$50 Beats Flex Wireless Earphones Now Available in Two More Colors

[UnusedLoginID]

And wanna add: no, they don't have ear detection, but you now what, I don't miss that. I have had AirPods pausing (did not happen TOO often, but it did happen) because they thought they were outside my ear when they were not. Sometimes "dumb" is good.
And I use the volume control and especially the skip forward/backwards function (can be customized via Overcast for example) all the time. Glad I bought them.

There’s a cool feature that does something similar. Just snap the magnetic heads together when you remove them from your ears and music will stop. Bring them back to the ears and it will start again with a short delay to allow time for you to put them in your ears.
“Magnetic earbuds and Auto-Pause keep your music on deck when you take the earphones out, and Auto-Play starts it back up when you put them back in.”

 

[Ybersetzer]

Does the flex have that special apple chip W2 or whatever it is called ?

It has the predecessor, the one inside the first generation Airpods. Works very well, I get a more solid connection and range than with Airpods I or II, probably because it is easy to fit a large antenna in the Beats Flex.

 

[WaxedJacket]

I own a pair of the previous model and the only thing I wish they'd improve would be a larger battery. I don't see why these can't get 20+ hours on a charge considering they're extremely light and fit around yoru neck. doubling the capacity isn't going to weigh anyone down.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I bought two pairs this Christmas as replacements for our dead AirPods and we think they're a great compromise between price and features.

The Beats Flex essentially have all the features of the 1st generation AirPods with a few exceptions but also missing some of the 2nd gen AirPods and AirPods Pro features:

• Essentially the same, neutral-ish sound as AirPods 1st Gen and 2nd Gen but with added low end. I hate the boomy, muddy low-end you usually get from in-ear headphones. But the low-end and low mids are surprisingly well-defined and don't ever get tiring. Definitely a substantial upgrade over the sound of EarPods and AirPods 1st and 2nd Gen. The mids and high-end is, however, slightly subdued on the Flex by comparison but not much.
• Getting good sound from these comes down to getting a good fit: If none of the tips fit you then you might as well return them. 4 different pairs of tips are included.
• USB-C charging and 12 hour battery life at 50% volume(beyond 50% gets too loud for me). I don't care to measure how accurate this claim is. But I use them all day without thinking about recharging and then just recharge at night. This is supposedly an upgrade over the Beats X, and I know from own experience that the AirPods don't do more than 3-5 hours if you leave the charging case out of the equation.
• No true automatic play-pause functionality -You either stop the media when the earpieces magnetize or using the in-line remote.
• Nice volume rocker and a multi-function button on the neckband that can play-pause, skip or go back a track, or talk to Siri, take and end calls.
• Audio-sharing for two pairs on iOS (doesn't work on MacOS).
• Don't turn off automatically.
• Overall design is a lot less high-end than AirPods and feels way more plastic-ey.
• No automatic device connecting, but the same "select and connect" that the 1st Gen AirPods have. Speed of switching is exactly the same, and it even works on older, obsolete Apple devices. Try using any other brand of Bluetooth headphones and you'll know how valuable even the "old" W1 chip is. Almost worth the entire price of the Flex, if you ask me.
• Not great for exercising as you get the inevitable noisiness that comes from the combination of in-ear headphones and cables. But for walking around and working these are perfect (also take a good portion of background noise away). Also no water- or sweat proofing like the AirPods Pro have.
• Sound from the mic doesn't sound great but the voice is always audible and the background noise reduction stuff that is going on works really well. If you were happy with the mic quality on the 1st gen AirPods then you'll be happy with these.
• Signal-strength is very good on these as it's both Class 1 Bluetooth and Bluetooth 5.0 over the Class 1/4.2 that the 1st gen AirPods had. Audio lag seems to also be greatly improved over the 1st gen AirPods with no noticeable lag between what's happening on screen and what you're hearing.

Yes, you can definitely find much better sounding Bluetooth headphones in the same price range. So these aren't for audiophiles or those who aren't going to use them with Apple devices. But the many ease of use features and Apple's market leading Bluetooth chips honestly make these a bargain for Apple owners if you ask me.

 

[kc9hzn]

I've never once used the included charger because its way way to short. I simply use my Macbook Pro plug.

As for everyone else's comments - I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in a mac product before. I had the hardest time getting the earbuds to work in the first place. They still don't automatically connect, I always have to go to settings to do so. The band itself is so cheap and stiff. I thought it might loosen a bit as I used it but no.

They’ve got a W1 chip, but, come to think of it, how are they supposed to become discoverable? With AirPods, you open the case. With these, you might as well just hold a pairing button, yeah?

 

[dantracht]

I actually used my X for the first time in a long time yesterday, and was impressed that the battery was still in as good a shape as it was, considering these must be 3 years old.

 

[kazmac]

Glad these work for my mom. Nice to see new colors.

 

[amartinez1660]

How do they actually sound? My 0G airpods are totally dead and 50 bucks is way cheaper than airpods. Don't need anything that sounds great, but certainly don't want them if they are tinny garbage.

I had the previous BeatsX and they sounded great for what they were, a bit less punch than the Powerbeats, but still good.

They did start failing days after the one year mark though. I would use them mostly for sports, lots of gym, jogging sun heat and sweat involved; they one sided started losing sound intermittently and sometimes it would refuse to start charging... went AirPods Pro soon after which seem to tolerate a whole lot more that.

For $50 and daily job and/or light exercises (wouldn’t advice more than that judging from my experience) I think they are a steal.