The earbuds charge via USB-C, and the headphones are packaged with a short USB-C charging cable in the box. Like the iPhone 12, there’s no USB-C charging brick included, so you’ll actually have to invest in one if you don’t already. The earbuds also provide a nice 1.5 hours of extra battery life on a ten-minute fast charge. Available in black, blue, gray, or yellow models, the Flex’s neckband design features two compartments that help keep the cable in place, while also housing ports and controls. The left compartment has a multifunction button that controls various functions , as well as a volume rocker and microphone.
Second, it ensures that when you’re reaching for the buttons they’re easy to find, and you’re not rubbing any external microphones accidentally. That reduces the tearing-like sound that someone might hear on the phone if you’re speaking to them over your Beats headset. Unlike Powerbeats, the Flex don’t have any additional way to grip onto your ears. Beats told us a reason for this – and a reason for the lack of a pouch too – was that most of their customers simply don’t use them. And, to reduce extra unnecessary waste, the company opted to get rid.
The group delay is below the audibility threshold for the entire range, ensuring a tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently. The entire range is overemphasized, so mixes have extra thump, punch, and boom, which fans of genres like EDM and hip-hop might appreciate. The Beats Flex have a bass-heavy sound profile, which is well-suited for thumpy genres like EDM and hip-hop. Unfortunately, their treble is underemphasized, resulting in veiled vocals and lead instruments as well as dull sibilants like S and T sounds.
If the item details above aren’t accurate or complete, we want to know about it. 1 Compatible with iOS and iPadOS 14 or later, MacOS 11 or later, WatchOS 7 or later, and tvOS 14 or later; compatibility will vary on Android devices. So, engineers are limited by weight and size as to how much they can pack into a small package. But don’t get yourself a micro-USB cable or try to plug into one. Speaking of calls, the in-built mics are fine and perfectly adequate for taking calls as long as the conditions aren’t too windy. While these are surely built to replace the bundled EarPods with iPhones, they work very well with Android too and the app brings across some of the previously iOS-only shine.
Since they’re fairly small in size and have a flexible plastic and silicone design, you can easily stash them in most pockets or bags without an issue. They have an 11-hour continuous battery life, which should be enough for daily commutes. Unfortunately, they struggle to isolate bass range against noise like bus or plane engines. The people I talked to said I sounded clear and the noise reduction outdoors in noisier environments was good. You can answer and end calls with the button on the left module, where there’s also a rocker switch for volume control. While playing music, tapping the universal control button twice skips tracks forward.
If the power LED flashes red- white-red-white a few times after plugging it into charge, that would usually indicate a faulty battery. Other issues can cause this symptom, too but it is infrequent. Well, definitely, they lack a few things such as accurate frequency response, sweat resistance, and a sub-standard microphone system, but all these can be ignored at this price point. Moreover, their carrying case offers an additional charge.
At the other extreme, the high-end delivers clean vocals, though again some of the sparkle that pricier headphones serve up wasn’t quite there. The most welcome surprise was to the midrange, where Beats’ earbuds deliver an unexpected level of detail. When you remove the headphones from your ears, a magnetic system “sticks” them together, back to back, and automatically pauses music playback, which beats flex review is very convenient. You have to fumble a bit at first to find the playback and volume controls on the case, but you get used to it quickly. However, we would have liked the cable between the two boxes to be a little longer, especially if it rests on a jacket and not directly on the neck. My one minor complaint is that the play/pause button is pretty hard to feel out blindly with your thumb.
But after nearly a week of using the $50 Beats Flex, I can’t find a single downside. At $79, the biggest question surrounding the Beats Flex is “do they sound any good?”. After all, $79 is fairly inexpensive in a world where you’re dropping a minimum of $249 on a pair of AirPods. The Beats Flex are a little tinny, frequencies can get muddled on occasion, and there’s not enough sub-bass, but otherwise, they’re solid for the money.
The good thing about neckband style wireless earbuds is that the battery lasts way longer than true-wireless earbuds. Apple claims Beats Flex has a battery life of 12 hours of listening time and I can tell you that I haven’t yet had to charge them and I’ve been using them for hours at a time for five days straight. With AirPods or Powerbeats Pro, I have a limited amount of time before I have to take them out and charge them in the middle of the day.