Soul FLEX2 Sport Earphones

On August 21, 2017, Soul Electronics announced the Soul FLEX2 sport earphones, designed for the active and fitness-oriented lifestyle. Read the announcement here. We’ve now had a chance to check them out and liked what we saw.

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Soul FLEX2 – Unboxing

In the box is the FLEX2 Earphones, an accessory package that contains an assortment of replacement ear domes for the end of the earpiece, two plastic ear hooks and a clip to attach the cord to your clothing. There is also a nylon storage pouch, Quick Start Guide and a warranty pamphlet.

The earpieces are a combination of rubber and brushed metal components which given them a sturdy look and feel. The cords are a flat ribbon style cable and are color coordinated with the metal accents on the earpieces.

The cable left and right earpieces are about 14” long where they join together and then have a 34” single cable that ends in a standard 3.5mm audio jack. We certainly understand the Soul FLEX2 not having a lightning connector on the end but would we have appreciated a lightning connection adapter included in the box. Yes, everyone who needs one got one with their iPhone but we think it would have been nice to have an extra to stay with the earphones.

About half way up one of the earpiece cables is a control button. Unlike most of the earphones we have looked at, this has a single button. For an iOS device, you press it once to start or stop the music or to answer or end a call, press twice to move to the next song or press three times to go back to the beginning of the song. A single press and hold activates Siri.

The Soul FLEX2 is advertised as a “sport earphone” and is engineered to be sweat proof and water resistant, so you can wear then during your toughest workouts. The earpieces are washable. The remote control is rated as IPX2, which offers protection from dripping water when the device is rotated 15 degrees in any direction from vertical for at least 10 minutes. The earpieces are rated at IPX4, which offers protection from a splash of water in any direction for at least 5 minutes.

Soul FLEX2 – Test Results

Weighing just .5 ounces, the Soul FLEX2 Earphones were extremely comfortable. Even for one of our testers who wear hearing aids, the Soul FLEX2 stayed in his ear and did not cause any discomfort when used in combination with the aids.

The Soul FLEX2 offers three wearing options.

Out of the box, the Soul FLEX2 has a small rubber tip on the top. The tip fits into the ridge in the outer ear to “lock” it in place. In this configuration, the wires hang down from the bottom of your ear. This is probably the most common way people wear earphones.

Another option is to invert the Soul FLEX2 earphones so that the rubber tip is facing down. It still folds into your outer ear but the wires are now at the top and can be wrapped around and behind your ear. This would tend to keep the wires out of the way for some exercise activities.

Finally, you can remove the rubber tips and slide on ear hooks that fit over the ear and holds the Soul FLEX2 earphones in place.

We tried all three styles and they worked equally well. The style you choose will depend on your personal preference and don’t be surprised to find that you use more than one depending on your activity.

We like this single button design and it worked well. We often found other brands that use multiple buttons confusing, and had to refer back to the user guide on several occasions to be reminded how to do something. We should point out that the Soul Electronics web site makes mention that the one button control also adjusts volume but we could not get it to do that. Instead, we had to use the volume control on our iPhone and MacBook Pro but we don’t see that as an issue.

Transition from listening to music to answering an incoming call was seamless. With a single press of the button, the music was paused and we were connected to the call. At the end of the call, the music continued where it left off.

We also tried all of these functions with a direct connection of the 3.5mm plug and the use of the 3.5mm to lightning connection adapter supplied with current iPhone models and it worked equally well.

Of course, the most important feature of any set of earphones is the sound quality and that is where the Soul FLEX2 shines.

We found the sound quality to be exceptional. There were rich highs and just enough bass to give a full sound.

Even at a fairly high volume, the sound remained clear with no noticeable distortion.

We found the microphone, incorporated in the control button picked up our voices clearly and the party on the other end of the call confirmed that they heard us clearly. We did not have to hold the cord or move the control close to our mouth, which we have sometimes found necessary with other similar styles of earphones.

Siri response was god but we did have to press and hold the button each time before speaking our next command.

The Bottom Line

The Soul FLEX2 earphones are well-made and provide great sounding. The ability to wear it three different ways gives choices that should meet all of your needs.

The clean sound and simple one button control makes it easy to listen to your favorite music without having to remember multiple button combinations. Transition to phone calls is quick and easy.

The Soul FLEX2 earphones are available in black, blue and red. They come with a one-year warranty against manufacturer defects and are available from Amazon and in the Audio section of the Apple Tech Talk Marketplace.

We would like to thank the folks at Soul Electronics for providing the Soul FLEX2 earphones for our testing and review.

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