OnePlus may be best known for its smartphones, but it has been quietly making inroads into the audio market with heavy-hitters like Apple and Samsung in its sights. The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are its latest attempt and at only $179.99 retail, and $149.99 at launch, they’re one of the best value premium true wireless earbuds you can buy under $200.
Specifications
- Current Price: $179.99 (MSRP) $149.99 (OnePlus)
- Colorways: Midnight Opus / Lunar Radiance
- Digital-to-analog Converter (DAC) Chipset: BES2700ZP-892
- Drivers: 11mm + 6mm
- Frequency Response: 10HZ~40KHZ
- Microphone Sensitivity: -38dB
- Microphones: 3 mics + VPU (Voice Pick Up Bone Sensor)
- Impedance
- 18Ω±15%
- 9Ω±15%
- Sound Pressure: 98.5dB
- Sensitivity: 97 ± 3dB at 1kHz (Input: -10dB IEC711)
- Bluetooth
- Supported Bluetooth Codecs: LHDC 5.0 / AAC / SBC
- Bluetooth Version: 5.4
- Bluetooth Effective distance: 10m
- Bluetooth Transmission Protocols: SPP, HFP, A2DP, AVRCP
- Call Quality: 3 mics + VPU (Voice Pick Up Bone Sensor) + AI algorithm
- IP Rating: IP55
- Noise Reduction Depth: 50dB
- Features
- Google Fast Pair
- OTA Updates
- Find My Earphones
- HeyMelody App
- Dual Device Connection
- Voice assistant
- Touch Functions
- Single Press: Play/Pause, Answer/End Call
- Double Press: Next Track, Reject Call
- Triple Press: Previous Track
- 1-Second Long Press: Noise Cancellation Toggle
- 3-Second Long Press: Zen Mode Air
- Custom Settings via App: Supported
- Earphone Battery Capacity: 58mAh
- Case Battery Capacity: 566mAh
- Playback Time (AAC, Adaptive ANC OFF, 50% volume)
- Earphone Only: 10H
- Earphone+Case: 43H
- Playback Time (AAC, Adaptive ANC ON, 50% volume)
- Earphone Only: 6H
- Earphone+Case: 25.5H
- Playback Time (LHDC, Adaptive ANC ON, 50% volume)
- Earphone Only: 5H
- Earphone+Case: 21.5H
- Talk Time (AAC, ANC ON, 50% volume)
- Earphone Only: 4H
- Earphone+Case: 17H
- Standby Time (earphones + case): 70H
- Wired Charging Time: 70 min
- Wireless Charging Time: 2H 30min
- Wireless Charging: Supported
- Latency: 94ms
- In The Box
- OnePlus Buds Pro 3
- Charging Case
- Type-C Charging Cable
- Ear Tips (XS, S, M, L pairs; M pre-installed)
- User Manual
- Physical Characteristics
- Earphone Weight: 5.28g (NA: 5.29g)
- Case Weight: 50.57g (NA: 50.62g)
- Total Weight: 61.13g (NA: 61.20g)
- Earphone Dimensions: 33.60 x 21.15 x 25.00mm
- Case Dimensions: 64.70 x 52.45 x 25.75mm
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 - Premium Design and Features
The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 arrives in a simple and unassuming box, but it doesn’t take long before it becomes clear that they’re something special. Taking them out of the box, the charging case immediately struck me. Instead of the usual smooth plastic case we find with most true wireless earbuds, the Buds Pro 3 comes in a soft-touch finish textured to resemble leather. The edges are smooth and a glossy ONEPLUS logo appears on the front to provide contrast. It immediately gives the impression of a premium product, but just as importantly, provides additional grip in the hand and hides the fingerprints and smudges that plague most other earbud cases.
I was sent the Midnight Opus (black) color. It’s also available in Lunar Radiance (white). Both versions share a similar design for the case and the earbuds themselves. The buds adopt the “bud and stem” design of the Apple Airpods and have silicone tips to secure within the ear. The stem is trimmed in mirrored plastic while the inner surface is matte and slightly textured for a secure grip.
And boy is it secure. The OnePlus Buds Pro 3s have been glued to my ears since I received them. I’ve carried them with me through hikes and workouts and on one occasion even slept through the night with them (which was an accident, I should add). They are exceptionally secure and very comfortable to wear.
Like most flagship “Pro” earbuds, the Buds Pro 3 comes with a wide array of features that allow it to go toe to toe with its competitors. They feature active noise cancellation, multipoint connectivity with Bluetooth 5.4, two drivers with standalone DAC chips for high-res audio. It supports LHDC for 24-bit, 192kHz CD-grade audio, and AAC/SBC for devices that don’t support it. AptX support is notably absent, as is LDAC, so there’s room for improvement here. There’s Google Fast Pairing, so all you need to do is take them out of the case and your phone will automatically see them and begin the pairing process, and spatial audio complete with head tracking.
