I’ve used Powerbeats Pro, Powerbeats, and now Beats Flex, and in terms of in-ear comfort, they’re all pretty much the same — comfortable. Powerbeats Pro are still some of the most comfortable in-ear headphones I’ve ever used, surpassed only by AirPods Pro in terms of comfort. While the earbuds come with extra double-flange and large tips, you’d generally hope that any tip would fit snugly in your ear. They’re a little loose and are quite prone to falling out.
You can hook them up to the Beats app where you can switch features on or off. That’s limited to automatic pausing and playing of the music as well as automatic call answering which will pick up your calls when you detach the buds from one another and put them in your ears. The earbuds are magnetic so when you aren’t using them and they’re hanging around your neck, they’ll automatically snap together which also pauses the music so you don’t miss a beat.
Apart from an aptX codec, the Flybuds C1 lack any other premium features or customization that you find on the Flex. Like all Apple headphones, the Beats Flex use SBC and AAC, the latter being a default Bluetooth codec. Multipoint for seamless switching between devices is possible thanks to the W1 chip, but only between Apple devices. On iOS, you can see a traditional pop-up animation with battery percentage. You can get a similar experience on an Android device if you download the Beats app.
They just feel flat, and that’s consistent across genres. Sometimes you can hear ample boom, others it can get lost from one song to the next. More atmospheric indie rock bands that create songs that have a lot of dimensionality don’t have that airy quality on the Flex. Artists like The Appleseed Cast that usually layer textures beats studio3 of drums, guitars, synths and more lack that carefully constructed spatial component on the Flex. Where the real functionality comes into play is in Apple’s W1 chip. It’s the older sibling to the more powerful and faster H1 chip found in the AirPods Pro and recent Powerbeats models, but it’s still a smoother operator.
However, for their low $49 price, they’re still pretty competitive. There are a few sacrifices made along the way, unsurprisingly. Beats uses the Apple W1 chip for Bluetooth, audio processing, and easy pairing, the same as beats flex review in the original AirPods. That means, unlike the Apple H1-powered AirPods Pro – or indeed Beats’ own Solo Pro and Powerbeats Pro – you don’t get hands-free “Hey Siri” support, nor any sort of active noise cancelation.
A volume rocker is on the top edge of an oversized Tic Tac that houses some of the Flex’s components. Inside near the front edge is a single circular multi-function button. That control handles play/pause , skipping tracks forward , returning beats flex review to the previous song and summoning your virtual assistant . Because these are all physical buttons, they’re reliable and easy to use. Even when you have to double- or triple-press, the Flex receives each command without issue.