The earbuds magnetically attach to each other when not in use, which pauses the music too. The inside of the left pod has the mic and a multi-function playback and voice assistant button. The Beats Flex are one of the easiest-to-recommend pairs of Beats headphones to date. That’s mostly because of the price, of course, but there are no major mis-steps here either. To see a company like Beats fit this in at $50 would constitute a minor miracle.
In fact, so far, the biggest fault of the Beats Flex’s design is that they don’t come with wing tips to secure them in your ear – without them, getting that perfect seal can be finicky and beats solo pro wireless can come undone easily. The Beats Flex are a cheap pair of earbuds that are a solid choice for many people, but not everyone. The integrated microphone has a mediocre recording quality.
From the $250 AirPods Pro to the $150 Powerbeats, where do the Beats Flex fit into Apple’s headphone lineup? These are the headphones you get your kids for Christmas alongside their new Apple Watch or iPhone SE. These are the earbuds you get for working remotely for convenient pairing across your Apple devices. These are the Beats you buy because you can’t justify spending $100 more on those Powerbeats, but you really like the brand.
The Flex has better clarity and more range to its tuning. Not to mention Beats’s new earbuds are more comfy due to the replaceable ear tips. All told, the Flex’s suite of features is impressive for a set of $50 earbuds, but unfortunately the overall audio quality is more what you’d expect for that price. Your voice will still be very clear under most circumstances, but background noises aren’t filtered out as well.
It’s intuitive and serviceable for when you want to stop songs to engage in brief chats. Bundled with the earbuds are a USB-C charge connector, quick start guide, warranty card, and four sets of ear tips, in various sizes. The necks of the buds are nicely mounted at a slight angle from the driver housings with the aim of offering a fit that doesn’t tug on the cable when worn. Their integrated mic has a mediocre recording quality, so your voice sounds muffled and thin over the phone. It struggles to separate your voice from background noise, even in moderately loud environments. They also don’t do a very good job isolating you from bass-range noise like rumbling bus and plane engines, although they can passively isolate you from a good amount of mid-range noise like ambient conversation.
The neckband is also the most comfortable I’ve used, even more comfortable than Powerbeats. The area that rests against your neck is molded so it rests perfectly against the next. The controls are on both sides of the buds, the volume, play/pause, and Siri controls are on the left while the power/Bluetooth button is on the right. The wires that connect the control panels to the earbuds are a little awkward — they’re thick and flat to help avoid tangling, but they are so stiff they feel weird.
In the early days, Beats headphones were notorious for massive, booming — but almost painfully overbearing — bass tuning. The company has opted for a more even-handed approach as of late, and the Flex continues that trend. There’s a decent amount of bass here, but these earbuds lack the pleasant thump that can keep you energized at the gym. Ditto for appropriately recreating the kick drum or drum machine from your favorite artists. I’d even say this is the least amount of low-end tone I recall in a Beats product.