OnePlus Buds 3 Review: New Buds with the OG OP spirit

When OnePlus made its first appearance in the market, it was in the form of a brand that fought on offering near flagship level products at staggeringly affordable prices, and often just above mid-segment (the first OnePlus phone had a sub-Rs 20,000 starting price). The years that have passed have seen OnePlus move beyond the confines of a price warrior and become comfortable across all price segments, but sometimes, a product comes along that reminds one of the OG OnePlus. And the OnePlus Buds 3, the brand’s latest TWS, do just that.

At Rs 5,999 (sometimes lower), the OnePlus Buds 3 are significantly less expensive than their predecessors, the OnePlus Buds Pro and the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 (and Pro 2R). They cut a few corners but still deliver a surprisingly good performance in the best OG OnePlus tradition, making them sharks in an ocean of budget audio mediocrity.

OnePlus Buds 3 Design: Sticking to very strong basics

The OnePlus Buds 3 stick to the broad design outline of the Buds Pro and the Buds Pro 2. You get buds with prominent, metal-colored stems. We got the rather sober and steady metallic grey variant, but those who want their buds to exude some snazz and jazz (and play it, too) would be better off going with the decidedly more funky-looking splendid blue option. The buds are mainly made of plastic and come with a touch panel for regulating volume.

Their case is square-ish, like its predecessors, with a shiny OnePlus logo on top (there is no DynAudio tie-up with this one). There is a tiny LED on the case to show the battery level and a button inside the case for connectivity. On the back of the case is a Type C port for charging the device.

The buds have a reassuringly solid feel to them and are under 5 grams. They are light enough to be worn for a reasonably long period of time. The case is about 40 grams and is compact enough to be easily slipped inside a trouser pocket without any unseemly bulges. The buds come with IP55 dust and water resistance, which makes them good enough to be used in the gym and for strolls in light rainfall, but they cannot be taken swimming. The case itself has no IP rating. All in all, the OnePlus Buds 3 are smart in black and jazzy in blue.

OnePlus Buds 3 ease of use: Simple enough, with volume controls right on the buds

The OnePlus Buds 3 are super easy to set up. You just need to press the button on the case until the LED outside starts blinking, putting the buds in pairing mode. The buds connect to OnePlus devices directly, and through the HeyMelody app on iOS as well as Android devices. There is an ear tip fit test, allowing you to get the best fit (there are two additional ear tips in the box). The buds are comfortable enough to wear and fit snugly enough to keep a lot of ambient noise out even without ANC (more on which later).

The controls are simple enough. Double tapping on the stem takes you to the next track, and triple tapping takes you to the previous track. Pressing and holding the stem allows you to switch between different noise control methods, and sliding your finger up and down the stem regulates volume. There’s no function allotted to the single tap (to prevent commands from being executed by accidental touches) – you can set it to play/pause if you wish. You can also change the functions of double tapping and triple tapping and use them to invoke a virtual assistant or get into gaming mode. It is a simple enough control system – you just have to remember to tap the back of the stem rather than its sides. It took us a bit of time to adjust to the slide to adjust volume controls, but we got the hang of the controls in a day or two.

Our main problem with using the buds was that they sometimes stayed connected to devices even when they had been returned to the case. The earbuds also come with the ‘pause play’ feature, which pauses audio when you take one of them out of your ears and resumes when you place it back- however, it takes a few seconds to actually pause audio on non-OnePlus phones, although it resumes almost immediately when you place the bud back in your ear.

OnePlus Buds 3 Audio: Good sound, with not quite as much bass

In terms of audio quality, the OnePlus Buds 3 delivers reasonably good audio quality. We would rate them as being closer to the Nord series rather than their Pro predecessors, although they are not as bass-y as them. In fact, we found the OnePlus Buds 3 to have a slightly V-shaped sound signature, with decent treble and bass but sometimes slightly suppressed mids.

As a result, while podcasts, rock, and country music sounded just fine, music with heavy instrumentation tended to sound a little crowded, and even vocals sometimes seemed a little lost. Fortunately, the HeyMelody app and the settings in OnePlus give one access to an equalizer so we were able to fix this issue easily – Serenade mode is perfect for those who want slightly more stress on vocals, and there is a mode for boosting bass as well. Volume levels are very impressive – OnePlus says the buds come with dual drivers. Get your settings right, and the audio will sound great.

