Beats, the audio brand under Apple, has announced new over-ear headphones called Beats 360. It is the brand's first model to let users swap out the ear cup and headband cushions entirely, and it also brings a substantial boost in noise cancellation and battery life. In Japan, Beats 360 went on sale on September 24 for 59,800 yen (tax included). The headphones launched around the same time in the United States and more than 100 other countries and regions.
A New Design Built Around Fully Swappable Cushions
The defining feature of Beats 360 is that the ear cup and headband cushions can be swapped out completely. Two cushion families are offered: the breathable "Performance Knit" fabric and the softer synthetic-leather "UltraPlush," letting wearers change the feel of the headphones to match their mood, activity, or the season. The headphones themselves come in four colors — Black, Cloud, Pink, and Sky — while the replacement cushion kits add accent colors such as Navy and a neon-leaning shade called "Bolt" that go beyond the main body colors. A cushion kit costs 8,900 yen, with six colors available in Performance Knit and two in UltraPlush. The headphones weigh just under 300 grams, and instead of folding the whole unit as previous models did, Beats redesigned Beats 360 so the ear cups twist flat, packing into a dedicated woven carrying case.
Noise Cancellation Boosted to 1.75x the Previous Model
On the audio side, Beats 360 uses newly designed drivers built around a three-layer diaphragm and dual neodymium magnets. Nine digital MEMS microphones are built into the headphones, supporting both clear call quality and noise cancellation. Beats says the active noise cancellation delivers up to 1.75 times the reduction of its predecessor, the Beats Studio Pro, while boosting output without sacrificing clarity. The headphones also add a transparency mode, an Adaptive EQ that adjusts sound to the surrounding environment, and Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking.
A New Custom Chip and 32 Hours of Battery Life
Beats 360 is built around a newly developed proprietary chip and supports Bluetooth 5.3 (Class 1). It pairs with iPhone and iPad in one touch, and supports settings sync through iCloud as well as Find My. On Android devices, equivalent functionality is available through Fast Pair. Battery life reaches up to 32 hours with noise cancellation and spatial audio turned on, and a 5-minute Fast Fuel charge adds about an hour of playback. Both ear cups charge together through a single USB-C port. The headphones carry an IPX4 water and sweat resistance rating, and the body is made from 80 percent recycled plastic. Alongside this launch, Beats also cut the price of the earlier Beats Studio Pro to 49,800 yen.
Summary
Beats 360 stands out for its swappable-cushion approach to customization, while also meaningfully upgrading fundamentals like noise cancellation and battery life. It keeps the tight integration Apple users expect while still catering to Android owners, and it will be worth watching how much ground it can gain in an over-ear headphone market where it's priced just under 60,000 yen.
