OnePlus Buds Pro 3 review

Prasad, 20 August 2024

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are the latest pair of true wireless earbuds from the company and the sequel to the 2023 OnePlus Buds Pro 2. The new model comes with all the bells and whistles, including a dual driver, dual DAC design with Dynaudio tuning, adaptive noise cancellation, pinch gestures, faux leather design, and spatial audio. They can even track the position of your neck, so you can finally stop slouching.

Today we will be evaluating OnePlus' newest flagship audio product and see how it stacks up in this competitive market.

Design and comfort

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 moves from the horizontal case design of the previous two models to a vertical layout. The cases of this generation have a two-tone design, with a leathery texture on the front and back and a metallic finish on the sides.

The exterior finish is neither real nor vegan leather but just hard plastic textured to look like leather. As such, it only looks like leather but the moment you hold the case in your hand, it's immediately apparent it's just plastic.

The front and back of the case have logos for OnePlus and Dynaudio, respectively. On the bottom is the charging port with an LED that indicates the charging status. On the right side is the pairing button.

Open the lid and you are greeted by the two earbuds and another LED for pairing status. The hinge on the lid is very well made with absolutely zero side-to-side movement.

The earbuds are beautifully designed with perfectly polished cylindrical stems. The glossy plastic switches to a matte-finished ring with the Dynaudio branding, just before it switches into the interior plastic. The interior plastic bits have the L and R logos carved into them that make them act like vents, much like on the Nord Buds 3 Pro.

The stems on the earbuds are pressure-sensitive and support gestures. You can squeeze the stems once, twice, or thrice for different gestures. There's also a volume adjustment gesture, which works by grabbing the stem like you would for a squeeze gesture but then sliding your index finger up and down rather than squeezing them.

Overall, despite the slightly plasticky feel of the fake leather on the outside, the case and the earbuds are well-designed and have good built quality. The earbuds are also IP55 certified, so that's a bonus.

In terms of comfort, the Buds Pro 3 are decent. The plastic shell is slightly chunky so even though it didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable in my ears, I could always feel their presence and not forget that I was wearing them. I did find the default ear tips, while supple, would slip out of the ears too easily. The left one would periodically get loose on its own and need to be readjusted.

Software and features

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are compatible with the HeyMelody app for Android and iOS. On OnePlus devices, the earbuds can be controlled through the Bluetooth settings. Either way, you are getting the same options.

The app features the usual assortment of settings; you can adjust the ANC, which in this case includes three levels of attenuation along with an automatic Smart mode, EQ, a Hi-Res mode toggle (enables sampling rates over 48kHz for LHDC), Golden Sound (customizes the tuning to your hearing), and Spatial Audio, which also includes head tracking through onboard motion sensors.

The app also lets you customize your earbud controls. You can customize single, double, and triple squeeze gestures, along with the slide gesture. As with other models, I've found squeeze gestures generally superior as they are tough to trigger accidentally when wearing or removing the earbuds.

ANC and EQ

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 also feature the neck vertebrae health feature that was added later for the Buds Pro 2. It uses onboard sensors to detect your neck position and using the OHealth app provides reminders to fix your posture.

The earbuds also have multi-device pairing, and you can manage all paired devices through the app. The feature is disabled by default so you will need the app to enable it.

Gestures • Golden Sound • Spatial Audio

On the HeyMelody app, you can enable a Game mode to reduce latency. On OnePlus devices, the paired device will automatically trigger the game mode when it detects a game being launched.

Finally, you can also update the firmware through the app. This is supposed to make the device better, but, as you'll soon see, can also make it worse.

Performance

Audio quality

Note: The audio section below has been updated to more accurately reflect the current retail firmware rather than the pre-release version in the original edit.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 feature a dual-driver design, which includes an 11mm woofer and a 6mm tweeter. Each driver also gets its dedicated DAC for reduced crosstalk, interference, and better power management.

The earbuds support SBC, AAC, and LHDC 5.0. There is no LDAC, which means for a vast majority of Android devices, you will be downgraded to AAC as LHDC is still fairly uncommon. There is also no Bluetooth LE audio or LC3 support.

OnePlus claims the Buds Pro 3 are tuned by Dynaudio. All the EQ presets in the app have a Dynaudio label next to them, even though four out of five presets are identical to what you find on almost every other OnePlus audio product. It's only the 'Dynaudio featured' preset that stands out as its description reads 'Balances bass, mids and treble to replicate the sound of Dynaudio speakers.'

Let’s start with the default tuning first. OnePlus’ so-called Balanced preset has always been anything but balanced and it’s no different here. It’s a fairly typical v-shaped tuning with a fairly hefty low-end boost married to piercing sharp highs. The sound is very energetic, for a lack of a better word. It’s the sort of tuning that may be instantly appealing to some but can get fatiguing when listening for longer durations.

By default, even with the BassWave feature disabled, the bass has a strong slam and impact with ample rumble. However, the bass rarely seeps into the lower mids and is largely well controlled without being overwhelming or overbearing. The mid-range is well-tuned for most of the lower and mid range, which gives good body and authority to vocals and instruments, even though the bass and treble can seem to dominate at times. The vocals also have a good timbre in general and sound natural.

Unfortunately, what lets the default tuning down is the treble, which is simply too hot, especially when using LHDC at higher bitrates. There is a lot of sizzle and shimmer in the upper registers, typically above 5K Hz, which creates a somewhat sibilant and at times cacophonic sound. This can make the sound tiresome to listen to for longer durations and forces you to listen to lower volumes.

