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.
In the last few years, audio technology has progressed drastically, and headphone has become more innovative and offers more features than ever before. Despite a durable plastic coating and six spare silicone tips, it’s worth noting the Flex have no IPX rating, so they’re not sweat or water-resistant. A shame, but then neither were the more expensive X, so if you want workout earphones perhaps consider the Powerbeats range. Over in our headphones guide, you’ll still find plenty of other discounts if either of the more affordable earbuds just aren’t going to cut it.
Nowadays, to sustain and grow in the Indian market, companies are launching their headphones in various sizes, like On-hear, Over-hear or tiny TWS earbuds. Once they are booming out your tunes, you’ll get an impressive playtime of 12-hours and they can be fast refilled with a quick 10 minutes in the plug offering another 90-minutes of music. Beats shocked us all earlier this month when they announced the launch of their new budget Beats Flex earphones.
This is where earphones like the $49.99 Beats Flex fit in perfectly, with a neckband-style design and roughly 12 hours of battery life. If you have an iOS device, the earphones also feature Apple’s W1 chip for seamless pairing, just like the far more expensive $250 Airpods Pro. The sound is our favorite quality of the new beats flex review Beats Flex. There’s not a ton of frills, but they do what they need to pretty well. There’s supposed to be an auto-play/pause feature when the buds snap together with their built-in magnets, but it didn’t work on our pre-release version. Apple’s built-in W1 chip makes for quick-and-easy pairing and syncing with iPhone.
Of course, these are $50 earbuds, so it’s no surprise there’s not an adjustable equalizer. Beats hasn’t done that in the past, and the Flex would be a weird place to start. As is typical with Beats headphones, there’s no companion app on iOS with the Flex. Instead, the company includes everything right inside the Settings menu on iPhone and iPad. That means all you’ll have to do is turn on the Flex near your iOS device and a pairing pop-up will automatically be displayed. That message will also tell you the current battery level for the earbuds and allows you to connect to that phone or tablet quickly when you need to do so in the future.
Considering the price difference we’re really impressed with the Flex’s audio quality. Beats Flex are wireless “all-day” Bluetooth headphones with USB-C charging that are both sweat and water-resistant. They have the Apple/Beats look going for them, and they offer great sound quality, but they are light beats solo pro wireless on additional features. However, for their low $49 price, they’re still pretty competitive. And Beats may have exactly what they need with Flex, a $50 pair of wireless earbuds that were introduced the same day Apple announced it would no longer include an audio headset with its latest iPhones.
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.
Once you’ve paired the Flex with an iPhone or iPad it will automatically show up as a paired device on any other Apple device that’s logged in with the same Apple ID account. You can also use theAudio Sharing option to stream your music to a friend who has a compatible set of AirPods or Beats headphones. The earbuds are extremely light, weighing just 18.6g, so you’ll barely notice them when you’re out and about. As you’d expect for earphones from an Apple-owned brand, the Beats Flex support the AAC codec but not apt-X.