OnePlus is not new to making earbuds. The company has been releasing headphones for the past several years. However, when it comes to TWS earbuds, OnePlus hasn’t really been able to hit the mark with its previous products like the OnePlus Buds and Buds Z. They were pretty decent hearables but never really stood out in their price segments. However, the brand aims to change this consumer mindset with the OnePlus Buds Pro, its first premium earbuds with active noise cancellation.
OnePlus Buds Pro Review: Stand out Design
The OnePlus Buds Pro takes the right amount of inspiration from the industry leader for its design. While the basic form factor of the earbuds is pretty much identical to the Apple AirPods Pro, the company tries to distance itself from the Apple TWS with a fancy color style. Honestly, having used both the AirPods Pro and OnePlus Buds Pro on a regular basis, I can assure you that they are two very different earbuds.
Even in their designs, the Buds Pro looks a lot more young and stylish with its dual-tone matte finish. So even though AirPods Pro’s all-white design looks elegant, I personally like the dual-tone, matte + metallic combination. It’s unlike other earbuds in the market and stands out from the crowd in its price segment.
Each earbud weighs 4.35g, while the charging case weighs 52g. The earbuds have a good, tight fit in my ears and can be used during workouts as well. I have used the OnePlus Buds Pro during my workouts at the gym and even while running on the treadmill, and so far, I have been pretty confident that these earbuds won’t fall off during my runs.
Coming to the case, the OnePlus Buds Pro has a flat and squarish charging case, unlike the previous generation models. The matte finish on the case ensures it doesn’t attract fingerprints or scratches in your everyday use. The overall style looks pretty premium, and the fact that it’ll likely remain scratch-free over the course of time is reassuring. If you have used earbuds with glossy cases, you know how many scratches it can get overtime. So this is a definitive advantage for the OnePlus Buds Pro.
While the case looks premium, you might doubt the built quality at first. Initially, the lid of the case felt a bit weak and I wondered whether the case would survive a fall. But fortunately, the flat design gives a good grip and makes it less likely to encounter a drop. Over the course of time, I have grown to trust the quality of the case too, so I don’t really have any complaints about its design. For a pair of earbuds under ₹10,000 (€150), this design is extremely good.
The case comes with a USB-C port and supports wireless charging as well.
As for the operations, once again, OnePlus has taken inspiration from the AirPods Pro. So you have to squeeze the stem for controls. I personally prefer this over other earbuds which support touch inputs. Squeezing the stem feels like a better way to control your earbuds and the implementation is pretty good. However, there’s a slight delay in the control response, which you’ll have to get used to. But apart from that, operations like single, double, and long presses work well without any glitches.
Note that the OnePlus Buds Pro is IP55 rated, so it is dust and water-resistant. What’s even more interesting is that the case also gets an IPX4 rating.
OnePlus Buds Pro Review: Sound Quality
The sound quality will always be the most important aspect of any earbuds. While the previous generation OnePlus earbuds were decent, the company seems to have hit the right mark with its new OnePlus Buds Pro.
The OnePlus Buds Pro puts the 11mm drivers to good use, generating deep bass and decent mids and highs. You may find that the earbuds rely a bit too much on the lower end spectrum, but for someone who prefers a good and tight bass output, these earbuds won’t disappoint.
Sometimes, the bass may overpower the highs and mids. However, unless you are a purist who absolutely needs crystal clear vocals and crisp treble, the OnePlus Buds Pro won’t disappoint. These earbuds are good for your typical EDM, hip hop music, so basically genres that enjoy a solid low-end grunt. However, if there are a lot of instruments involved, you might encounter some loss of details.
That said, for someone who has used AirPods Pro everyday, I still come back to the Buds Pro in between to appreciate the bass. A lot of premium headphones are tuned for balance, which often sacrifices on bass to focus more on the mids and highs. But there are some genres of music that can only be justified with a solid bass response, and for them, look no further than the OnePlus Buds Pro in this price segment.
To conclude, if I had to use two words for the sound signature of the OnePlus Buds Pro, it would be ‘Bass-heavy’ and ‘Fun’. These earbuds feels a lot more immersive than other balanced earbuds in the market.
