OnePlus launched the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro, the company’s latest and the first Nord Pro series true wireless earbuds, after launching the Nord Buds in 2022 and Nord Buds 2 and 2R last year. The new Nord Buds 3 Pro brings features such as 49dB ANC to the mid-segment and promises up to 44h total playback on a single charge.
So, are these the best true wireless earbuds with ANC under Rs. 3,500? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box contents
- OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro earbuds in Soft Jade colour
- OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro charging case
- User guide
- Silicon ear tips (S and L, M pre-installed)
- Safety and Warranty card
- USB Type-C charging cable
Design and Build Quality
Starting with the design, the headset comes in an oval-shaped charging case compared to a round case, and it is compact. It has a matte finish with a dual-tone design, with the bottom part featuring a speckled metallic accents.
You can see the OnePlus logo and there is an LED on the front. The charging case weighs 38.2 grams. There is a tiny LED indicator on the front that glows in green and red colours.
The USB Type-C port is present in the back, along with the setup button.
Opening the case, you can see the slots for Left and Right earbuds with the markings. It has strong magnets to secure the buds in its place.
The headset has a plastic build that has a glossy finish on the inside that attracts fingerprints easily, even though the other side has a matte finish. There are three microphones on each headset, front, back and the bottom.
This uses touch controls, same as the old Nord series buds, instead of squeeze or press controls in the Buds Pro 2.
The earbuds weigh about 4.4 grams and feature an in-ear design. The earbuds come with medium-sized ear tips pre-installed, but you can change to bundled Large or Small sized ear tips if you wish. There is an Optical Sensor for Wear Detection so that it can automatically pause the audio when you remove it from your ears and play when you put it back.
Overall, the headset offers a good build quality, are compact and fits your ears perfectly so that they don’t fall off your ears easily, even during outdoor activities like running or cycling. The earphones have IP55 ratings for dust and water resistance, so it can withstand splashes or light rain, but you can’t use it when swimming. There is no IP ratings for the case.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro supports Bluetooth 5.4 with AAC codec. The pairing process is very easy for OnePlus (6 or later) devices. Just enable Bluetooth on the OnePlus phone, open the charging case of the buds, place the charging case close to the phone, and follow the prompts. To connect to a non-OnePlus phone or other Bluetooth device, place the Nord Buds 3 Pro into the charging case with the cover opened. Press and hold the setup button in the case for 2 seconds to enter Bluetooth settings. Then, select OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro.
There is fast pair option which works in latest Android phones. We tested it on the realme 13 Pro+ and the Pixel 8, and never faced any pairing or disconnection issues. Since the phone pairs with the case and not the headset, you will need the case if you want to reconnect it or even turn on the headset if it’s disconnected from the phone.
You can enable dual connection option that lets you connect to two devices at the same time and switch the audio playback between them.
| Function | Left earphone (L) | Right earphone (R) |
| Play / Pause | Single tap | |
| Play next track or Answer call / Hang calls | Double Tap | |
| Play previous track | Triple Tap | |
| Enable noise cancellation or switch between noise cancellation modes | Press and hold for 1s | |
| Volume control | Press and Hold | |
You can customize the controls from the settings if you have an OnePlus phone, or even from OPPO or realme phones. Other use the Hey Melody app on Android and iOS.
You can’t edit single press for play/pause, but can change double-press for next track to previous track or to launch voice assistant for either left or right or both the earbuds. The triple tap function can also be customized. You can use long touch and hold to control the volume, which comes in handy.
You can also choose at least two from Noise cancellation, Transparency, Noise cancellation off, when you press and hold either earbud. The autoplay / pause option when you remove the earbud can be disabled.
The Earbuds fit test option plays music to ensure that your ear tips make a good seal with your ear canal for better noise-cancelling.
Audio Quality
The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro pack 12.4mm titanized dynamic driver, similar to the predecessor. Audio from the earbuds are very loud and crisp, and as usual the bass is on the higher side even without enabling the BassWave option, which further enhances the bass. The new BassWave Enhancement 2.0 algorithm lets you boost the bass, and you can choose the strength manually.
It features four equalizers – Balanced (default), Serenade and Bass – so that every song can be heard how it should. You can also create custom EQ if you don’t like the bass.
Noise Cancellation and Call Performance
Regarding the Noise cancellation, the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) blocks the ambient sound that helps in most cases. You can feel the difference when you are listening outdoors. For the price, it does a good job. Compared to 25dB ANC in the Nord Buds 2, this offers 49dB ANC and also has 4000Hz Ultra-Wide Frequency ultra-deep personalized ANC. It has personalized ANC that scans the ear canal and offers a suitable audio. There are Smart, Max, moderate and Mild modes.
The Smart noise cancellation option works well in blocking the noise. The quality is good for indoor and to a certain extent for outdoors.
This also has Transparency mode that allows you to listen to ambient sound so that you can recognize the surrounding situation and any potential risks. It can turn on the transparency mode automatically when you remove a single earbud. There is no low latency gaming mode.
The low-latency mode is useful when gaming, and it is applied to OnePlus phones with the game mode enabled, while it needs to be enabled from the Heymelody app in others. Without the game mode enabled, you can feel the latency.
Coming to the call noise cancellation, it uses AI-powered noise reduction algorithm and three ENC microphones to cut external noise. This does a good job in cutting down wind and traffic noise. During my use outdoors, wind noise was complete cut out to the receiver, but the traffic noise was faintly audible.
Battery Life
The earphones pack 58mAh battery that promises about 12 hours of standalone battery life and 5.5 hours with noise cancellation enabled. During my use with AAC and noise cancellation on and off rarely, I got about 7 hours of battery life in about 60% volume, so it is good. For calls, it lasts for less than 4 hours since it uses call noise cancellation tech.
With the 440mAh charging case, it promises up to 44 hours of total battery life without ANC and 40 hours of total battery life with noise cancellation enabled. The green light in the case indicates that the battery is high, and it turns red when it is low. You can also see the charge left in the case in the HeyMelody app when the earbuds are placed in the case.
Charging the case fully with the earbuds takes about an hour. It also has fast charge, so that you get 11 hours (charging case + earbuds combined) of playback with 10 minutes of charging with ANC off, and 4 hours of listening with 10 min charge with earbuds alone with ANC off.
Conclusion
Overall, the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro offers good audio quality tuned mainly for bass, offers good noise cancellation and the call noise cancellation is also for the price. This also adds important features such as volume controls and in-ear detection that the Nord Buds 2 lacked.
Priced at Rs. 3,299 the earbuds will be available from Amazon.in, Flipkart.in, OnePlus.in, OnePlus Store App, Myntra, Blinkit, OnePlus Stores and select offline partner stores starting from July 20th. There is a Rs. 300 bank discount.
Pros
- Good audio quality tuned for bass lovers
- Up to 49dB ANC is good
- Dual-device connectivity
- Volume controls
- IP55 ratings for the headset
- Good battery life with fast charging
Cons
- AAC and SBC codecs only