What is the Beats Solo3 battery life and charge time?

Beats by Dre
Beats by Dre (Image credit: Beats by Dre)

What is the Beats Solo3 battery life and charge time?

Best answer: Your Beats Solo 3 headphones will last you about 40 hours on a full charge. While charging the entire battery will take a few hours, you can get about three hours of battery life from just five minutes of charging when the battery is low.Amazon: Beats Solo3 ($197)

Why is the battery life so long?

When you're talking about 40 hours of wireless listening, it's not a bad question to ask. The real "magic" behind the battery life with the Beats Solo3 is Apple's proprietary W1 chip, which they describe as Class 1 Bluetooth. Basically, the W1 chip that works with iOS 10 and later, does a bunch of heavy-lifting and makes the Bluetooth connection more stable and efficient.

Of course, the Beats Solo3 can use a regular Bluetooth connection, but that would likely see a decrease in battery performance.

Battery-life can vary

The real "magic" behind the battery life with the Beats Solo3 is Apple's proprietary W1 chip.

In our testing, the quoted 40-battery life of the Beats Solo 3 is accurate, but it's important to mention that your mileage may vary depending on how you use your Beats Solo3 headphones.

Your settings, environment, and usage will all affect how many hours of listening time you will see. If you're blasting the headphones at full volume every second you use, you'll likely see a dip in battery performance.

The same can be said for being too far away from your device. If your phone and the Beats Solo3 are struggling to stay paired over Bluetooth, you'll likely burn through the battery power a little faster.

Keep them out of extreme temperatures

Your settings, environment, and usage will all affect how many hours of listening time you will see.

One more thing that can severely impact battery life is temperature. Lithium-ion batteries don't function properly when they are too cold or too hot, so avoiding leaving the Beats Solo3 somewhere where it will be exposed to extreme temperatures.

Apple's battery service

If you are experience battery problems, Apple's battery service for its Beats headphones may be able to help you out.

"Batteries are consumable parts that sometimes fail because of a defect or because they wear out through normal use. If your product fails because of a manufacturing defect in the battery and it's still covered by the Apple One Year Limited Warranty or consumer law, we'll either repair your product or replace it. If your product was damaged accidentally or needs other repairs, you might need to pay an additional fee for service."

In layman's terms, if within the first year of your purchase your Beats Solo3's are seeing significant problems with the battery, and you haven't damaged the headphones in any way, Apple will probably replace the battery for you.

Luke Filipowicz
Staff Writer

Luke Filipowicz has been a writer at iMore, covering Apple for nearly a decade now. He writes a lot about Apple Watch and iPad but covers the iPhone and Mac as well. He often describes himself as an "Apple user on a budget" and firmly believes that great technology can be affordable if you know where to look. Luke also heads up the iMore Show — a weekly podcast focusing on Apple news, rumors, and products but likes to have some fun along the way. 


Luke knows he spends more time on Twitter than he probably should, so feel free to follow him or give him a shout on social media @LukeFilipowicz.