Incidentally, we found the audio quality to be discernibly better and volumes a little higher on the OnePlus 12 and 12R than on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The buds come with support for high-resolution LHDC, and if you are a discerning listener, you will notice greater clarity when in this mode, although casual users will not spot it. There is also support for 3D audio, but truth be told, we were not overly impressed by it. The OnePlus Buds generally sound good with plenty of volume, and with some equalizer tweaks, they can be used with just about every genre of sound. There is a bit of latency while gaming (yes, even when using gaming mode), but we think that in terms of overall audio quality, these are very good mainstream TWS. Purists might want more detail, but by and large, we think that if what you want are TWS that generally sound good, these more than suffice.

OnePlus Buds 3 ANC and calls: Good at Max, steady otherwise

The OnePlus Buds 3 come with active noise cancellation (ANC), and while they are no match for their Pro predecessors, the ANC they deliver is useful enough to handle mildly noisy conditions. We have used them in crowded cafes, and they did lessen the murmur of conversation. They also took some of the sting out of traffic noise, although they were unable to kill a lot of it, like the OnePlus Buds Pro 2.

There are three levels of ANC in the app – Max, Moderate, and Mild – and a smart mode, which tries to adjust the level of ANC depending on the ambient noise. While the smart mode does work to an extent, we would recommend using the ANC on Max mode or not at all, as the lower levels of ANC are not that noticeable. The transparency mode is excellent, though, allowing you to hear ambient sounds clearly and be aware of your surroundings.

One department where the OnePlus Buds 3 do a very good job indeed is in handling calls. Most people we talked to using these buds could not find out we were speaking to them on TWS. They definitely are on par with their Pro bros in that regard. Again, it is worth noting that the ANC performance of the buds was significantly better when paired with the OnePlus 12 than that of other brands.

OnePlus Buds 3 battery life: Use prudently, get through a week

The OnePlus Buds 3 come with decent battery life. The buds themselves last about 5-6 hours with ANC on and at about 60-75 percent volume levels. With the case, we found ourselves getting around 25-26 hours. Turning the ANC off, however, improves battery life significantly, with close to ten hours on the buds and about 40 hours with the case. If you turn on the ANC when you really need it, there is a fair chance that you will sail through a week of normal to heavy use on the OnePlus Buds 3 on a single charge. The buds also come with a sort of fast charge, which gets you about 5-6 hours of use with ten minutes of charging the case with the buds inside. We would call the battery life of the OnePlus Buds 3 very good indeed. There is no wireless charging here, but we do not think that is a big factor in its price segment.

OnePlus Buds 3 pricing: Very very OG OP

The OnePlus Buds 3 are priced at Rs 5,999. This makes them the most affordable TWS in OnePlus’ number series (the brand also has the Nord and Z series, which are more budget-friendly) – the OnePlus Buds Pro were priced at Rs 9,990, while the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 were priced at Rs 11,999 and the Buds Pro 2R at Rs 9,999.

The pricing of the OnePlus Buds 3 is a very classic OnePlus – a surprisingly affordable price tag for a feature set and performance that seems to punch well above them. There are offerings from a number of other brands in the vicinity.

Still, in terms of an overall feature set, there are not too many that match it – the Headphonezone Lypertek X3 PurePlay Z3 delivers much better audio quality and battery life at the same price. Still, it has no ANC, and its call quality is not the greatest. Samsung’s Galaxy Buds FE turn in better audio performance and have better ANC but are more expensive at around Rs 7,499, while the Sennheiser CX True also deliver better sound but have no ANC and are priced at close to Rs 7,000.

OnePlus Buds 3 review verdict: Should you buy them?

The OnePlus Buds 3 are right out of the classic OG OP playbook – a product that has shades of premium and is well above the mid-segment in terms of features and performance and is just above mid-segment in terms of price.

There are a number of TWS that offer similar specs and features to the OnePlus Buds 3 (some from OnePlus itself) but do not have the same level of performance, and those that can beat the OnePlus Buds 3 in performance come at much higher features. Which is why we would say that if you are looking for a pair of recently released TWS that have good mainstream sound, premium features, and decent ANC, then the OnePlus Buds 3 are perhaps the best TWS less than Rs 6,000 can buy, and a no-brainer if you have a OnePlus.

They are a very easy recommendation for anyone seeking a very good TWS with ANC and premium features on a mid-segment budget. Just like the OG OP!

Buy OnePlus Buds 3