You may have forgotten, but Apple bought Beats a few years ago for a lot of money. And while the company puts most of its efforts into the AirPods and AirPods Pro, it hasn’t completely forgotten about the Beats brand. The new Beats Flex is basically a tweaked pair of BeatsX at a lower price point. The Beats Flex has Apple-exclusive features, but it also plays well with Android phones. Attached to the Flex cable are two buttons that let you adjust the volume, control playback and activate the voice assistant, which is particularly handy when you’re on the move. IF YOU’RE looking for a pair of cheap wireless earphones to get a loved one for Christmas, you could do a lot worse than the Beats Flex.
With Apple removing pack-in earbuds from new iPhone boxes, the Beats Flex are a fairly obvious replacement if you need a pair of headphones. The good news here is that people we spoke to with the earbuds on said we sounded great – even better than we did over speakerphone or other headsets. That’s a huge feather in the Flex’s cap and could make them great work-from-home or out-on-the-town headphones.
Considering the brand and the price, Beats Flex are made quite well. The plastic feels hard and of good quality, with all the pieces tightly glued together. You shouldn’t experience any problems during regular use, where the neck band doesn’t move much. You can hear instruments beats flex review and effects slightly out of your head. While the MiniDSP H.E.A.R.S measured a considerable boost in the bass, it isn’t so bad. The Bluetooth connectivity was actually very strong – I wander away from my phone a lot and they stayed connected even when I was in a different room.
Construction appears nicely made but lacks water protection. Also, strain reliefs are usually a weak point of every wired headphone, and the ones on the Flex don’t look reassuring. The earbuds’ housing is relatively small and unintrusive. Its smooth surface prevents the in-ear headphones from poking into your ears. Since the cable likes to twist, it’s sometimes difficult to locate the on-device controls. You’re constantly brushing the modules with your fingers searching for the correct button.
The volume rocker on the top of the left pod is handy for quick adjustments. The earbuds can magnetically link together when you’re not using them. Apple says none of this data could be used to personally identify you. You can use these headphones wirelessly with Bluetooth-enabled PCs, but can’t connect any other way. These are the settings used to test these headphones, and our results are only valid when using them with this configuration.
There’s a slight peak between the low to mid-treble, but it shouldn’t be very noticeable. All ranges fall within acceptable limits, which should result in clean and pure audio reproduction. It includes a lot of functions, but isn’t the most intuitive. There are audio cues for some commands, but the multi-purpose button on the left module used for most functions isn’t very clicky.
Overall, Beats Flex output an accurate response that is unfitted for such a brand, and that’s a good thing. However, the technical performance for the new acoustic drivers is subpar and leaves a lot to be desired. The latter is also true for the Beats Flex, which are surprisingly balanced sounding. Of course, there’s a boost in bass, but it’s hardly suitable for bass heads. Because these are just so cheap, you can’t expect them to sound amazing.
Following its acquisition of Beats, Apple has put its own stamp on the hugely-popular headphones and portable speakers. Flex wireless earbuds have no fancy noise-cancellation tech inside of them to beats studio3 block out unwanted noise. However, they can provide passive noise isolation, which is above average. This sound reduction is achieved from the tips and earpieces physically blocking your ear canal.