Apple products are always expensive, so we were pleasantly surprised by the £99/$99 price tag of the newHomePod mini. And, without making any big fuss, the Apple-owned Beats By Dr Dre has released another product that offers great value for money, in the form of the new Beats Flex earbuds. On the contrary, I’d argue the Beats Flex offer a more enjoyable listen than the pricier Powerbeats Pro, high praise indeed for a pair of headphones that cost less than a third of the price. Despite that, they’re comfortable to wear for extended periods and the earbuds are magnetic so they’ll stay locked together around your neck when not in use. Rather neatly, they’ll also pause the music automatically when clipped together and play again when you pull them apart.
If you want a true wireless pair of headphones, I highly recommend AirPods Pro for comfort and reliability or Powerbeats Pro for astounding audio quality. From the $250 AirPods Pro to the $150 Powerbeats, where do the Beats Flex fit into Apple’s headphone lineup? These are the headphones you get your kids for Christmas alongside their new Apple Watch or iPhone SE.
Considering the brand and the price, Beats Flex are made quite well. The plastic feels hard and of good quality, with all the pieces tightly glued together. You shouldn’t experience any problems during regular use, where the neck band doesn’t move much. You can hear instruments beats solo pro wireless and effects slightly out of your head. While the MiniDSP H.E.A.R.S measured a considerable boost in the bass, it isn’t so bad. The Bluetooth connectivity was actually very strong – I wander away from my phone a lot and they stayed connected even when I was in a different room.
Following its acquisition of Beats, Apple has put its own stamp on the hugely-popular headphones and portable speakers. Flex wireless earbuds have no fancy noise-cancellation tech inside of them to block out unwanted noise. However, they can provide passive noise isolation, which is above average. This sound reduction is achieved from the tips and earpieces physically blocking your ear canal.
These will certainly get the job done, but if audio is your primary concern, you’ll likely want to look elsewhere. Beats promises up to 12 hours on a charge with the Flex. That’s four more hours than the BeatsX, and about double what a lot of true wireless options will give you. Thankfully, I didn’t have any trouble getting to the full promised listening time. Like its other headphones and earbuds, Beats included its Fast Fuel quick charging feature. Here, you’ll get an hour and a half of use if you charge for just 10 minutes.
You only have to turn the Beats Flex on for the initial pairing, and they show up in your Bluetooth menu. Not only do you get a reliable range, but there’s also no visible audio lag in both videos and mobile games, even on Android devices. Thanks to silicone ear tips with a wider dome, they completely seal off the ear canal. The difference in background noise loudness before and after is quite noticeable. The app even adds functionalities to Android users, which are otherwise reserved for iOS.
The Beats Studio Buds is a middling pair of noise cancelling earphones that actually works as well with Android phones as it does with iPhones. While the Studio Buds is significantly pricier than the Beats Flex, it’s still more affordable than the Beats Powerbeats Pro and is much more portable thanks to the compact design. Listeners who are drawn in by the AirPods Pro’s noise cancellation but want to express their style a bit more should grab the Beats Studio Buds.
With Apple removing pack-in earbuds from new iPhone boxes, the Beats Flex are a fairly obvious replacement if you need a pair of headphones. The good news here is that people we spoke to with the earbuds on said we sounded great – even better than we did over speakerphone or other headsets. That’s a huge feather in the Flex’s cap and could make them great work-from-home or out-on-the-town headphones.
To find your perfect fit, they come with four sizes of silicone ear tips. That’s one more than the majority of in-ear headphones so that’s a big plus point. I found they stayed well in my ears, even when beats studio3 I was running around. The one problem with using them for exercise, especially outside, is that they don’t have an official IPX water-resistance rating so they may not cope well with sweat or rain.
True wireless earbuds have become very affordable and the connection problems that once plagued these devices have largely been eradicated. This had the effect of making the BeatsX look unnecessarily pricey given their bulkier, behind-the-neck design. From the get-go, I have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of connected earbuds, the cable just seems unnecessary when most wireless earbuds stay in my ears just fine without it. But if you want the extra security from a cable then this one is quite discreet, the cable is thin and the buds themselves are much smaller than true wireless earbuds. However, these headphones measure 86.4 cm with the cable which, to be honest, is too long. It means the extra cable waves around a bit when you run and it can get in the way.