The inside of the left pod has the mic and a multi-function playback and voice assistant button. Nick Pino is the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar and covers TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He’s written for TechRadar, GamesRadar, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he’s not using beats solo pro wireless if anyone wants it. Surprisingly, though, we didn’t find any of that to be a deal-breaker. The W1 Chip is less advanced than the H1 but it still gets the job done, and the semi-wireless form factor is manageable if a little unwieldy. Still, the overall performance the Beats Flex gives you should warrant a higher price, so consider these buds an uber-generous offer from the trailblazing audio brand.
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.
For just $50 you get all of the conveniences of Apple brand headphones without paying the higher price. With all of that balance and clarity, however, comes a flat sound. Whether you’re listing to Tom Petty or DaBaby, it all sounds the same, and I mean that in a bad way.
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.
Instead of placing the microphone and controls in an inline pod on the left earbud’s wire, these are now contained in the left housing. 3Testing conducted by Apple in August 2020 using preproduction Beats Flex and software paired with iPhone 11 Pro Max units and prerelease software. Another cool feature is Audio Sharing which lets you share what you’re listening to with other Beats headphones or Apple AirPods. By bringing them near your Apple device, you’ll just need to tap the pop up to activate it, and each of you will be able to control your own volume. But they are neckband buds, which means there’s a band that sits on your neck and cables to the earbuds, not the truly wireless design that’s become popular in the past few years.
Actually I’ve owned several pairs because I use them constantly so the battery never lasts me long enough, even though they’ve got a respectable 8 hours . They’ve been my go-to and I practically live with them on. That said, there’s plenty to like at the Beats Flex and that low price makes them sound seriously appealing. We’d also say that they don’t feel as premium as the more expensive Powerbeats but you are paying almost half the price for the Flex so it’s harsh to fault the overall build quality too much. So, there’s no doubt that price tag is clearly enticing, but are the Beats Flex really worth your hard-earned cash? Express.co.uk has been putting them to the test and here’s what we think…
Their companion app also doesn’t offer a lot of extra features either. The Beats Flex Wireless are colorful budget-friendly in-ears with a neck cable. They have a simple, comfortable, and lightweight design that feels well-built. Thanks to their W1 chip, it’s also easy to seamlessly pair them with different Apple devices. However, while fans of EDM and hip-hop may enjoy their bass-heavy sound profile, they lack an EQ to finetune their sound to your liking. Their companion app also lacks a lot of functionality and doesn’t offer that many extra features.