Beats tipped to launch a new Bluetooth speaker after LeBron James flaunts mysterious device

Beats could be bringing back its pill-shaped Bluetooth speaker

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US basketball star LeBron James has long been part ofBeats' history, during which time he’s also been known toleak upcoming products– and it looks like he may have  done it again. The NBA legend was captured with what appears to be a brand new and unreleased Bluetooth speaker in a reel posted toInstagram(see below) by the LA Lakers. In it, you can clearly see the Pill-shaped speaker has a Beats logo – and it’s on a lanyard, which is something the most recent Beats Pill speaker didn’t have.

TheBeats Pill Pluswas killed off in January 2022, but it wouldn’t be up for consideration as one of thebest Bluetooth speakersif it were still being sold today. It dated back toApple’s acquisition of Beats – it was the first Beats speaker to come with a Lightning port, which was Apple’s connector of choice at the time – and was considered by many to be overpriced at launch in 2015, never mind years later when Apple finally stopped selling it.

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What we’d like to see in a new Beats Pill speaker

The Beats Pill Plus had a decent 12-hour battery life, but modern models go much better. One of our current picks, theTribit Stormbox Flow, is good for 30 hours. But that’s not the biggest bit of the Beats speaker we’d expect to be upgraded. The Bluetooth of 2015 wasn’t a patch on the Bluetooth of today, and the best such speakers now deliver vastly improved sound quality through the use of newer, better codecs.

One of the best illustrations of how Bluetooth speakers have changed is when you compare our current favorite, theSonos Roam, with the most recent Beats. The price is the same, becauseSonosis another more premium brand. But that has up-to-date Bluetooth, Wi-Fi for even better streaming, multi-room audio support,GoogleAssistant and Alexa. It automatically switches between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, it has automatic room tuning and it sounds fantastic.

And that’s a model that’s about to be replaced: we’reexpecting to see the Sonos Roam 2this summer with even better Bluetooth and improved voice control. That’s likely to arrive this June – so for a new Beats to be a Sonos killer it needs to be something as awe-inspiring the legend currently carrying it. We’ll find out soon enough, because if this is indeed a bit of celebrity product placement then the actual product launch can’t be too far away.

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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.

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