It felt joyous and liberating to stream music around the house while my phone was charging in the bedroom. I didn’t experience any dropout during calls, nor was there any stuttering when streaming Spotify. I haven’t worn a pair of corded Bluetooth earbuds in a minute, so I was curious to see whether beats studio3 the neckband design of Beats Flex feels like a downgrade. The buds themselves, which come with four sizes of silicone ear tips to choose from, are incredibly lightweight. The neckband is well-balanced with a power button on the right and volume controls and a multi-function button on the left.
Because these are just so cheap, you can’t expect them to sound amazing. They hardly compare to their more expensive Beats counterparts. The sound focuses on the high-end and low end while ignoring the mids, which can make some tracks sound a little empty. Because they sit inside your ear canal, they do isolate noise well though which means you can focus on the music without any distractions. Speaking of weird, because the wire is stiff, I found myself fiddling with the buds way more than necessary.
Overall, the Beats Flex is a truly solid pair of earphones that won’t leave you wishing you’d spent more. It’s hard to imagine a more complete neckband product at this price point. If there’s one word to describe the Beats Flex, it’s ‘convenience’. If you’re an Android user, these connect using Bluetooth but won’t give you the features above.
The same is true if you listen to podcasts because this amplified frequency range helps with speech intelligibility. These earbuds won’t block out the rumble of a train car but can block some incidental sounds like nearby conversations. I have no idea why apple puts a little bit of plastic on you have to remove which just has the address on when you first get them. 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. The buds themselves are comfortable to wear, with four tip sizes to choose from.
You can also have one cable in your house and the other one in your get-around-town bag or even in your car so that you have more access to charging opportunities no matter where you are. It goes from USB-A to USB-C, which means you can even use this cable to charge on other power points like a USB-A wall plug or a USB-A port on your computer. Your Beats Flex should have come with a 6-inch USB-C to USB-C type power cable, but not a plug adapter. Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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. Unfortunately these songs also highlight how anemic the mids sound, so proceed with caution. On that note, there’s also no real way to tweak the EQ if you’re not happy with the default sound – which is a bit of a bummer. Well, you can use the multi-feature button, but the Beats Flex are also equipped with a sensor that will automatically pause the music when you take them off, and resume the music when you put them back on.
Plus, they’re designed for workouts, so you don’t have to worry about mucking these up. One downside is they only last for six hours on a charge. On Android, you’ll need to download the Beats app from the Google Play Store. Once installed, you’ll have access to quick pairing, battery levels and any firmware updates that may come along in the future. What you can’t do on either iOS or Android is adjust the EQ or customize the on-board controls.
Unfortunately, they lack an EQ to help tweak their sound to your liking. 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. Ear tips don’t have integrated wings to lock buds in your ears.