Note that while the Buds Pro supports LHDC codec, there are very few smartphones in the market that support it. In fact, even OnePlus hasn’t yet rolled out support for LHDC on its latest smartphones. So right now, you’ll have to stick to AAC for listening to good quality music.
OnePlus Buds Pro Review: Noise Cancellation
Being the first Active Noise Cancellation earbuds from OnePlus, I was curious to see how good the noise cancellation would be. The Buds Pro is priced in a segment where there are pretty good competitors for this feature, so a sub-par experience would immediately put it at a disadvantage.
To start off, the Buds Pro features 3 modes for noise cancellation. Faint, Smart, and Extreme. Unfortunately, I couldn’t perceive any major difference when switching between these three modes. The adaptive smart mode implementation was also not very good.
In short, for all purposes, it’s safe to assume that there’s just one noise-canceling mode, much like the AirPods Pro.
The OnePlus Buds Pro manages to come close to the premium earbuds in the market with its noise cancellation. If I had to give a figure, I would say the Buds Pro cancels out around 80% of what AirPods Pro can do. For its price, this is already pretty good.
The earbuds can cancel out everyday noises like people’s conversation in the background, or your regular traffic. But it won’t be able to cancel out some higher frequency sounds.
While the ANC is not perfect, for its price, it’s still pretty good. With the ANC turned on, the earbuds definitely help you get an immersive music, audiobook listening experience.
The transparency mode is not as good as the Airpods Pro, but it’s fine as you can still have a decent conversation in this mode.
OnePlus Buds Pro: Battery Life & Operation
The OnePlus Buds Pro comes with a 520mAh charging case and 40mAh batteries inside each earbud. This is good enough for around 5 hours of playback time with ANC on at a moderate volume. The case will get you an additional 20 hours of playback time.
Overall, battery life is pretty decent on the Buds Pro and at par with other earbuds in the market with ANC.
Like most OnePlus devices, the OnePlus Buds Pro works best with the latest OnePlus devices. This is because some features like low-latency gaming and Dolby Atmos are limited to recent OnePlus models in the market, like the OnePlus 9 series.
The earbuds come with Bluetooth 5.2 support. If you are using a recent OnePlus smartphone, you can take advantage of Fast Pairing and the settings for the earbuds can be found right inside your Bluetooth menu. For others, you can go through the usual pairing process and the experience is pretty smooth. Further, you can download and install the Hey Melody app on non-OnePlus devices to tweak the earbuds settings.
I have paired my Buds Pro to an iPhone and a OnePlus device, and the connectivity and range are similar on both models. I would also like to point out that the OnePlus earbuds have a pretty good range, and it’s as good as my AirPods Pro.
The three microphones are good enough for voice and video calls. It’s not as clear as some premium earbuds in the market, but you shouldn’t have any major issues while talking through these earbuds.
OnePlus Buds Pro review: Verdict
OnePlus seems to have finally nailed it with the Buds Pro in this competitive earbuds landscape. The company’s decision to focus on the low-end grunt with its new earbuds helps it stand out from its competitors. A balanced output would have been good, but it’s already being offered by a lot of earbuds in the same price range.
The OnePlus Buds Pro focuses on being more fun and bassy, and will definitely cater to a set of audience who likes an immersive, exciting music experience every day.
What I miss though is an equalizer, which would have added a much wider sound range to these earbuds. Another drawback is the lack of support for other codecs like aptX and aptX HD.
But overall, I would recommend the OnePlus Buds Pro to anyone who loves a punchy, bass-heavy sound output, more so if you are an existing OnePlus user.
Note that in India, the OnePlus is offering a couple of Bank discounts on the Buds Pro as a part of its festive offers. Customers can get up to ₹1000 OFF via Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank cards when purchasing it from OnePlus.in or authorized OnePlus retailers like OnePlus Experience store, Reliance Digital, Croma, Vijay Sales, Poorvika Mobiles, Sangeetha Mobiles, Bajaj Electronics, and other partner stores. If you are purchasing it from Amazon.in, you can get an instant 10% Bank discount using your HDFC card between October 2 to October 10.
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