It has been some time since we reviewed the Between 3ANC wireless earbuds by Status Audio. We liked what we experienced from both their sound presentation and ANC performance, which was priced at $179 at the time. Now, we will look at Status Audio’s latest flagship wireless product, the Status Pro X wireless earbuds. These earbuds produce a sound presentation powered by Knowles Balanced Armatures while providing an even more potent active noise cancelation experience than that of the Between 3ANC. Coming in at $299, Status’ latest flagship product has more than peaked our interests.
So, let us dive into the Status Pro X wireless earbuds to see what it brings to the table.
Build, Features and Comfort
A purchase of the Status Pro X comes with the earbuds, a wireless charging case, a USB-C charging cable, and an assortment of silicone ear tips.
The Status Pro X earbuds return with their triple driver design, geared to deliver a detailed presentation of the various sound ranges without distortion. Each earbud features a dedicated subwoofer to focus on the lows while Dual Knowles Balanced Armatures focus on the mids and highs. The dynamic drivers have been enlarged from the 10mm seen in the Between 3ANC to 12mm. Yet somehow this was done while making the earbuds themselves 21% smaller than their predecessors.
Like its predecessor, the Pro X features both touch and button controls, where the touch controls are customizable using the Status Hub mobile app. Also designed for call quality, each ear bud houses three beam-forming microphones reinforced by Voiceloom AI speech enhancement. These mics also contribute to the earbuds’ active noise cancelation (ANC) and ambient mode features. The Pro X takes another step up from the Between 3ANC here, now capable of providing up to 52db of active noise cancellation.
The earbuds sport IP55 water and dust resistance as well as 8 hours of use per full charge. If you include the now 11% smaller charging case, you get a total of 24 hours of use on a full charge. Add in Bluetooth 5.3 as well as multipoint connectivity and you have a solid overall build in the Status Pro X.
The Pro X takes an already comfortable build from its predecessor and improves on that comfort with its generally smaller size. Thanks to its various choices in ear tip sizes, I was able to find a size that both allowed for a secure fit as well as a solid acoustic seal. Whether it was during 5-hour-plus listening sessions or excersizing at the gym, the Pro X felt great to wear without any noticable wearing fatigue.
Another noticeable improvement on the build front came in the form of the Pro X’s improved touch controls. Going over our review of the Between 3ANC, I was reminded of the troubles I had with inputting double and triple taps with consistency. That was not the case here with the Pro X as the touch and button controls on the earbuds were considerably responsive. Finally, you have a very respectable battery life of 8 hours of use on a full charge, which is long enough for any flight within the US mainland.
The Pro X earbuds are as easy to handle as they are comfortable to wear. In the end, the Status Pro X gets top marks in the build department.
More Features and Performance
All of the features and customization options for the Status Pro X are managed through the free Status Hub mobile app. Through the app, you can toggle listening modes, swap between EQ’s, and customize your own EQ’s. Going further, you can also access additional features like Side Tone, Dynamic EQ, Find Earbuds, and Multipoint Connection. As far as a dedicated mobile management app goes, the Status Hub gives you a respectable amount of control while being straightforward to use. Even the headset’s more niche features have info pop-ups that you can tap on to get a brief explanation of the feature.
When it came to the meat and potatoes of the headset, the Status Pro X impresses with its sound presentation. The earbuds come with five preset EQ settings: Status Signature, Status Audiophile, Knowles Preffered, Podcast and UGC, and Vocal Enhance. The default sound presentation of the Status Signature delivers clear vocals, rich instrumentals, clean highs, and a vibrant bass. As a default, it is an enjoyable presentation that one would be satisfied with if there were no other presets to choose from.
The sound from Status Audiophile made me raise an eyebrow. Swapping between Status Signature and Status Audiophile, it almost felt as if Status Audiophile muffled the sound that I was hearing from the default. The highs were a tad bit less crisp, and the bass lost a small bit of warmth. It was not a necessarily bad sound. I just felt as if sound overall lost just a pinch of vibrance.
Knowles Preferred is an aptly named EQ as it became my preferred EQ overall. Compared with the default, the instrumentals come across noticably stronger here. I love percussion and this EQ enhances highs without taking anything away from the mids or lows. In the end, you get the vocals and bass you would get from Status Signature, but with even more crisp percussion. I felt as if this was the best of all three worlds.
Podcast and UGC is designed to make podcasts recorded in “lesser” quality more palletteable. I went out of my way to find such podcasts to see how well this EQ cleaned up spoken word. To be honest, I did not notice any real differences with this EQ on that front. Perhaps the podcasts I used were recorded in well enough quality that there was nothing to “clean up”. In the end, I was not able to make heads or tails with this EQ.
Vocal Enhance gives a kick to the mid range without taking too much away from the highs and lows. Intstrumentals still come across well enough for vocal lovers to not feel as if they were sacrificing too much for this EQ. This was a better vocal enhancement EQ than I expected I was going to get before I tried it.
In the end, the sound presentation from the Status Pro X was noticeably better than that of the Between 3ANC. It stands strong on its own as a very well-performing headset.
Diving into the complimentary features of the Pro X, the active noise cancelation (ANC) of these earbuds do not disappoint. I used the earbuds’ ANC anywhere from busy bars to quiter settings where I simply need to concentrate. The only time I noticed any sounds from my surroundings with when they were considerably loud or my media was paused. The app does not give you the option to adjust the “intensity” of the noise cancelation, but that is frankly ok. When I turn on ANC, I only want to hear my media anyways and the Pro X does a solid job on that front.
Ambient Sound does the opposite by allowing you to hear your surroundings more clearly as you enjoy your media. Here, the app gives you four levels of intensity to apply to this mode, from low to “super”. This mode also works well as designed, where the “super” level lets you hear your surroundings at a level where you almost question if you are still wearing your earbuds.
Side Tone is a feature that I activate on any headset I use, whether it be for gaming or casual listening. This feature lets you hear your own voice when you talk. This allows you to have more awareness of your speech volume to keep you from shouting when you are on calls.
Speaking of call quality, the Status Pro X excels as a communication headset. I took calls as I walked through busy streets and outdoor diners. Call participants did not hear any of my ambient sounds when I was not talking. When I spoke, any sounds they picked up would be so suppressed that it would not take anything away from the quality of the call. What they heard loud and clear was my own spoken word. As such, the Pro X did not mess around when it came to call handling.
Final Thoughts
The Status Pro X is a considerable step up from the Between 3ANC earbuds in pretty much every aspect. That is saying a lot considering that the Between 3ANC’s are a solid pair of earbuds in their own right. The Status Pro X gives you a great sound presentation, a solid battery life, a nice feature set, and a build that is both comfortable to wear and easy to use. Status Audio knocked it out of the park with these ear buds.
Coming in at $299, the Status Pro X is definitely worth checking out if you are in the market for high-end ANC earbuds. You can check out the Status Pro X for yourself by clicking here.
† We were provided with a pair of Status Pro X earbuds for review purposes and were not compensated for this review.
