Along with the OnePlus Pad 2 and Nord 4, the company also launched the Nord Buds 3 Pro, not to be confused with the upcoming flagship OnePlus Buds 3 Pro. Available for Rs 3,299, it goes directly against the likes of the Oppo Enco Air3 and JBL Tune 235NC.
Let us try and check how these measure up.
The Nord Buds 3 Pro follow the stem-like design with a more curved design than what we have seen from Nord buds before. Both buds have two physical and one digital mic with the touch-sensitive area near the top of both stems. These come in an oval-shaped matte finish plastic case that has a small LED indicator and the OnePlus branding on the front and a physical pairing mode button and USB type C port towards the bottom.
Both earbuds are IP55 dust and water resistant but the case isn’t. The buds weigh 4.4 grams each while the case adds about 38 grams.
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I found the buds to be really comfortable to wear along and didn’t have any trouble with their in-ear fit during my usage. The eartips snugged in well enough and didn’t drop while having them on for commuting or just walking around. You do get two extra pairs of different-sized ear tips inside the box.
When paired to a OnePlus device, you can change tap settings from pause or play to switching between noise cancellation and transparency mode, or either volume up or down but not both using the inbuild Bluetooth settings.
On a non-OnePlus device, you can sue the HeyMelody app. The tap mechanism works fine but isn’t the most reliable that I have tried on a pair of OnePlus buds in terms of accidental touches. These wireless buds carry 12.4mm drivers, support Bluetooth 5.4 with dual connection and have AAC and SBC audio codecs.
There is also Google Fast Pair for pairing with OnePlus’ own devices and other Android devices. Though there is no Windows’ Swift Pair, I didn’t have any trouble connecting it with Windows laptops.
Talking about its audio quality, the buds are a bit heavy on the bass, which is also what OnePlus mentions in its marketing material.
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You do get clear vocals and decent treble but it isn’t the best for this price range with bass overtaking other background instruments at times. Detailed audio output isn’t this pair’s strength but for things like pop music and Bollywood tracks it does a decent job when it comes to high pitched notes and strings.
I found its active noise cancellation to be decent when compared to the likes of Oppo and JBL, with transparency mode doing a good job of amplifying your surrounding sounds when enabled. It of course sounds best with both noise cancellation and transparency switched off.
Powered by 58mAh battery on both buds and 440mAh on the carrying case, the buds last a whole week with 3-4 hours of daily use with ANC switched on for about half the time. And with no ANC, you can go a couple more days quite comfortably. With no case involved, expect to have 5 hours or so with an hour or so of ANC in use.
Voice quality when making calls with the pair on is sufficiently loud and clear and doesn’t struggle much when used outdoors, too.
The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro aren’t quite a home run when it comes to true wireless earbuds today under 4k. They do have long battery life and are really comfortable to wear for longer duration. While at the same time have decent sound quality at best compared to the competition.
