Bluetooth headphones have come a long way now! Gone are the days of wearing ugly one-sided earphones and frequent disconnection worries. Right now, we have numerous Bluetooth earphones in various sizes, shapes, and prices, thanks to consumer preference for the enhanced audio experience.
One such is Neckband-styled Bluetooth earphones that are taking the market by storm, thanks to their stylish, attractive, and tangle-free design. Further, the portability of the product made it popular among youths, fitness enthusiasts, and much more.
In this regard, Realme is one of the many OEMs to launch neckband-style earphones in the Indian market. But, it is indeed the first company to launch a neckband with Active Noise Cancellation and Super Low Latency Gaming Mode — realme Buds Wireless Pro under Rs. 4000. In this review, let’s find out how good is the Wireless neckband for its pricing.
Design
realme Buds Wireless Pro almost features the same design as its predecessor with few tweaks here and there. It comes with a flexible rubber neckband with a metal+plastic chamber at the ends.
The buttons — Volume control, multifunction/pairing, and ANC/Transparency mode, are present on the right side of the module. Further, the right side of the module also has a USB Type-C port under the rubber flap. The left module just has very lightly written realme branding. The module and buds are connected by a yellow (in our case) rubber cable of good quality. The buds, made out of plastic, sports a matte and gloss finish. The rear housing of each bud houses a ring-like design, with magnets that let users turn it off just by attaching the headphones. Compared to its predecessor, the magnets are strong, buttons are tactile, and has been built out of the best materials, in our opinion.
Overall, the build quality is robust, and the earphones are quite lightweight, making them easy to carry around. The realme Buds Wireless Pro comes in Disco Green and Party Yellow colours. It’s worth noting that the realme Buds Wireless Pro also supports an IPX4 rating, which is good to prevent it from sweat/rain/water.
Performance
The Buds Wireless Pro comes with a 13.6mm bass boost driver and supports Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), a 119ms latency, and various codecs including, SBC, AAC, and LDAC Hi-Res codec. We tried it with various phones including, the OnePlus 8T, LG V30 Plus, iPhone XR, and OnePlus Nord.
During our usage, we had no problem with the connection, no lag issues as well. In this regard, the Buds Wireless Pro also supports Google Fast Pair, which directly goes into pairing mode enabling a single-tap connection. Switching between two paired devices are just a double-tap away (double press the Noise Cancellation button), but there is no information on multipoint connectivity.
The realme Buds Wireless Pro offers an excellent sound quality, has a punchy bass, and doesn’t overpower the mids, highs, and lows. Even after cranking up to the higher volume, the sound doesn’t distort, which is impressive.
The Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is good at cutting down the low-frequency noise, however, it is not up to the mark in the case of high-frequency sounds like ceiling fans, AC compressor, and my MacBook Air as well. The transparency mode works fine for most of the part, enhancing background sounds to an extent. This option comes in handy when it comes you are at places like the airport or railway station.
In terms of call quality, the results were mostly mixed and depended entirely on the environment you are in.
realme Link
The realme Link app offers various options to tweak the Buds Pro earphones. Right from the app, users can change the modes between Noise Cancellation, General, Transparency, Turn on/off Game mode, and volume enhancer. Further, there are options to customise the functionalities of multifunction and noise-canceling buttons as well. The app also shows the battery status of the earphones, and tapping the two dots in the top right corner, will take you to the firmware update menu as well.
Battery
The realme Buds Wireless Pro comes with a 160mAh battery, and the company claims that the device offers 22 hours of total playback without ANC, 16 hours with ANC, 5-min charge can provide you with 1.7 extra hours of music. So far, battery life is good and offers a day and half of the juice comfortably on mixed ANC high-usage at volume level around 70%. In terms of charging, it takes around 1 hour 30 minutes to charge from 0 to 100% full.
Conclusion
At Rs. 3,999, realme Buds Wireless Pro is a perfect option for casual listeners. It is feature rich, have app-based support, offers good quality sound with LDAC codec support and amazing battery life. If you are looking out for a budget neckband with loads of features, go for realme Buds Wireless Pro. It is available from Amazon.in and realme.com as well as realme stores at an offer price of Rs. 3,499.