Beats earbuds manage to pass the second brick wall and continue playing music for up to 65 feet . One thing worth noting is that the neckband produces some cable noise. Thankfully, it isn’t obnoxiously loud, so you get used to it quickly. On the other hand, mics use overly aggressive noise cancellation for reducing background noise during phone calls. It can occasionally muffle your voice to the point where you don’t understand the words anymore. Magnets that hold earbuds together can also pose a minor cosmetic problem.
Thanks to their W1 chip, it’s also easy to seamlessly pair them with different Apple devices. However, while fans of EDM and hip-hop may enjoy their bass-heavy sound profile, they lack an EQ to finetune their sound to your liking. Their companion app also lacks a lot of functionality and doesn’t offer that many extra features.
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.
Read on to find out more about the Beats Flex budget wireless earbuds. The left-side housing includes a pair of buttons, but they’re easy to distinguish between by feel. Along the edge is an elongated volume rocker, while a raised, round button on the face of the housing offers playback control.
Battery life is important for wireless headphones, and doubly so for banded headphones like these that don’t come with a charging case. Apple claims on its website that you get up to 12 hours of listening time, and our own testing mostly matches up with those claims. We got a little less than that on average, but we’re also usually listening to music at full volume because we hate our eardrums.
In the process they’ve become the cheapest wireless headphones that Apple sells, the company having quietly stripped third-party options from its shelves. Eventually there’ll be Flame Blue, Beats Black, Yuzu Yellow, and Smoke Gray colors to choose from, but initially only the black and yellow are shipping. I don’t expect them to do everything for $50, but if you’re hunting for similarly stylish Beats headphones that will hold up better during workout conditions, you might want to check out the Beats Powerbeats.
There’s no noise-cancelling either, but with the correct seal you’ll still enjoy good levels of passive noise isolation. Check out our recommendations for the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds, the best wireless earbuds for iPhone, and the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds under $50. You can turn on and off the auto-pause that activates when you remove them from your ears. You can also turn on and off auto-call answering, but that’s about it. The Beats Flex’s passive soundstage is bad, which is to be expected for closed-back in-ears. To create a large and out-of-head soundstage, the outer ear needs to be activated by sound resonances.
Here’s our thoughts on whether the Beats Flex are worth your money. The Apple W1 headphone chip seamlessly integrates Beats Flex into your world of Apple products. If you have an Android phone or tablet, you can do it in two different ways. First, you can simply turn on your Bluetooth and then press and hold the power button on the Flex for 1 second.
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 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.
It makes your listening much more accessible by automatically playing music when they’re in your ears and pausing when you pull out your earbuds. On-device controls allow you to adjust volume and manage music, take calls, or activate voice assistant in no time. Beats Flex represent a different approach from the premium audio company, and it’s one that it has mostly nailed here. They beats studio3 offer solid audio output, good battery life and that all important style factor. Realistically, you can get the same or better audio for cheaper elsewhere though, so whether these are right for you is down to style versus substance. Well, if you get the fit right in your ears it’s hard to fault the Beats Flex for the price with music sounding clear and packed with crisp detail.