Status Pro X Review: Are These the Ultimate Daily Carry Earbuds?

Status Audio is an NYC-based brand that delivers Hi-Res certified sound to your ears via its TWS earbuds. It recently dropped its latest model – the Status Pro X – and we have spent some time putting them through the wringer following their Headliner Best of IFA 2025 award. So, do these $299 earbuds live up to expectations, and are they deserving of that Hi-Res Audio certification? Well, yes, because they received one of our awards. But you want to know why, right? Headliner breaks it down…

The Status Pro X is the flagship earbud model released in October 2025. This is now several iterations in for the brand, and they have gone all-out to deliver what they believe to be the best-sounding TWS earbuds out there. And they may well be right.

The design has been divisive from the start, and Status knows this. The earphones don’t follow that familiar teardrop form factor you get from the thousands of AirPod clones out there. Instead, they adopt a rectangular silhouette, which sits proudly in your ear with a metallic flourish at the base of a black chassis.

Control comes in a number of forms; you can use the physical buttons on each earbud, or you also have the option to use capacitive controls (these can be toggled via the Status Hub app).

In terms of sound delivery hardware, cracking the Status Pro X shell will expose two Knowles BA drivers to take care of the mids and trebles, and a 12mm driver (upgrading the previous model’s 10mm diaphragm).

The earbuds are IP55 rated for dust and water ingress, so you can wear them confidently even if you’re on the beach… in the rain. Great news for Britain. They also have ANC rated at -52db; something I have been very glad of several times during testing.

Audio-wise, you’re looking at 24-bit/96 kHz audio over Bluetooth, thanks to that Hi-Res Audio Wireless cert, surpassing CD quality. And you’re also good with LDAC, which streams wireless audio up to 990 kbps.

Finally, for battery life, you’re looking at eight hours with each earbud’s onboard tank, and the charging case holds a further 22 hours in reserve. Note that using features like ANC will deplete the battery a lot faster than the advertised battery life with ANY TWS earbuds that carry the feature. So now you know the Status Pro X inside out, what about in practice?

The Daily-Carry Dogma

Having gone through several generations of headphones, it is without hesitation that I celebrate their modern small form factor. Being able to take our sounds on the move is a luxury music fans have enjoyed for quite some time at this stage, but being able to fit your headphones in a case no larger than a Tic-Tac box is still something at which we should marvel.

This level of convenience certainly contributes to the continuously increasing popularity of portable sound. Almost everyone you see in public has something on, in, or over their ears and, in most cases, they’re receiving some sort of sound through it.

So what sort of criteria would ensure that a pair of earbuds follows the dogmas of convenience? Well, we would consider several factors, namely: size and weight, comfort, battery life, and ANC quality. Sound quality is also of obvious importance, but something I would consider to be less important for a daily carry, and I will explain why.

Whilst I am a sucker for detail retrieval, one thing I am not doing on a three-hour commute from Liverpool to London is poring over every nuance of the sound. Instead, I am enjoying music while I do other things to keep my mind busy, which is probably going to be some work, playing word games, or reading a book.

To that effect, and thanks to the level of noise around me in public, hearing every detail in a track becomes less important than, well, hearing the track at all. So while, yes, sound quality is still important, it takes a back seat with a daily carry, in favour of the other features I noted.

So, in practice, does the Status Pro X deliver on those daily carry criteria? Well, if you have read as far as the title of this article, you’ll have realised it certainly does…

Delivering the Goods

I have tested the earbuds extensively for the past month, and they have delivered on all fronts. If you’re looking to upgrade your current earphones, then I would recommend considering the Status Pro X.

Battery life is excellent, covering my entire journey from Liverpool to London and back on one charge. I made this journey for work on multiple occasions during the testing period, and the battery performance was consistently excellent, keeping my head in Detroit techno throughout the trips and then some.

The ANC is also great. It successfully drowned out a 12-strong stag party that took over my carriage during a particularly hungover trip home from the Big Smoke, which was a genuine blessing. Likewise, it was sufficient to drown out every loudspeaker announcement on a recent Ryanair flight to Alicante. 

Another genuine blessing considering the sibilance of the horrible speaker announcement chime they incorporate into everything, just to make sure you never quite fall asleep on the flight.

The weight, I would say, sits in the mid-range. They’re not heavy, but they’re also not the lightest in-ears I have worn. I feel like this is down to the inclusion of the BA drivers, and the increased size of the diaphragm, but I could be way off the mark, as there are loads of other internal gubbins to deal with. I didn’t find them uncomfortable, but on occasion I did notice them in my ears.

Finally, the size and weight. In numerical terms, each earbud is five grams. The case itself weighs 47 grams (or at least my case weighs 47 grams). So, they are nice and light, and the case is small enough to conceal in one hand, so eminently portable (as you’d expect from an earbud and case combo).

Despite what I said, it would be remiss and very unfair if I didn’t speak to the sound quality. Of course, as I said, this is an important feature. If you’re going to use them at home as well as on the go, then you don’t want to settle for lower-quality audio.

Thankfully, the Status Pro X earphones are some of the best-sounding TWS earbuds I have tried, particularly at this price point. At home, where I can enjoy the finer points of the music I am listening to, the Knowles BA drivers really shine (as one might expect).

I particularly enjoyed a playthrough of DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing, as the excellent detail retrieval highlighted some elements of the recording that I had not noticed before. Not bad considering I have been listening to that album since 1996.

With the standard tuning, the bass is accentuated thanks to that 12mm diaphragm. You can tinker with the EQ in the settings, including a Knowles-tuned “Audiophile” setting, which I liked most. The default tuning is excellent if you are after those heavyweight bottoms, but for my home listening, I really liked how Knowles had set up the EQ. So, yeah, they’re very nice earphones!

Final Thoughts

So, on to recommendations. I have already said this in the review, but the ideal balance of usability and audio quality makes the Status Pro X an easy recommendation. If you are looking for a pair of earphones that feel like an upgrade, then these are the buds for you. Forget your teardrop earbuds; the future is rectangular.