As for the other presets, Bold reduces some of the mid-bass making the sound a bit leaner but still with the same sharp treble. Serenade is very vocal-forward with turned down bass and treble. It sounds a bit honky and the timbre is worse as a result. Bass is essentially the default Balanced preset but with even more bass.

Finally, there’s the Dynaudio preset. The original version of this review was focused on this preset and for good reasons. The tuning on the original 111.111.036 firmware was outstanding, with beautifully balanced bass, mids, and highs. Nothing felt out of place and it was easily some of the best tuning I have heard on a wireless audio product. However, OnePlus changed the tuning on later firmware versions, and this review is now based on current 129.129.036 firmware.

Unfortunately, this preset is nothing like the original. While it does balance low-bass and treble better than the default Balanced preset, it has a strange bump in the upper bass/lower mids region, which makes vocals extremely forward and unpleasant, more so than even the Serenade preset. It almost feels like it was done by accident as it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to listen to this tuning. However, OnePlus has issued multiple firmware updates since launch for the product and the tuning has remained unchanged after the initial switch so I have to assume this is the intended experience.

Moving on from the presets, OnePlus offers its usual six-band EQ so you can tune the sound to your liking, something I definitely recommend to turn the treble down. There is also a BassWave feature that lets you turn the bass up or down, much like Sony’s Clear Bass function.

One appreciable aspect of the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 sound is the level of detail, which is certainly higher than what one usually finds in Bluetooth audio products. Even if you don’t use LHDC, the overall resolve is pretty good and on par with some of the cheaper wired IEMs on the market.

The earbuds don’t especially impress with their spatial characteristics, with imaging and soundstage both being underwhelming by default. However, if you pair with a OnePlus phone, you can use Dolby Atmos in compatible apps, which does sound pretty decent.

Overall, the sound of the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 is good barring the aggressive treble by default. The nerfing of the Dynaudio preset from what it once was to what it is now is unfortunate but you can always just create your own preset using the EQ.

Microphone

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 have decent microphone performance. The audio is clear but the voice sounds a bit robotic. There is also a small amount of artifacting in the voice, which makes it sound a bit crunchy, for the lack of a better word.

However, the earbuds do a great job of masking background noise, even when it gets loud or windy. Your voice also remains understandable under these conditions. So while not the best overall, it's a decent setup for calls.

Noise cancellation

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 have adaptive noise cancellation, which means it adapts the level of noise isolation to your surroundings, even if you manually set it to the max level.

Noise cancellation on OnePlus earbuds has been great for some time now and the Buds Pro 3 are no exception. You get truly flagship-level noise cancellation here that works really well in almost every environment. It also adapts well to windy conditions, turning down the ANC level to eliminate the buffeting effect. I'm also particularly pleased with the way it tunes out voices in your surroundings, something they have focused on with this model. If there's anything they can improve upon, it's reducing the sound of keyboard clicks, as they do tend to come through probably more than they should.

The transparency mode also works well although there is some room for improvement. The sound is very natural but it seems to focus more on ambient noise patterns than, say, someone speaking to you. I think the transparency system should do the opposite of the ANC and prioritize voices more, especially for those in your immediate vicinity.

Latency

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 have excellent latency performance. Usually, wireless earbuds tend to rely on the game mode to bring down the delay but the Buds Pro 3 work incredibly well out of the box even with a desktop PC, which doesn't even have a companion app, let alone a game mode. Game mode makes this even better, making these perfectly viable for casual gaming.

Connectivity

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 had good connectivity performance during testing. Even when using the LHDC codec at 900kbps, the connection was stable while walking around the room, something you absolutely cannot take for granted on earbuds as this is not at all common.

The dual connection feature also worked well and it was pretty straightforward to pair the earbuds with, say, a PC and a phone. Once paired, you can change settings on the earbuds through the phone app even if it's playing audio from the PC.

Battery Life

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 have a claimed battery life of 6 hours with AAC and 5 hours with LHDC while playing music. With ANC disabled, OnePlus claims 10 hours for AAC with no claim for LHDC.

While the ANC on figures are the most relevant, it's not easy to test battery life with ANC on as it requires contact with skin (preferably your ears) to activate. It's also difficult to test with adaptive ANC as you need a constant background noise so it doesn't change levels throughout the test. This means the testing was only conducted with ANC disabled.

In this mode, I managed to get 8 hours and 47 minutes of usage out of the earbuds after continuous audio playback while using the LHDC codec. With AAC, you can probably expect an hour more, getting it close to the claimed 10-hour mark. OnePlus' claims are generally reliable, so this isn't surprising.

With that in mind, the 5 hours claimed figure with ANC and LHDC is fine but also a bit unremarkable.

Conclusion

The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are priced at $180 but can be had for $150. As usual, OnePlus is undercutting the bigger brands while more or less offering the same bells and whistles.

Outside of audio quality, the Buds Pro 3 is a very well-made product. It has good design and build quality, comfort, all the features you'd want, excellent noise cancellation, good microphone quality, great latency performance, and decent battery life. You basically have all the ingredients for a winner, especially for the price.

When it comes to audio quality, the Buds Pro 3 offer a detailed, high resolution sound. However, it is marred by a rather aggressive treble response, which can be quite sibilant and fatiguing to listen to. But if you don’t mind messing around with the EQ, you can get a pretty great sound.

Overall, the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are a great pair of wireless earbuds in their price range and worth your consideration.