1 day Ago By Firstpost
Pros: - Punchy sound output after a few tweaks - More sound adjustments available in the companion app - Good ANC for the segment - Customisable controls, volume control on the buds - Comfortable in-ear fit, wear detection sensors - IP55 dust and fluid resistance - Impressive battery backup with ANC off, fast charging - Good call quality, dual pairing support Cons: - Default sound is extremely bass-heavy - Unique Nord Buds designed replaced with something unoriginal - Competition has better codec support in the price bracket Price: Rs 3,299 Rating: 3.8/5 The OnePlus Nord Buds have been unique in more ways than one. And it is not just their design that I speak of.
Despite being the company’s most affordable TWS (true wireless) earbuds series, it was the first one to get custom audio presets back then, a feature that was later added to OnePlus’ more premium earbuds. Nord Buds 2 added active noise cancellation (ANC) under Rs 3,000 in addition to further refinements to audio and call quality. We now have the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro for review.
If Nord Buds Pro or Nord Buds 2 Pro do not ring a bell, it’s not your fault because they did not exist. The Pro variant of the Nord Buds starts from this generation. So what Pro features does it offer? How does it perform? How much more do I need to spend to buy these? Time to answer all these questions and more.
OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro: Design and Comfort (7.5/10) The design of the Nord Buds has always been unique..
. until now! OnePlus took a different design approach with the first Nord Buds with the unique pill-shaped stems, which was refined further in the Nord Buds 2 and 2r. Unfortunately, OnePlus has opted to drop it in favour or something unoriginal in the Nord Buds 3 series.
It is pretty much a replica of the Oppo Enco Air4 Pro as you can see from the image. One can safely say that the Nord Buds 3 Pro design is as original as OxygenOS now. Though it feels more like an Oppo product than a OnePlus (yes, we are aware of the connection between the two brands), it doesn’t look bad at all.
The ‘tasteful speckled accents’ have been retained; the fine grains/dots that I mistook for dust last time. The smooth matte finish makes the product look polished and keeps the charging case and the back of the earbuds pretty much smudge-free. The earbud stems are fairly short and have an interesting shape - narrow at the top and broader and rounded at the bottom; it looks good.
The charging case is significantly more compact and a lot more pocketable now. Battery capacity is slightly reduced at 440 mAh from 480 mAh previously. A charge indicator LED is located at the front of the case, while a USB-C charging port along with a neatly camouflaged Bluetooth pairing/reset button are present at the bottom.
The buds are fairly light at 4.4 grams each, while the weight of the case has been kept under 40 grams. The earbuds sit comfortably in the ear with a snug fit, and do not pop out even during a workout or a jog.
The right-sized silicon tips offer decent passive noise isolation and eventually help in improving ANC too. The touch zones at the back are slightly dented to let your fingers know where to tap. The touch sensitivity is good and the buds produce a small beep every time you tap in the zone.
The earbuds are IP55 rated dust and splash-resistant, but the charging case does not have any ingress protection. OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro: Features and Specifications (8/10) Each earbud is fitted with a 12.4 mm dynamic driver with titanized diaphragm; same as its predecessor.
The buds now have an extra microphone (3 each) for calling and ANC. The buds claim to offer 49 db noise cancellation and you also get varying degrees of ANC, which I will talk about in a bit. The Nord Buds 3 Pro are graced with dual-pairing support and wear detection sensors (first Nord Buds to have either) to pause the audio when you take a bud out the ear and resume when you put it back in.
While the Bluetooth version has been upgraded from 5.3 to 5.4, the codec support remains the same - SBC and AAC.
You don’t need to install any app if you use these buds with a OnePlus phone from this decade. You get access to various settings of the buds in the Bluetooth settings itself. For other phones, you will need to install the HeyMelody app to access the same features.
The app is available for Android and iOS both. You get to alter the sound output using a 6-band equaliser or a Bass Wave slider, adjust the degree of noise cancellation, configure the controls and update the firmware. You can assign play/pause, previous/next track, voice assistant or nothing to single tap, double tap and triple tap gestures.
Touch-and-hold lets you switch between ANC modes. Long touch and hold lets you increase or decrease the volume; again a first for the Nord series earbuds. OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro: Performance (7.
5/10) Loudness has never been an issue on Nord Buds, and the Buds 3 Pro too are perfectly audible in the 50 per cent to 60 per cent volume range even when outdoors. The latency is low enough when watching visual content, and there was no perceptible lag between the video and audio when streaming videos from OTT platforms. The wireless range is as advertised with a strong connection up to 10 metres with a clear line of sight.
