Beats Flex review: The cost of $50 wireless earbuds

However, by design, in-ears bypass the outer ear altogether. As a result, the soundstage is perceived as small and as if it’s coming from inside your head. Since they also have a closed-back design, they won’t seem as spacious as open-back headphones.

The real star of the show is that impressive battery life, and if you need a new pair of headphones now that the EarPods are no longer included in the box, then the Beats Flex are a solid choice. Regular Powerbeats offer up to 15 hours of battery life but are less convenient to take in and out of your ears. The Flex’s sound profile also favors vocals and spoken content. This is great if you’re watching a movie or TV, or listening to a podcast. It’s not the best when you want to blast the bombastic hip-hop of Run The Jewels. The lack of appropriately boomy bass at times also impacts kick drums from metal bands like Gojira, sucking a ton of energy out of the songs.

However, once you get a strong seal, they won’t move too much. You can also improve its stability by choosing the best-fitted earbuds from four different sizes options. They are mostly made of silicone and rubber, which makes them very bendable. Robust build quality and eye-catching design influence a person to get any earphones.

At $50 (£50, around AU$70), you won’t feel bad if you lose them, and they offer most of the same features as other, more expensive Beats buds. They don’t have a deep in-ear fit, and the cable is lightweight and shouldn’t be tiring to wear. Unfortunately, the ear tips beats flex review can fall out of your ears if they don’t form a good seal, but on the plus side, there are a few different sizes of silicone tips included so you can find the best fit for you. They’re comfortable, lightweight, and can be worn around your neck when you’re on the go.

beats flex review

It does a poor job of rejecting background noise, so you may want to do everyone a favor and either use your smartphone, or get a dedicated headset for extended calls. If you’re on Android, the process is a little different. Apple sneakily includes the easy connect card onto Android phones, but this requires you to download the Beats app first.

The Beats Flex have very good peaks and dips performance. There aren’t too many peaks and dips overall, but a peak in the high-mid adds harshness to vocals and lead instruments, and a bigger dip in the low-treble veils the upper harmonics of beats studio3 these sounds. It’s underemphasized across the range, so vocals and lead instruments are veiled while sibilants like S and T sounds are dull and lispy. The range is fairly flat, which keeps vocals and lead instruments present in your mixes.

We provide tools so you can sort and filter these lists to highlight features that matter to you. Where our site links to particular products or displays ‘Go to site’ buttons, we may receive a commission, referral fee or payment when you click on those buttons or apply for a product. Beats has a reputation for bass-heavy tuning, but that’s only moderately present in terms of audio presentation. The actual audio is quite pleasant for headphones in this price range, although not to the level of, say, the PowerBeats Pro or Apple’s AirPods Pro.

They’re a distinctly low-cost set of wireless Bluetooth headphones that could be a good match for iPhone 12 buyers, given that Apple no longer includes any level of bundled headphones with its new phones. They’re overall a very capable pair of headphones, although the banded design does introduce some comfort issues, especially if you want to use them on the go. Full Flex functionality is plug, play and all part of the package on most Apple devices, and that includes SBC and ACC support for high-end sound quality. Switch to Android with the free Beats companion app and while you don’t lose any functionality per se, there’s no aptX or aptX HD to bump the Bluetooth audio quality. Don’t worry about the battery life, as a rechargeable lithium-ion battery powers this Beats Flex Wireless Earphones. In our time with these affordable wireless earphones, we struggled with them feeling tight in our ears and there are definitely better earphones if your music is all about the bass.

Beats has shown great commitment to enhancing sound on its audio products, beginning with the well-received Studio3 and carrying that momentum over to its revamped Powerbeats lineup. The Beats Flex doesn’t follow suit or live up to its “powerful sound” claims, boasting a flat signature that favors video content and podcasts over music. As with all Apple audio products, Siri operates flawlessly on the Beats Flex. Beats’ advanced mic is capable of picking up vocals in loud environments, letting Apple’s AI work its magic. One of the biggest surprises was how well Google Assistant worked on these buds, awarding me the same accurate performance as Siri, only on my Google Pixel 3 XL.