Apple's next Beats-branded wireless earbuds may be on the way, as 9to5Mac spotted a hidden reference to the Beats Studio Buds in the latest iOS 14.6 software build.

This animation, presumably for illustrative purposes, shows a more modern earphone design than previous Beats and Apple AirPods headphones, with no over-ear hook or stem. the inclusion of such material in a release candidate (post-beta stage) of iOS suggests that this set of buds may launch before the AirPods 3, which has been extensively leaked, though not by an official source.

It is worth noting that "Beats Studio Buds" is not a guaranteed name, as it is taken from an internal file. However, the name would fit the design, which seems to be aimed at a more casual comfort than Beats' best sports headphones and is clearly not fitness-focused.

An animation shared by 9to5Mac contributor Steve Moser shows an interesting intersection between Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro and the Earin A-3.

The charging case is also much more compact than what we are used to seeing from Beats, looking more like a more rounded AirPods Pro case.

According to a 9to5Mac investigation, the Beats Studio Pro also supports active noise cancellation. In addition to a faster launch, this may be another advantage over the AirPods 3, which is widely expected to not feature ANC to avoid duplication with the AirPods Pro. Notably, there are no similar hints about AirPods 3 in iOS 14.6.

No word on battery life or internal construction of the Beats Studio Pro, but it will likely use either the Apple H1 or W1 chips. These are necessary to take advantage of Apple Music's upcoming spatial audio support, not to mention that they are common to previous Apple and Beats earphones and over-ear headphones.

However, unless Apple significantly upgrades the Bluetooth capabilities of the Studio Pro, it will probably not be able to play lossless content from Apple Music.