
Beats Flex: Honest Review
I got a pair of Beats Flex for free with a trial of Apple Music. You sign up for £6, get a pair of £60 earbuds for free and can cancel your subscription anytime.
The good
Running iOS, connecting the earbuds is very easy. The battery life is more or less as promised allowing to listen to music for about 10 hours before recharging. Another very handy feature is the magnet between the two earbuds. It makes it easy to put them away and automatically pauses or resumes your music when you join or separate them. The buttons on the side also make it easy to start/pause music.
The bad
The cable joining both earbuds is too long. As a result, cables hanging close to your face will often tug on other things like your clothes and pull the earbuds out. Even though several earbud formats come in the box, none of them ensure a solid fit especially when moving around. Wearing these earbuds is an awkward experience. Where other reviews say the sound is ‘not ideal’, this one won’t sugarcoat it: it is just bad. Scooped mids, super elevated highs and accentuated lows make for a boomy, yet harsh sound profile. The fullness of the sound between 200-500Hz is completely in the background. In addition to that, the stereo image is very narrow, making for a very ‘tin-can’ sound overall. Whether listening to Hip-Hop, Classical, DnB, Pop or any other genre the sound is just crap in my honest opinion.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️
With the Beats Flex, you get all the cons of wired earbuds: wires all around your face awkwardly tugging everywhere. It’s actually worse on these because of the way the have extra length around your cheeks. You also get all the cons of wireless earbuds: limited battery life and relying on Bluetooth. On top of that, the sound is just plain bad. Anyone who cares about audio quality should look elsewhere. They do have redeeming qualities with the smart pause function and playback controls. But those are secondary functions. The fit, and sound though, primary functions of such a product, are no good.
Alternatives
At the third of the price you could do much worse than looking at cheaper alternatives from lesser known brands like Taotronics. The SoundLiberty 92 are truly wireless, have much better sound in my opinion, and the same playback / smart pause functions at about £20…