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 - Impressive Battery Life (with a Catch)
And, at least through the case, massive battery life. Between the onboard batteries and the charging case, the Buds Pro 3 offers a whopping 43 hours of uptime. Now the caveat: though that’s true of total battery life, playtime is an area that could use some improvement while ANC is enabled. Without ANC, battery life is great. They’ll last up to 10 hours. That’s great. With ANC enabled, that time is cut in half. In contrast, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 lasts for seven hours with ANC and the Apple AirPods Pro are rated for six hours. If you do run dry, however, ten minutes in the case returns five hours of listening time.
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 - Killer Noise Cancellation
While we’re on the subject of active noise cancellation, I found it to be fantastic for the price. OnePlus quotes up to 50dB of noise cancellation, but there’s much more to the story than that. The sound engineers have tuned the ANC to include frequencies typical to the human voice. If you’re trying to focus and the people won’t stop talking around you, the Buds Pro 3 does a good job of dropping their volume so you can get back to work (or gaming). I also found that it did a good job of cutting out keyboard clacks and other ambient noise that comes in a home with four kids.
Noise cancellation on true wireless earbuds can be impacted by many different factors. The shape of your ears, how well they fit, the strength and frequency targeting of the noise cancellation compared to what you’re trying to block out. The experience can vary from user to user. But as someone who has an archive of nearly seventy pairs of true wireless earbuds filling a box in his room, I can say with confidence: this is some of the best noise canceling you can find on true wireless earbuds.
The buds also join the growing line of flagships offering Adaptive Noise Canceling. Running the earbuds at max ANC takes a toll on battery life and, because of its strength, generates a bit of white noise that’s imperceptible when music is playing but can be heard in silence. Using its array of microphones, the buds can detect the level of noise around you and set the ANC level to match. It worked well in my testing but I found that I preferred just keeping it on max and enjoying the silence.
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 - Dual-Driver, Dual DAC
For this release, the engineers have integrated a dual driver design, upgraded from the Buds Pro 2. The system is built with an 11mm woofer and a 6mm tweeter that divide frequency duties between the two. The larger driver adds a second magnet for enhanced responsiveness and power and has incorporated a metal-ceramic material into its diaphragm for increased rigidity and speed. This amounts to more power, more detail, more texture, and overall better quality when done right.
The 6mm tweeter isn’t without its tricks. Since it covers the higher frequencies, OnePlus has given it a new voice coil and flat diaphragm for faster response. Using an electronic crossover, each driver is given smaller portions of the frequency response band to articulate, allowing each to specialize. The smaller driver with its flat diaphragm is designed to be faster, handling the more rapid waves of higher frequencies.
Both of these drivers are powered by a new DAC system, dedicating separate chips to each driver. A DAC, or Digital-to-Analog converter, is a specialized chip you’ll find in any device that plays digital audio. Higher quality DACs result in higher quality sound. Providing an individual DAC to each driver helps prevent audio distortions and enhance the clarity of what reaches your ear.
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 - Sound Quality, Control, and App Support
The most important aspect of any pair of earbuds is how they sound and the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are no slouch. Using its driver system, the default sound profile is rich and full. The bass is powerful but not overwhelming and reaches very deep. For electronic music like Chillstep, it often feels like you can feel the bass vibrating in your ear. It’s tight and detailed, not just quantity for quantity’s sake.
The mids are smooth but forward. Adele sounded fantastic on them, lush and rich and bluesy. Iron Maiden’s The Trooper was just as good, and I was pleased to find that the overdriven guitars were represented well and with a glassy smoothness. The treble tuning is also well done, airy and offering lots of detail without sounding sharp.
In short, they’re tuned great. For this release, OnePlus teamed up with DynAudio, famous for its loudspeakers, and they’ve done a great job.
But you should throw it right out the window. Using the app, HeyMelody on non-OnePlus devices, you can access what the company calls Golden Sound custom tuning. It’s essentially a hearing test but adjusts the frequency response to your actual ears, giving you a similar tuning but with certain frequencies bumped or reduced based on the results of your test. I noticed an immediate improvement for the better.
Spatial audio is also available within the app. It doesn’t need any special licensed content to work. It simply processes whatever audio is playing and presents it in a 360-degree sound field. It works well for music and enhances the width of the soundstage but isn’t great for dialogue where it mainly just sounds like the characters are talking in a tiled bathroom.
Finally, I have to give kudos to OnePlus for how it’s integrated the earbuds’ controls. It’s a mix of pinches and swipes and provides full access to volume, media, and call controls on both earbuds. There is a slight learning curve, but if you’re used to taps on most other mainstream earbuds, the pinches work similarly and it doesn’t take long to adapt to. There’s also a sound indicator every pinch that sounds like a button press, which is nice, and volume is intuitively tied to swiping up or down on the stem. Impressively, I didn’t have any problems with triggering them by accident either. It’s very well done and means you won’t sacrifice any controls, even if you’re a single-earbud listener.
Final Thoughts
Taken as a whole package, the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 blew me away. They quickly became my go-to pair of true wireless earbuds, dethroning my Sennheiser and Bose flagships. They’ll retail for $179.99 when they hit Amazon, estimated to be late September to early October, but are $149.99 directly from OnePlus. At that price, they’re one of the best deals in true wireless audio today.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
