With the end of winter fast approaching and the spring/summer months around the corner, the outdoors beckon. Of course, with all of the devices one has nowadays what with smart phones to listen to music and tablets and ‘phablets’ even, headphones are a necessity. The Flip HD Social Headphones aim to cover all of your bases which makes these an interesting pair of cans. Let’s have a look.
The first thing that jumps out at you is that these are made to double as speakers when watching a flick in the tent. Seems practical enough but it also works pretty much as you might expect. The audio is strong in the mids, but the highs and lows are underrepresented here. A little more bass is sorely missed, but the sound is pretty good overall.
As far as the speaker function, you need to flip both cans before the speaker function is activated. Now what may at first seem like a gimmick is actually a decent set of speakers. Imagine being around a campfire and these will fit the bill nicely. The coverage is about 12 feet and it’s a better sound than much of what you’ll find out there for comparable size and price.
The thing with these is their tween-er or hybrid status that’s a bit troubling. It’s a little too much ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. You can easily find better headphones, as well as better portable speakers. Still you don’t want to carry all that hardware around you if you’re going the spontaneous route. Frankly, the convenience of having two functions is the best part of owning these but still the quality of either mode can be superseded.
The Flip Headphones are quite comfortable and exclude ambient noise rather well. However, the abundance of plastic makes the build quality suffer. The design isn’t much to write home about though they do look good without looking exceptional. The headphones can be folded and placed in a zip up case.
For all the convenience these headphones offer, the feeling is that there is more to come. Improvements in the build quality, and focusing on one mode or the other should be next in line. These headphones are perfect for leaving in your bag that you take everywhere, especially unplanned excursions. Of course, your Sennheiser or Beats headphones will remain the staple for mobile listening pleasure. A solid gift idea together with a solid price to boot.
