Beats Flex review: The cost of $50 wireless earbuds

The Beats Flex are well-built with durable materials and connections. They come with a one-year warranty from Apple, which can be extended with an optional AppleCare purchase. Switching to USB-C makes a lot of sense if you’re going after the Android community as Apple seems to be doing with the Flex, but its choice of how to do that is perplexing. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Although Beats hasn’t said it to us directly, the Beats Flex seems to be a direct sequel to the older BeatsX Headphones that the brand released in 2016.

beats flex review

But while they were cheap by Beats standards, the new Beats Flex are significantly cheaper still, firmly sitting in the budget headphone camp now. As for battery life, Beats Flex can last for 12 hours – which should be more than enough for most people but with USB-C charging, you can do a 10-minute fast charge beats studio3 to get an extra 1.5 hours of playback. If you haven’t charged your Beats Flex headphones yet, you’re in for a treat. They can charge from dead flat to full up in a little less than 90 minutes. But, if you need some “Fast Fuel,” you can plug them in for just ten minutes and get about 1.5 hours of playback.

The new Beats Flex rock out of the gate at just £49, a significantly lower entry point and makes them a really affordable set of wireless earphones. I half wondered if Apple mistakenly underpriced these when I saw the price, or perhaps had compromised them to get a lower price, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that it isn’t the case. I’ve yet to see beats studio3 another pair of earphones at the price point that offers such a balance of features and respectable audio. I’ve been using the Flex for close to a week now for a couple of hours each day, listening to jams while I work out and podcasts while on long walks or watering the lawn. I just hit the 20% mark, which mean the Flex can easily last a week on a charge.

You never have to worry about losing an earbud, there’s no bulky charging case to stash in your pocket or purse, and when you want to have a conversation, just pull the buds out of your ears and let them dangle. For folks who routinely need to go back and forth beats flex review between listening to music and listening to the world around them, it’s a much more convenient design. For $50, that’s a solid feature set, before we even talk about the audio performance, which is heavily boosted and sculpted, but will appeal to bass lovers.

This means that the volume controls, the large battery unit and the multi-feature button sit neatly on your chest. Another advantage is that they don’t get tangled up if you stuff them in your pocket. The cable between the earphones makes them a bit more noticeable while wearing, compared to something like AirPods. It results in a brief second where audio is playing while the earphones aren’t in your ear, but it’s a very workable solution.