Beats has also included magnets inside the buds to ensure they stick together. It says this makes them more secure and, once snapped together, they also auto-pause the music for longer battery life. There’s also USB-C charging with “Fast Fuel.” When you’re running low on battery and need a quick charge, Fast Fuel will give you about 1.5 hours of audio playback with 10 minutes of charging. While the Flex may not be truly wireless, it’s great to have access to features that Beats offers on its higher-end Powerbeats 4 and Powerbeats Pro wireless earbuds. If you’ve ever used BeatsX wireless headphones, you’ll feel right at home with Beats Flex. There’s a sturdy-but-flexible neck cord that connects each Bluetooth earphone, and the same Apple W1 wireless chip provides fast pairing to Apple devices.
There’s no charging case provided with the Flex – which would be a lot to ask at this price – but Apple says the Flex is designed for all-day use, and quotes 12 hours of listening time on a full charge. And, like other Apple and Beats headphones, the Flex has a ‘fast fuel’ feature that gives you 1.5 hours of playback time from a quick 10-minute charge. Connectivity is a hallmark on all Apple-related products, and as I previously mentioned, the W1 chip does a solid job of pairing to devices on multiple platforms.
The Beats Flex doesn’t disappoint, rated at 12 hours on a full charge. Based on my testing, it’s really about 11 hours, which is still highly sufficient for those who want a week’s worth of playback before beats studio3 charging. I used the earbuds for about 1.5 hours daily over the course of 5 days and still had 30% power left in the tank. That was enough to jump on two very long Skype calls before charging.
It’s more rigid than a regular earbud wire, but it’s super lightweight, and thanks to that design choice you don’t have a piece of plastic sitting behind your neck. It’s also coated in the same matte, soft-touch material as the rest of the Flex so it has a nice overall feel to it. 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. The Beats Flex look very similar to the Beats X, which have now been discontinued.
Beats uses the Apple W1 chip for Bluetooth, audio processing, and easy pairing, the same as 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. Music doesn’t automatically pause when you take an earbud out, either, only when the earbuds click together magnetically, and there’s no water resistance rating. But if you are grabbing those shiny, new, square iPhone 12 and looking for some affordable, wireless, Bluetooth earphones, you don’t have to look far. Apple Beats Flex retails for A$79.95 with very easy pairing to iPhone users and comes with a not-so-bad audio quality for the price.
It’s probably one of the most affordable Beats audio earphones/headphones too. For $50, I wasn’t expecting all that much, but the Beats Flex are a pleasant surprise. You get an Apple experience for much less than most Apple products cost, and you don’t have to give up any important features.
Robust build quality and eye-catching design influence a person to get any earphones. So, they play a vital role in deciding whether to purchase it or not. The Flex headphones are comfortable and lightweight in-ears. Wireless audio sharing with another pair of Beats or Apple headphones.
There’s no doubt that these earphones are “best” with EDM. Give them Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash though and they make a perfectly acceptable job, but beats solo pro wireless that bass boost is missing making the sound a tiny bit more hollow. Throw some First Light by Lindsay Stirling at it and they’re fine and rich.
The battery life of 12 hours is on par with the rest of the wireless earbuds, but not among the best ones. Above all, you have to understand the pros and cons of the neckband design. While it’s handier to carry your earbuds around, it also worsens the fit and produces microphonics.
The cable is flat linguini style and the neckband portion is thicker and with some reinforcement to mostly keep it shaped for your neck. The round and smooth pebble-like edges on everything is very Apple-y. There’s a new trick when it comes to the earphones being put together with the magnets. Just like the Beats X they snap together, but now they beats flex review can trigger play/pause to happen when you disconnect or reconnect them respectively. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had them snapped together, had a call come in, or started to watch a video to find the audio going to the earphones that aren’t in my ears. There are some differences in these things when it comes to features and accessories.