

The new contenders vs. a $40 budget pair

The new earphones were already a positive in my book because I love the feel of over-ear headphones, and I despise the feeling of EarPods actually being inside my ears.

Since January this year, I’ve been using a pair of $40 Sony over-ears and I’d been doing fine with them.

They were easy to use, easy to locate in my bag, and the time they’d last on a charge was pretty impressive.

They switched on, connected with Bluetooth to my iPhone 14, and when I was done, they could easily be switched off and chucked in a bag, and they came with me everywhere, on the train, to the gym, and on planes.

When the Beats 360 earphones arrived, I was pleased to see they were part of the Apple ecosystem, but I had to download iOS 27 before they would work properly, which meant having to delete most of my apps to have enough space to do it.

When I finally got them set up, I got an introductory walkthrough on my iPhone, and I thought that would be it.

However, many times I’ve since connected my headphones, and it’s like my iPhone has never seen them before, and I get the whole walkthrough all over again, and because they don’t connect via Bluetooth, it sometimes takes a little while for my iPhone to recognize that the headphones are there.

Luckily, it’s not too much of an issue for me because I’m never in that much of a rush, but for someone a lot busier than me, they could find that a frustrating element.

They charge quickly using a standard USB-C cable, but they don’t come with their own charging cable, and it looks like Beats and Apple both assume that you have enough Apple products already to charge them.

My biggest frustration with the new earphones, however, is how difficult I find it to switch them on and off.

When you are wearing the 360s, and you want to turn them off, you have to feel around for the on and off button, all the other buttons are tactile and slightly raised, but the off button is the only one one flush with the gadget.

It leads to you feeling around for the button and pressing all of the others before you find it, and turning it off is a case of holding it down until the light goes out, but sometimes it just seems to switch back on and reconnects to your phone, meaning they’re steadily draining battery in your pouch while you’re not using them.

After two weeks of using them, I finally got the hang of switching them off and on, but sometimes I’d come back to them after a couple of hours and find them connected to my phone with 22 percent battery left.

However, the experience of using them made up for this.

Day-to-day life with my new Beats 360 headphones

Because I was used to the budget option, I’d never really gotten a chance to try out proper noise-cancelling headphones.

These are really fantastic for noise cancellation, and there is a setting that leaves you with an awareness of your surroundings if you’re walking around on a busy street with a lot of cars.

I have recently switched to Spotify, but before then I was a die-hard Apple Music user, and I might be again, because the sound quality with these headphones in the Apple ecosystem is crystal clear.

You can feel the music in a way that Spotify just can’t compete with.

I like that I can find my 360s on Find My with my other Apple products, and making calls on these headphones is brilliant, as they far surpass my old Sonys, which I had to disconnect every time I took or made a call.

I took my new tech on a short round-trip plane ride to mainland Europe this weekend, and on the way back, the noise cancellation meant I didn’t have to listen to the screaming baby in the row behind me the whole time.

Daisy 1, screaming baby 0.

However, on the way there, I experienced a lot of turbulence, and you’ll know from my car sickness review that this did not bode well for my body, and I found the noise cancellation to be quite claustrophobic in that moment.

However, I think it was the airplane’s fault rather than the headphones, because nothing was going to help me in that situation.

The final part, which is the headline selling point for the Beats device, is the fact that you can change out the cups and headband cushion to match your vibe and mood.

I swapped my pink cups for the white cloud cushion cups and headband, and very quickly found that this was my favorite combination, because I liked the cooling squishiness of the leather feel on my ears, and they seemed less likely to absorb my sweat when I worked out at the gym.

They are very easy to swap out, as seen from the video, but I didn’t find myself traveling around with all the components in my bag to swap out whenever the fancy took me.

It is a very cool element of the device, but I think most people will do what I did, which is find a combination they like and stick with it.

But having that ability to swap them out when you want a change or experience wear and tear will make these a lot longer-lasting than other headphones in their price range, and being made from 80 percent recycled materials makes these seem slightly more of a greener choice in a world of constant tech upgrades.

Are they worth it?

Ultimately, I won’t be returning to my old reliable Sony headphones, and they will be bequeathed to my sister.

My new Beats 360 headphones feel sleeker, more polished, and fit in with my day-to-day life far better, which means taking calls on the move and drowning out my fellow passengers on my travels.

I like that I can inject a bit of my personality into them by choosing different color combinations, and for someone who exists within the Apple ecosystem, they are extremely handy.

The Beats 360 wireless over-ear headphones are currently retailing for $349.99 on both the Apple and Beats by Dre websites, and until October 31, you can get extra cushion kits for $9.99 each, but after October they will go up to $49.99 each.

They might not suit everyone’s lifestyle, but for me and my life, the Beats 360 headphones fit in very nicely indeed.