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. It’s fine for quick calls and voice messages, but for extended conference calls, you’re better off getting a dedicated USB mic for your next Zoom meeting. It does a poor job of rejecting background noise, so you may want to do everyone a favor and either use your smartphone, or get a dedicated headset for extended calls.
Our detailed summaries should help you narrow down your research on finding the best Beats headphones. Their housing is light and remains comfortable for long listening sessions. With the help of ear fins, they’re also more stable than the Flex. They’re the cheapest earbuds to have a W1 chip for better iOS and macOS integration. They’re also one of the best Beats headphones and a great pair for your Apple ecosystem, although they work equally well on both operating systems.
Headphones store-bought and tested, supported by you via insider access, and when you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Download theBeats app for Androidfrom the Google Play store. The app will give you access to firmware updates, as well as additional device controls. The Beyerdynamic Blue Byrd might look a bit retro, but it boasts modern performance and features. There is also a good amount of emphasis in the upper-mids that gives a good bump in volume to vocals in songs and podcasts.
Handy if you’re heading out for a run and you forgot to charge beforehand. Speaking of, charging is done through a USB-C port on the left side of the earbuds near the volume controls. According to Beats, the headphones have beats studio3 a 12-hour battery life and fast charging that can provide an hour-and-a-half of playback off a 10-minute charge. If there’s one thing that Beats has gotten right with every new wireless earbuds’ release, it’s battery life.
The Beats Flex do have a port on the top of each tough plastic earpiece, which can often limit passive isolation, but these do not seem to leak much noise at all. The Beats Flex have dynamic drivers with a “layered” design claimed to improve stereo separation. Voice quality on both ends of a call was pretty good, although not quite as clear as with AirPods. Although Beats hasn’t said it to us directly, the Beats Flex seems to be a direct sequel to the older BeatsX Headphones that it released in 2016.
When used correctly, they prevent the earbuds from falling off. Some people aren’t worried about rich lows and bright highs and all the beautiful robust sound in between. Others are picky about how music sounds when it’s reverberating around inside our ears, and Beats Flex just do not meet my standard of quality. You’ll get a nice sealed in noise just because of the nature of the earbuds, but there is no special software that makes these noise canceling.
One of the things I loved about the BeatsX was their call quality. Crystal clear and superb for separating voices from background sounds, they were the next best thing to actually holding your phone to your face. It proved to be a great way to compare the sound quality of the Beats Flex and BeatsX . As long as you grab the earbuds the right way, their flat cables keep themselves out of your face.