OnePlus has made a living off of challenging the price of items in the mobile market. Value is a real element of OnePlus and its ethos. The company started this journey with smartphones, but continues to also do this in the accessories division as well. I’ve spent a few weeks now with the new OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro, and I think the company builds on that legacy with these earbuds.
Design and comfort
Out of the box, the OP Nord Buds 3 Pro headphones are easily mistaken for any other earbuds. This isn’t a bad thing, as after testing numerous earbuds, the stemmed-style design is the best for most people. Is it a little boring at this point? Sure, but OnePlus makes sure it works well here.
The teardrop earpiece has a silicone covering that fits firm, but comfortable inside the ear and lends to environmental noise cancellation to go along with the hardware filtering. The top of the earpiece houses a proximity sensor that allows the Nord Buds 3 Pros to pause audio automatically when you remove them from your ears.
Finally, on the outside of the stems, you have the capacitive area for controls. I found the strip easy to access when needed and rarely hit this accidentally. OnePlus did a great job of balancing this function of not activating while repositioning the earbuds, but still making it accessible when needed.
App controls
Moving further into the capacitive area, these controls can be customized via the Hey Melody app on all non-OnePlus devices, including Android and iPhones. The same menus can be found inside the Settings on OnePlus phones, furthering the ecosystem integration.
Controls that can be dictated via these methods include changing the defaults for single, double, and long-pressing the capacitive strip on each Nord Buds 3 Pro earbuds. Here you can set options to each of these combinations for things like play/pause, forward/skip, or even volume levels. All of this flexibility is well done, and you are greeted with an easy tutorial when you first launch the Settings or Hey Melody.
Another feature you’ll find in the same software stacks are firmware updates. OnePlus regularly pushes bug fixes and stability changes to its devices, and the Nord Buds 3 Plus are no different. I’ve received two new updates in my testing period alone to help improve call quality and some general connection bugs.
Sound
I’ll admit that OnePlus usually has some of the best sounding earbuds on the market. The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro buds are just as good as previous models. The overall sound is excellent and balanced, but where they stand out is with the bass.
Bass is punchy and forces its way through the mids and highs when needed. It doesn’t drown out the other tuning when it’s not needed, either. OnePlus has found a nice default EQ setting out of the box with the Nord Buds 3 Pros.
Active noise cancellation is also superb. Many times you cant’ tell much rotating through the profiles on wireless earbuds. This is not the case with the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pros at all. You can tell that outside noise takes a dive once you turn on ANC.
The one knock might be call microphones. I had some callers tell me I sounded muffled or echoed when in longer conversations. It could have been isolated instances of bad connections as well, but I haven’t had the issue with other options, so it’s worth a mention.
Battery life
Another knock of the ANC features is battery life is good, but not industry leading by any means. OnePlus rates the Nord Buds 3 Pros to perform around 5.5 hours per charge at around fifty percent volume. I’ve found this to be accurate. I think for $80 price of entry, most should be around seven hours plus.
Even with this slight negative, for comparison, the Pixel Buds get similar battery life. The good news is you can increase this to around 12 hours per charge if you turn off the active noise cancellation. You also get quick charge that can increase the capacity by four hours with just ten minutes on the charger.
I do wish these earbuds supported wireless charging. While it’s not a deal-breaker, much of the competition at this price tag offer this. OnePlus seems to actively avoid Qi charging on most of its devices. The company has its reasons, but when much smaller manufacturers offer this on a regular basis it looks somewhat tone deaf.
Awarded to products with an average rating of 3.75 stars or higher, the AndroidGuys Smart Pick recognizes a balance of quality, performance, and value.
Products with this distinction deserve to be on your short list of purchase candidates.
Final thoughts
OnePlus is slowly building an ecosystem that truly rivals the likes of Apple and Samsung. The new Nord Buds 3 Pro earbuds add to this lineup, offering superb audio, ANC, and decent battery life for wireless listening. If you are an Android user, the quick pair and Find My makes these well worth consideration.
You can snag this latest OnePlus creation via the company’s website for $80 full retail. These earbuds are sporting two color options of Starry Black and Soft Jade. At this time of this post, we don’t have a valid Amazon sale page, but you have to think that’s coming in the future as well.
Purchase the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro from OnePlus.com
