Fast charging promises 1.5 hours of use from a 10-minute charge. The Apple U1 may, at this early stage, be a little too expensive. And even if it is not, the rumored AirPods Studio would be a much better vehicle for the day-to-day benefits of that hardware. However, there are benefits to this classic style and the Beats Flex are a great budget buy for runners. And for general listening if you’re not going to sit down and critique every last element of their sound quality. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies.
Even though I’m a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear. Get accurate bass and ultra-low distortion with an advanced acoustic platform featuring custom layered drivers, and then use one-tap Audio Sharing to sync with other Beats headphones or AirPods2. We gathered all the best Beats headphones currently available in one place so that you don’t have to.
Apple’s easy-pairing feature gets you instantly connected to any iPhone or iPad linked to your iCloud account. They’ve been tuned as earbuds you can wear around your neck throughout the day and pop in your ears as needed, and they’re perfectly good for casual listening. Sure, it lacks a few things, like accurate frequency response, sweat resistance, and a sub-standard microphone system, but all of this is forgivable at this price point. Don’t worry about the battery life, as a rechargeable lithium-ion battery powers this Beats Flex Wireless Earphones.
While they don’t have active noise cancelling , they can still passively cut down a fair bit of ambient chatter around you. They also don’t leak a lot of audio, so you can listen to your audio at a high volume without disturbing others around you. Athletic listeners may want to invest in the Beats Fit Pro instead. This pair of noise cancelling earbuds houses the H1 chip and has a 6-hour battery life.
It’s also disappointing that the earbuds cannot be repaired or have the battery replaced, partly due to the cost of repair being higher than the cost of purchase. The earbuds are light at just 18.6g, which is 7.7g lighter than the Powerbeats, and fairly standard with silicone ear tips of which four sizes are included in the box. The Flex are very much designed for day-to-day casual listening so that’s just fine.
Fortunately, there’s an impressive 12-hour battery packed into these headphones, and even more impressive is the Fast Fuel feature that gives you 1.5-hour of battery life from a 10-minute charge. In our time with these affordable wireless earphones, we struggled with them feeling tight in our ears and there are definitely better earphones if your music is all about the bass. There are a dozens options for wireless earbuds at the sub-$50 price point, though none of them come with Apple’s W1 chip. And once you get a taste of the seamless pairing and switching between Apple devices it enables, it’s hard to use wireless earbuds without the chip.
The earbuds are magnetic so when you aren’t using them and they’re hanging around your neck, they’ll automatically snap together which also pauses the music so you don’t miss a beat. beats flex review When you detach them from one another and put them back in your ears, they’ll automatically play the track again. Perhaps the most notable design element is the magnetic earbuds.
Beats Flex sound quality will not blow anything out of the water but with the price of A$79.95, its combination of sound, design, and comfort combined makes it a good value, wireless earphones from Beats. If you are looking to replace your Apple EarBuds without paying too much, Beats Flex makes a great choice. Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing beats flex review amazing or standout about these earbuds. There is, however, automatic play/pause thanks to the magnets that keep the buds together when they’re not in your ears. But otherwise, they’re just a very standard set of wireless earbuds. To replace the BeatsX wireless neckband earbuds, Beats Flex is an even more paired down set of basic headphones.