BeatsX poor battery life

I own a pair of BeatsX for two weeks now. Battery life has been poor from the beginning, discernibly much less than the advertised 8 hours. I decided to test that by letting them play music continuously (on my desk, just next to my iPad, with no pause at all, playing at 30% volume). The results are discouraging... First test, starting from 98%, lasting less than 4 hours (220 minutes) until battery reaching 0% and automatically shutting off. I charged them fully for 3 hours and did the test again. Currently the battery is at 55% after just 100 minutes of playing. This is so much worse than expectations! Granted they charge fast (less than one hour) but with less than four hours you cannot even use them for a trip or over a long walk without a battery bank...

I am suspecting though I am on a defective unit. When they first arrived I paired them instantly with my iPhone before attempting to charge them first and i was curious to note that their battery was at 12%. Usually when new devices arrive they are charged at somewhere near 50% as this seems the optimal for long-term storage. So I was a bit suspicious with their battery from the beginning. They are not a stock item, they are the newer, matte silver version, and they came with 7.0.3 firmware.

Anyone else with the same problem?