Apple Beats X wireless earbuds to be available globally starting February 10

Apple's  long-delayed Beats X earbuds will be available globally starting February 10, the company has announced. The wireless earphones cost $149 (or approx Rs 9960), and come in white, black, grey and blue. Apple says it will sell its Beats X at its brick-and-mortar as well as online stores.

The Beats X was originally announced at Apple’s September event alongside the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and AirPods wireless headphones. At that time, Apple had said that it would make the earbuds available in the market in “Fall 2016”. After that the company remained silent throughout the crucial holiday season, until B&H Photo sent an email to its customers saying the earphones had been delayed “at least 2-3 months”, pushing the release further.

This is not the first time Apple has delayed the release of its product. The same thing happened with Apple’s AirPods, which had initially planned to release in October. However,  AirPods weren’t made available until December, due to “technical issues”.

The Tim Cook-led company didn’t mention what led to the delay of the Beats X, which comes with Apple’s proprietary W1 wireless chip that also powers AirPods. The W1 chip is basically designed to enable easy paring to iOS and Mac devices.  The Beats X can work with Android devices via Bluetooth.

Other than the W1 chipset, the Beats X looks similar to other wireless earbuds available in the market. The earbuds come with an in-line remote and battery that should last 8 hours on a single charge and “Fast Fuel”, a five-minute charge gives you two hours of playback. Charging can be done through a lightning cable rather than the usual micro-USB, and there’s a dedicated Siri button.