Can Beats Flex Be Used While Charging?

Beats Flex is a great budget pair of Bluetooth wireless earbuds. You can pick up a pair for just around $50. 

If you’re on this article, chances are that you already have.

These earbuds last around 12 hours of straight playback. 

Unfortunately, long battery life can often lead to Beats Flex owners forgetting to charge their earbuds when they are low on battery. 

This, in turn, can lead to your Beats Flex powering down while you are still using them.

Can Beats Flex Be Used While Charging?

Your Beats Flex charges using an entirely separate system from how they connect to your device. That means you can plug your Beats Flex in and charge while they are in use and connected to your smartphone, tablet, PC, or laptop.

Just remember that using your earbuds while they are charging can be rather inconvenient.

 You will be attached to your power source and your earbuds will charge slower than if they were put to rest while charging. 

I would recommend letting your Beats Flex charge before putting them to use.

The main reason I recommend that is for comfort, but it can also help to keep your Beats Flex in good shape. 

The default charging brick for Beats Flex is 20 Watts over a USB-C connection. 

That means you’ll have a fast enough charge that the wait for a half or full battery isn’t too long. 

It can help to keep using your earbuds’ battery cycles up as well.

Is It OK To use Beats While Charging?

Your Beats can be used while charging. 

However, it can cause some problems with the longevity of the built-in battery and in rare cases can overheat your earbuds. 

Portable devices that use built-in batteries have an overall life span as batteries do not last forever. 

All batteries have a tested cycle limit. A battery cycle is one full charge is used and refilled. 

That means every time you drain your battery to 10% or below and recharge to 100%, you have used one battery charge cycle.

Typically, the small batteries used in rechargeable devices have a 300-500 cycle charge limit before the battery will no longer hold a charge. 

The good news is that you can get up to 12 hours out of one battery cycle alone. 

Unless you are always wearing and playing audio through your Beats Flex, that should last anywhere from four to six years before you need to replace them.

More damage is done when you continue to use them while charging. 

This is because the Beats Flex uses a fast-charging system that can cause the battery and receiver piece of your earbuds to heat up dramatically. 

Using them while they are charging can push the temperature higher.

This heat is caused by the transfer of charge into the battery and powered the earbuds. 

Too much heat can damage the battery and cause it to lose battery capacity.

If you are using third-party charging blocks, this heat can be built to a point where it causes physical damage to your device.

If you notice any excessive heat near the charging port of your Beats Flex while charging, you may consider unplugging them to let them cool down. 

Cease using them as well until they reach normal temperature. 

You can avoid overcharge heat by using a slower charging brick.

It is easy to avoid these problems by using well-built 20 W charging bricks and letting them charge while not in use. 

This shouldn’t be a problem with the fast charging ability. 

You can get 1.5 hours of playback time with just a ten-minute charge.

How Long Do Beats Flex Take To Charge?

Apple’s fast charge design has made keeping your Beats Flex battery full easy and quick.

With your Beats Flex plugged into a 20 W fast-charger for just 10 minutes, you’ll get an hour and a half of playback time. 

Even crazier, it takes less than 90 minutes to get your Beats Flex up to a full charge.

I would say that under 90 minutes for 12 hours of playback is really good.

How Long Does Beats Flex Battery Last?

In terms of a single charge, Beats Flex can last up to 12 hours with the volume set to 50%. 

The louder you play your audio, the more juice it will use.

Having said that, you can still easily get around 9-10 hours of playback at 100% volume. 

I would recommend keeping your audio volume around 60-80% to avoid ear damage. 

It also helps to manage your battery life.

In terms of the overall life of your Beats Flex, they are powered by a lithium-ion battery.

That means it’s rated for anywhere between 300-500 recharge cycles. It’s hard to give an exact number of years for the battery lifespan, but I’ll give it a shot:

  • Light-use (less than four hours a day) will lead to fewer charge cycles being used and may keep your Beats Flex running for up to 8 years.
  • Medium-use (around six hours a day and more every other day) will give you an average lifespan of around 5-6 years.
  • Heavy use (recharging nearly every day) will make your Beats Flex battery give out somewhere between 3-5 years.

It’s also important to note that over time, your Beats Flex will hold less and less charge as the core of your battery depletes. 

It’s a natural occurrence that can not be avoided. 

That means you will see the battery life decrease over time.

Heat, cold, number of times recharged, and the physical condition of your Beats Flex can all lead to variances in your overall battery lifespan.

If you want to get the most of your Beats battery, here are a few tips that keep it alive longer:

  • Keep your playback volume between 50-70%
  • Recharge the battery when it reaches 10%. A fully depleted battery can cause the capacity to falter.
  • Keep your earbuds in lukewarm environments. Extreme temperatures in either direction will cause damage to the battery.
  • Use good-quality USB-C cables and charging bricks. Too much power can cause your earbuds to overheat.
  • Power down your earbuds when not in use.

How Do I Check The Battery Level On My Beats Flex?

Your Beats Flex send more data than just your voice and audio back and forth from the device you are connected to. 

It also sends information like the current battery level of your device. 

This feature is not always accessible.

If you are connected to an Apple product like an iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook, or Apple Watch, you can find the battery life of your earbuds under the name of your Beats Flex Bluetooth profile in connected devices. 

This may also work for many Android devices that are on Android 10 or higher and Windows. 

As an Apple product, Beats Flex battery monitoring may not work on your device intentionally or may show the wrong information. 

If your device does not show battery life, you can get an estimate from the LED indicator on the right control module. 

When your Beats Flex are powered on, the light on the right control module will show one of three patterns:

  • White indicates that there is more than an hour of charge left.
  • Red indicates less than an hour of charge is left.
  • Blinking red means that your device needs to charge and is near death.

Just keep an eye out for a red LED.

If you see the red light, plug them in for around an hour and fifteen minutes to get back a full charge.

Try your best not to let the battery get low enough for the red blinking light.

This light means that your earbuds may power down at any moment.

When a lithium-ion battery is completed discharged, it can lose a percentage of its total capacity.

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