The BEST iPhone Headphones for Making Phone Calls

I’m obsessed with quality Bluetooth phone calls on my iPhone. It hurts my feelings when people ask, “what’s a phone call?” … or, “OMG, only psychos make phone calls and (gasp) leave voicemails.” I’ll give you one guess who said the “OMG” comment.

Well, I do make phone calls and leave voicemails. I’m in sales. When I’m doing my job right, I spend about 3-4 hours a day on the phone. In between work calls, I like to call my Dad, my brother, or my kids. I like to talk to friends. Don’t worry. People do call me, too, from time to time.

Of course I send hundreds and hundreds of Texts and Emails, but the good ol-fashioned phone call is just something I like. But I don’t like holding the phone to my ear. Hold an iPhone to your ear, for 20+ hours per week, and you will (I did, at least) notice a sore elbow and numb fingers.

Hold up … I hate when Blogs don’t get to the point. So here goes … the best, and it’s not even close, iPhone headphones for making phone calls are the Beats Flex All-Day Wireless Earbuds. The quick reasons why…

• Apple bought Beats and put their Apple W1 Chip inside so these Beats Flex pair and respond to the iPhone as brilliantly as AirPods do (I do think AirPods are brilliant in many ways with the exception of phone calls)
• The battery literally lasts “all day”
• The microphone is by my neck and mouth so nobody ever asks me to repeat what I said
• They go around your neck so even if they fall out of your ear, they don’t fall onto the hard ground and break (I’m on my third pair of AirPods for this reason and currently only my right AirPod works because the left AirPod fell on the sidewalk, broke open, and is dead)
• They cost $39 on sale and $70 full price so it’s reasonable to replace them once a year. That may sound crazy, but if you use something non-stop for calls and listening to Podcasts and music …while hiking, mowing, and working around the house … it’s not crazy to think I’m probably using these 40 combined hours per week and 2,000+ hours a year. Anything used that much will suffer from wear and tear and I don’t expect them to last 5 years and 10,000 hours.

The above was the quick version. If you talk on the phone alot, hate holding a phone to your ear, and you don’t want to be one of those “speaker phone” people bothering the world and if you also listen to music and Podcasts, this is your product.

THE ONLY DOWNSIDE

You kinda look silly with them hanging around your neck all day and you’ll have that, “is Don really that important or anti-social that he always has those dang headphones on” vibe . . . but I’m OK with that. It’s not so odd or look-at-me to have AirPods or even over-the-ear headphones on all the time.

GREAT FOR PHONE CALLS

• The best option, actually, are the wired headphones that come with your Apple product. The inline mic is at the neck/chest/mouth level and if you talk with someone, it’s as close to an old fashioned land-line as you can get. You’ll never get that “talk-over” thing …what …you go …no you … OK …oh, ha … you go … that annoys me so much. The problem is, eventually the connection will be sketchy. From pocket lint in the plug-in port. Or from the wire bending or fraying at the connection points.  And I don’t care who you are or how careful you are, if you’re talking on the phone or listening to music and moving around, you will eventually snag the cord on a door handle, your backpack, or your arm will hit it and pull your phone off a surface …which is why everyone likes the Bluetooth of the AirPods

WORKS WITH YOUR IPHONE BECAUSE APPLE MAKES IT

• I can’t prove this, but I think Apple, Google, Facebook all hate each other and when they’re designing their products, they make sure only their own products work best with themselves. For a while I resisted the high price of AirPods and thought any Bluetooth headset would be a-ok. But … I had JBLs, some other random brand headset, and Sennheisers and they all had moments where they wouldn’t connect so I eventually bought AirPods and, well, they were perfect. Worked every time. Pause when you take them outta your year. Respond to all the taps and squeezes. They are perfect every time, always because they’re by Apple for Apple. The Beats Flex are equally perfect every time.

THE MICROPHONE IS BY YOUR MOUTH AND YOU CAN BE HEARD

• We’re all friends here, right? We can admit …sometimes you hate talking to someone who’s on their AirPods? And sometimes it’s annoying to be on your AirPods and talking to someone. It will sound like their in a tunnel or a bathroom. Or you’ll have to repeat yourself because they might have settings on to minimize background noise or something. And so, sometimes, in the middle of a phone call, you have to unpair your AirPods and just talk on the phone. So far, this has never happened to me with the Beats Flex and I think it’s because the microphone is by my neck and mouth, has a directional mic, and only gets my voice.

IT DOES ONE MORE COOL THING WITH MAGNETS

• When you take the Beats Flex out of your ears, the two earpieces hang together and connect with a magnet, and when connected by magnet, it pauses the music or Podcast playing. And un-pauses as soon as you separate the magnets. And it answers the phone when you separate the magnet. This, to me, is better than the AirPods that start and stop when you put them into and out of your ear. That’s cool, yes, but this magnet thing is just better.

If you think there’s a better option for making iPhone phone calls, I’m all ears. But I’ve been obsessed with this for years and tested too many headphones (even tried gaming headsets and they struggled with the Bluetooth voice quality). I feel like, if even 4% of people still like making voice phone calls …this was my public service.

Call me if you wanna talk it through. Good luck.