Alongside the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R, the company has launched its latest audio product. The OnePlus Buds 3 packs in much of OnePlus’ audio technology but at the attractive price of $100.
The OnePlus Buds 3 look familiar. Strip away the color, and both the case and the Buds echo last year’s OnePlus Buds 2 Pro. From the blown cushion look of the case and recessed pairing button to the speaker bulb and capacitive stalks, OnePlus has stuck with the design. With the company also offering Buds in the Nord range, which captures a lower price point, the Buds 3 will take up the mid-point in the portfolio.
The recent launch of the OnePlus 12 and 12R saw the latter offer most of the functionality as the main phone but at a lower price. The Buds 3 feel like the 12R, albeit there are no Buds 3 Pro to compare them to—just last year’s Buds 2 Pro.
Fit-wise, much like the Buds 2 Pro, the Buds 3 sit nicely in the ear, with three sizes of silicon level to choose from. Sometimes, this can be a bit hit and miss, but the OnePlus software on the phone will let you know if you have a good fit or not for sound quality, which generally leads to a solid physical fit.
About that software… To get the full functionality out of the OnPlus Buds 3, you’ll need to either use a OnePlus device (in which case the software is built in) or download a standalone app if you are on an Android device. And I have issues with the OnePlus app team here because I looked through the listing on the Google Play Store and this app has not got a single official mention of OnePlus anywhere in the list. The closest you get is a contact email address to heytap.com, a Chinese website with no obvious links, connections, or mentions of OnePlus.
Hey Melody has all the hallmarks of a fake app hijacking search terms. it’s not; it really is the app you need, but I cannot fathom why the OnePlus team have not ensured this is clear in the app listing. App security is everyone’s responsibility.
With that said, the phone software drives the experience, tweaking the OnePlsu Buds 3 to your tastes. There are not actually that many options that break out of what you would expect in a decent pair of true wireless earbuds.
Soudnscape wise, you have both active noise cancellation and transparency for sound passthrough. The latter keeps you in touch with your local environment, while the former seeks to hide much of it from you. Buds, by their nature, are not going to keep out external sounds in the way that over-the-ear cans would, yet the ANC on show here can dull the environment sufficiently that a spoken word podcast is easy to listen to while stuck next to an aircraft engine in a bustling economy class cabin.
You have three levels of noise cancellation and a smart mode which switches between them to offer the best for your environment. It’s a nice thought, although everywhere I tried, which had noticeable noise levels, kept it in max mode.
OnePlus offers a number of features to tweak the sound to your tastes, including four preset EQ choices alongside a custom EQ level. The fourth, the toggle option for bass wave, is of most interest to me given my musical taste.
Getting a guttural rolling bass guitar driving through me is not easy from wireless buds. BassWave gets closer than most—the pain in Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” is rarely painful in my tests, but I can (just) feel the rumble start to tap on my skull with everything turned all the way. Almost as importantly the guitar licks in the high register remain light and stay separated from the bass, but there is a tendency in a wall of sound-styled track for the lighter tones to get washed out.
Part of the joy in listening is thanks to OnePlus’ 3D Audio mode. When you have modern music files that support this, the experience of playing different sounds and instruments around your head is stunning (although unlike the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, which has spatial tracking placing things physically in the room, the Buds 3 locks into your ears, so the sounds stay fixed to you.
The trick is to get that effect on everything, which is where OnePlus’ rendering looks to generate this on the fly. It’s not perfect; sounds aren’t focused in specific locations. Rather the sounds are “spaced out” around my head rather than the classic stereo effect of placing them in my head. It’s just as effective on the latest digital download from Norwegian folk-electronica Gåte as it is with the rip of my beloved vinyl of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”. It’s not a magical transformation, but it helps the sounds I listen to. If you think of it as a musical separator rather than a spatial generator, you’ll be on the right track.
The OnePlus Buds 3 are comfortable to wear, and the case is a good size for travelling with. While there are some compromises compared to last year’s Buds 2 Pro, the choices made do not have a huge impact on my listening experience (although I’m sure the audiophiles will have a graph ready to show the exact frequencies that are missing),
I’d like to have more power in the noise cancellation and more definition in “busy” audio. For lighter pop, jazz, and spoken word—where the audio is very much middle of the road—it’s hard to fault the audio reproduction. Bonus points also for OnePlus’ battery life estimates, which are around ten percent lower than my real-world results.
With a clean sound, solid battery life, and is comfortable to wear for long periods. At $100, the OnePlus Buds 3 are a competitive choice for a new pair of wireless buds.
Now read my thoughts on the OnePlus 12R….
Disclaimer: OnePlus provided a set of OnePlus Buds 3 for review purposes.
