The left side of the neck band has most of the controls, plus the USB-C port for charging and the microphone for calls. There’s a volume rocker and a multi-function button, which you press once for pause/play, twice and three times to skip track or press and hold for the voice assistant. As our beats solo pro wireless explains, inconsistent audio performance theatens to put a downer on things, though at this price it would be foolish to look past altogether. The Beats Flex look very similar to the Beats X, which have now been discontinued. As with the Beats X, you can magnetically attach them together — and this time, your music will automatically pause whenever you do so. Four sizes of ear tips come in the box, and while the Flex fit me well, I did notice that their passive noise isolation leaves something to be desired.
Beats Flex are a good pair of headphones and a decent choice if you’re picking up an iPhone 12 and don’t want to spend more on AirPods. The smarts that come from the W1 chip are great to have at this price, and the sound quality is ok, if a bit flat. Beats Flex is a good pair of headphones and a decent choice if you’re picking up an iPhone 12 and don’t want to spend more on AirPods.
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 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.
They’re mostly made of silicone and plastic, which makes them very flexible. They also feel durable enough to survive a couple of accidental drops. However, the ear tips seem like they could easily rip, and they don’t have an IP rating for dust and water resistance. Thanks to their flexible design, you can easily fold them up to fit into most pockets or bags. Since they have a neck cable design, you can also wear them around your neck when you’re on the move. They have a very comfortable fit and should stay in place during workouts, although, unlike some sports-oriented headphones, they don’t have stability fins or ear hooks.
I don’t know if the Flex quite measures up to the AirPods for making calls but it’s close. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, might we also recommend the Beyerdynamic Blue BYRD . This will run you quite a bit more beats studio3 at around $139 USD, but you get an IPX4 rating, aptX codec support and very good sound quality to boot. Beyerdynamic’s Bluetooth earbuds also support multipoint connectivity so you can connect to two devices at once.