I've had two pairs of Beats ear buds before, both of which were £100+ and had the sound quality of headphones that come free with a £10 mobile. However, I've had can-style headphones that were great, plus a speaker box that had incredible sound, so I wasn't done with Beats as a brand - yet.
I'd read great reviews about these buds and What Hi-Fi? gave them a high score, so they must be pretty decent, right? Wrong. So wrong. Incredibly wrong. They are GARBAGE. You know those white headphones that come with iPhones? They're WAY better than these buds. These are tinny, flat, no bass - just awful. I tried a range of different songs, changing the settings on my iPhone, changing the different buds, but nothing worked. They're officially appalling. If you can imagine what a wasp in a jar sounds like, that's pretty much these headphones.
Yes, I understand they're under £50, but Sennheiser do great ear phones for about £30. I thought these would at least compare with those, but they're not in the same ball park. They're not in the same country. If you're looking for sound quality on par with a homeless man shouting into a bucket, these are the buds for you.
Also, these are supposed to be perfect with an iPhone, but it's a USBS, so you need a Mac. If you don't have one, you need to buy a USB converter. GRRRRRRRR.