Beats Studio Pro are a needed over-the-ear headphone from Apple that’s less than $500

Apple’s rumored Beats Studio Pro headphones have shown up in filings with the FCC, giving life to the idea that the company may actually sell a new version of over-the-ear headphones for under $500.

As reported by MacRumors, the filings showed up in the FCC database earlier today. The Beats Studio Pro headphones have been long rumored and today’s news gives the impression that Apple will actually release the headphones soon. Apple products commonly show up in the database shortly before they are officially announced.

The Beats Studio Pro headphones are expected to be the replacement for the Beats Studio 3 wireless over-the-ear headphones. Holy moly, have we needed a replacement for those. Those headphones launched back in 2017. Almost six years ago is the last time Apple updated an over-the-ear headphone outside of its self-branded AirPods Max, which it launched back in December 2020.

The AirPods Max, while a superior headphone for sure, costs a whopping $549 at full price. Beats Studio 3, in comparison, cost $349 at full price — but that’s from Apple itself. The headphones can usually be had for under $200 at third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon. While the new headphones will surely come in at more than $200, it’ll still be significantly less than the cost of the AirPods Max — and that’s kind of the point.

The benefit of the AirPods Max have a lot more to do with the features than the audio quality alone. Don’t get me wrong — they’re the best-sounding headphones I’ve ever owned — but it’s the other features like easily switching between Apple devices and spatial audio for music and movies that make them more enjoyable to use than any other headphone.

Those benefits are likely to come to the Beats Studio Pro headphones, and Apple customers deserve them. You shouldn’t have to shell out over $500 for those features on an over-the-ear headphone. I’m glad that the company seems to realize that and is making this long-overdue update.