OnePlus Buds Pro

 

But while Apple and Samsung are no strangers to this game, this is OnePlus’ first foray into the somewhat premium portion of the wireless audio market, having made only entry-level models up to this point.

To their credit, the OnePlus Buds Pro come with a lot of features, including adaptive noise cancellation, transparency mode, a sound ID feature that customizes the sound to your hearing, water resistance for the buds and the case, wireless charging, and even a white noise mode for relaxation.

Having features is one thing but executing them effectively is another matter altogether. So today we’ll be taking a look at how well the OnePlus Buds Pro performs in real-life conditions, including testing all of their features and audio quality.

Design

The OnePlus Buds Pro has a really attractive design for the earbuds and the case. The case is compact and roughly the size and shape of a box of mints. It features a smooth matte texture with the OnePlus logo embossed on the top.

There are no other markings or text on the exterior. The only thing else you’ll find on the outside is a small LED on the front and a USB-C port on the back for charging.

 
Front • Back

Opening the lid feels much like opening a jewelry case. Swing the lid open and the earbuds sit more or less right on top rather than deep within the case.

The interior of the case continues the matte finish with only the depression for the earbuds having a glossy finish. If you look underneath the lid, then you’ll find all the unsightly regulatory markings hidden within the depression for the earbuds.

Inside the case, you’ll also find the button for pairing placed between the two earbuds.

Interestingly, while the matte finish on the exterior of the case is surprisingly smudge-resistant, the matte plastic on the inside gets stained quite easily.

The earbuds themselves are also quite stylish. They feature a two-tone design that includes matte plastic on top and glossy plastic below. It’s quite a striking design and even though the general shape is similar to the AirPods Pro, the overall appearance is quite distinctive and attractive. More so than the AirPods Pro, I’d say.

Apart from the Matte Black variant pictured here, the OnePlus Buds Pro also comes in Glossy White.

The OnePlus Buds Pro has ingress protection for both the earbuds as well as the case. The earbuds have an IP55 rating, meaning they are protected against dust and water. The case, meanwhile, has an IPX4 rating, which should protect it against splashes of water.

For the most part, the build quality, fit, and finish of the earbuds and the case are quite good. However, the lid of the case was a bit loose on our review unit and rocked side to side when closed.

 

Hardware

The OnePlus Buds Pro is pretty small at 3.2cm x 2.32cm and weighs just 4.35g, which contributes a lot to their comfort. Inside is a single 11mm dynamic driver with a 20-20,000Hz frequency range.

Interestingly, the earbuds can reach 102dB of SPL in India whereas they are limited to 98dB in other markets. This is apparently due to restrictions in several other countries regarding how loud headphones can be. Our review unit here is the Indian model, which means I have access to the full volume range, and no one can stop me from destroying my ears.

The OnePlus Buds Pro support active noise cancelation, which is achieved using three microphones placed around each earbud. More on this later.

The earbuds also have pressure-sensitive stalks that can be squeezed to trigger various functions. You can squeeze once to play/pause, twice to go to the next track, and thrice by default to the previous track. The triple squeeze gesture can be customized to also launch the voice assistant instead.

  
Earbud controls

You can also squeeze and hold to cycle between the three noise-canceling modes. Like the AirPods Pro, you can choose to have all three (on, off, transparency) or any two. By default, on and transparency are selected.

The control mechanism for the earbud works really well and is one of the most pleasant methods I’ve seen employed on wireless earbuds. The stalks are very responsive and every squeeze is responded with a ticking sound in the earbuds. While there is a small concern of upsetting the seal and placement of the earbuds every time you touch the stalks, it beats having to tap and press the earbuds into your ears as seen on almost all other models.

The OnePlus Buds Pro support up to Bluetooth 5.2 but can only connect to one device at a time with no way to quickly switch between devices other than manually unpairing and pairing.

The codec support includes SBC, AAC, and LHDC v3. There’s no support for LDAC or any of the aptX variants.

The LHDC support is interesting. It is currently the least supported codec on the market. Within OnePlus’ product portfolio, only the latest Nord 2 supports it. OnePlus says that the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro will be getting LHDC support in a future software update, but it won’t be coming to older devices. The company also made the rather odd claim that none of the Nord phones will be getting LHDC support. But as I just mentioned, the latest Nord 2 does support this codec.

For those unaware, LHDC stands for Low latency HD audio codec and is created by Taiwanese audio company Savitch. Like LDAC, it is also certified for high-resolution audio as it supports up to 24-bit, 96kHz audio at up to 900kbps. Like LDAC, it also supports other bitrates, namely, 560kbps, 400kbps, and 256kbps. By default, the device will switch automatically based on connection strength. There’s no way to tell what bitrate is being used unless the user locks it manually through Android’s developer settings.

The LHDC implementation on the OnePlus Buds Pro has one limitation, wherein it is limited to 24-bit, 48kHz. This means it’s not quite high-resolution audio, although, to be fair, OnePlus doesn’t claim it to be, either. Still, for most content, a sampling rate of 48kHz will be adequate.

Software

All the customization happens within the software, which on OnePlus phones is done through the integrated OnePlus Buds app. This app presents itself as additional options within the Bluetooth settings when a compatible pair of earbuds are connected but is otherwise inaccessible directly. The experience is similar to using the settings within the Bluetooth menu for Apple AirPods models.