It used to be necessary to look to the major brands, such as Bose or Sony, when looking for quality headphones or earbuds. But these days, a lot of phone providers have their own surprisingly good earbuds. OnePlus is one such instance; the OnePlus Buds 3 was just unveiled.
OnePlus Buds 3 falls squarely between the company’s less expensive Nord-branded earphones and the Pro alternatives, building on what the company learnt with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 last year. The OnePlus Buds 3’s built-in functions and audio are decent for their low price of $99, but occasionally they make their budget point quite apparent. The OnePlus Buds 3 have been my go-to headphones for listening to audio for the greater part of two weeks, and I must say that I’m quite impressed, especially considering their price.
Audio quality
Many businesses just do it wrong when it comes to midrange earphones. Either the earbuds’ features are inadequate, or they cut corners with regard to audio quality. With the OnePlus Buds 3, that isn’t the case. Although my OnePlus Buds 3 doesn’t sound quite as nice as my Pixel Buds Pro or AirPods Pro, they still perform remarkably well in terms of providing functionality and high-quality audio that you might not anticipate from a midrange pair of earphones.
The audio quality is passable right out of the box, if not very noteworthy. You’ll have access to a plethora of options from within the settings of your phone if you pair the headphones with a OnePlus phone, such as the recently released OnePlus 12. To optimize the sound quality of these earphones, utilize the HeyMelody companion software if you own an iPhone or another kind of Android phone. Usually, I don’t like downloading many applications to control one device. Still, I have to admit that the HeyMelody app was quite straightforward to set up, and the various features—which I’ll go over shortly—made it well worth utilizing.
With these earphones, I have listened to everything that sounds wonderful, including songs by Noah Kahan, some of Metallica’s earlier albums, and the most recent hits from Hozier. Everything sounds excellent, especially after adjusting the HeyMelody equalization a little.
In addition to supporting AAC and SBS codecs, these earbuds also support LHDC 5.0, which is less prevalent on high-end smartphones. Furthermore, I saw that there was no drop in quality when switching between devices. The OnePlus 12’s earbuds produced a sound quality that was the same as that of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Pixel 8 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Although I wasn’t expecting a $100 pair of earphones to sound like a professional setup, the microphone quality isn’t the finest overall. Even in somewhat busier settings, like the grocery store, it’s more than clear enough for talks.
Battery life
Another item that was marginally better than I had anticipated was battery life. Even with active noise cancelling (ANC) turned on, OnePlus says the Buds 3 can last for up to 6.5 hours on a single charge. That feels very true based on my experience with the Buds 3, and I never felt that the battery would run out before I finished listening.
Additionally, they charge very quickly with the USB-C cords that OnePlus offers, and you won’t have to worry about plugging in the charging case for up to three more charges. The battery life is good.
Features and fit
Here’s where the OnePlus Buds 3 really starts to shine, in my opinion. The OnePlus Buds 3 provides a ton of capabilities that you may anticipate from more expensive earbuds, even if they are priced in the medium. These capabilities, which enable me to quickly transition between listening to game audio on the Steam Deck and taking phone conversations, include active noise cancellation (ANC), a transparency mode (more on that in a moment), the ability to employ fast pair and even multipoint connectivity.
However, many of the truly good features are only available if you utilize the HeyMelody app, which lets you make a “Golden Sound” profile. According to OnePlus, technology maps your ears to produce music specifically tailored to your ear configuration. It’s an intriguing function, and when I turned it on, I did notice a slight change. However, since the earbuds sound good even without Golden Sound, it isn’t exactly a selling factor.
During more intensive testing, it did take some adjusting to get the Buds 3 to stay in my ear, but overall, they are rather pleasant. But because they are so light, it was simple to forget I was wearing them when they were there. The touch controls, which are located on each bud, are also very simple to use, but occasionally, I would press them by mistake when readjusting the fit within my ear. It’s difficult to dock the OnePlus for that, as it’s an issue with most earphones.
What needs work
In spite of all the positive aspects, there are a few drawbacks to the OnePlus Buds 3 that warrant discussion. Most notably, the Buds 3’s ANC isn’t very good. It does indeed filter out some noise, but it allows in a lot of other noise as well. Additionally, I found that when I switched to transparency mode, the background noise and voices in the workplace became significantly quieter. This suggests that transparency mode is more effective at blocking out noise than ANC mode.
I’m not sure if this is a result of a system problem or something else entirely, but it made me miss my Google Pixel Buds Pro’s fantastic ANC. While using the HeyMelody app, I, too, experienced some connectivity problems. The Buds 3 connected to my Mac and phone without any problems; however, the software kept saying that I needed to connect before I could access them. I would then get a timeout message stating that the connection was unavailable whenever I attempted to connect. Again, I could have just been experiencing a glitch or issue, but it’s important to note that my usage was affected.
The final verdict
All in all, I’m really happy with the OnePlus Buds 3, and I wouldn’t regret spending the $100 if I had bought them myself. Though I believe most people will find the OnePlus Buds 3 to be a fairly good pair of earbuds, especially considering their $100 price tag, the ANC might be improved. Although they won’t offer the superior quality associated with more costly earbuds, they do have several features that are uncommon in the medium, which is a pleasant perk.