Moving on to the sound quality, staying true to its ancestry, the default sound signature of the Nord Buds 3 Pro on the ‘Balanced’ preset is distinctly bass-heavy with subdued mids and highs. On top of that, you have a Bass preset which can be overbearing even for bassheads. For some reason, OnePlus has skipped the Bold preset, which I generally find to be the best of the lot.
However, the Serenade preset here is better than usual and offers a superior tonal balance with cleaner mids (otherwise masked by the excess bass) and prominent highs. If history has taught us anything about the Nord Buds, it is best to leave the presets alone and head straight to the 6-band Sound Master EQ (Equaliser) and create a custom sound profile. A good idea would be to lower the upper bass and boost the mids and highs as displayed in the image below.
Of course, feel free to play with the equaliser till you get the best possible result that suits your taste. And you can create multiple profiles that can be used in different genres of music. You also get a BassWave slider here, which is better suited to lower the bass than to bump it up.
After a few sound tweaks, the Nord Buds 3 Pro sound a lot better than what they do out of the box. They produce an energetic sound output with a better balance and sharpness, but still with ample bass. The soundstage here is not too broad and the instrument separation is average at best.
All said and done, the sound quality of these earbuds, though not groundbreaking, is perfectly fine for the segment. If you love some extra bass (probably 75 per cent of its target audience does), you will totally dig these earbuds. The active noise cancellation on the Nord Buds 3 Pro has seen a massive jump from 25 dB on the Nord Buds 2 to 49 db here across a 4KHz frequency band.
Numbers aside, the ANC here is noticeably better than before, especially in the High ANC mode. It significantly reduces several low frequency ambient sounds like the whirr of a fan or the sound of car engines and a bit of the background chatter too in public transport. However, it tends to build a bit of pressure in the ears that can get uncomfortable for some.
The solution is to switch to Moderate mode, which though not as effective, is useful and keeps things a lot more comfortable in the ears and also consumes less battery. There’s personalised noise cancellation too, but in my case, it just switched the ANC level to High when turned on. The Transparency mode here is average at best and could have done with a bit of boost to the vocals.
It does keep you aware of your surroundings, but you often need to strain your ears to have a chat with someone with the buds in your ears, especially in noisy areas. OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro: Call quality (7.5/10) The call quality on these earbuds is quite good indoors and more than decent in noisy outdoors.
People on the line were clearly audible to each other for most part. When outdoors, the background noise is kept in check, though it cannot eliminate it entirely. Having said that, the voice quality doesn’t get impacted too much even in noisy areas.
The Nord Buds 3 Pro is one of the better options for calling in this budget. OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro: Battery life (8.5/10) All the Nord series earbuds have always had impressive battery backup, this one is no different.
The company claims 5.5 and 12 hours of audio playback for the buds with ANC on and off respectively, and 20 and 44 hours overall with the charging case in similar operating conditions. With the loudness mostly under 60 per cent during my testing, the earbuds actually managed to match those figures with the buds going on for close to 5.
5 hours with Moderate ANC and double that without ANC. With the charging case, that translated into an overall battery backup between 20 to 40 hours depending on your ANC usage, which is quite impressive, especially the figures without ANC. And they support fast charging too! A 10-minute charge promises close to 11 hours of playtime with the buds and case combined without ANC, which is equally impressive.
The buds can be charged fully in less than an hour, while the case takes 20 to 30 more minutes to get to 100 per cent. OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro: Price and verdict The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro can be purchased for Rs 3,299 with a one year warranty. That makes it just a few hundred Rupees pricier than the Nord Buds 2, but you get enough extras like better ANC, wear detection, dual-pairing etc to justify the premium.
Given its overall performance and customisations available, it wouldn’t have been hard to recommend this pair straight away, but the competition is quite stiff in this segment, and one in particular. The CMF Buds Pro 2, which is generally a thousand Rupees more expensive, now sells for Rs 3,499. It offers similar features, but the sound quality is significantly better, courtesy of dual drivers, LDAC codec support and better tuning by Nothing.
That makes it an easy choice for those looking for a more balanced and refined sound output with a broader soundstage. The unique Smart Dial is a neat little bonus. The Nord Buds 3 Pro would be better suited for those looking for a more bass-heavy sound, better battery backup and a polished design.
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