OnePlus just launched the OnePlus Nord Buds 3, the company’s latest TWS earbuds, as the successor to last year’s Nord Buds 2. The new Nord Buds 3 brings improved 32dB ANC, has 12.4mm titanized dynamic driver and promises up to 43h total playback on a single charge.
So, are these the best true wireless earbuds with ANC under Rs. 2,500? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box contents
- OnePlus Nord Buds 3 earbuds in Melodic White colour
- OnePlus Nord Buds 3 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. The Melodic White that we have features a glossy finish, so it is prone to fingerprints and scratches easily, but the Harmonic Gray colour variant has a matte finish with metallic accents.
You can see the OnePlus logo and there is an LED on the front. The charging case weighs 46.2 grams. There is a tiny LED indicator on the front that glows in green and red colours.
The USB Type-C port is present on the bottom, 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 that attracts fingerprints easily. The white colour attracts dust easily, so the grey colour is a better option. There are two microphones on each headset, on the front, and the bottom.
This uses touch controls, same as the old Nord series buds, instead of squeeze or press controls in the OnePlus Buds Pro series.
The earbuds weigh about 4.2 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. This doesn’t feature an Optical Sensor for Wear Detection, so you will have to rely on the touch control for the play / pause function.
The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 has undergone rigorous testing by OnePlus, including 55℃ extreme temperature tests, 20,000 folds of the case hinge, 1.5-meter drops of the charging case, and 1.8-meter drops of the earbuds to ensure long-lasting, dependable quality in most conditions, said the company.
Overall, the headset offers a good decent 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 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 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.
There is fast pair option which works in latest Android phones. We tested it on the motorola razr 50 and the Pixel 9, 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.
Audio Quality
The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 pack 12.4mm titanized dynamic driver, similar to the Nord Buds 3 Pro. 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 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. There is OnePlus 3D Audio which is available on selected OnePlus phones, including OnePlus 11, OnePlus 11R, OnePlus 12, OnePlus 12R, OnePlus Nord 4, and OnePlus Open.
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 32dB ANC, which is decent. However, you lose personalized ANC and hybrid noise cancellation modes that are available only in the Nord Buds 3 Pro.
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 dual 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 8 hours with noise cancellation enabled. During my use with AAC and noise cancellation on and off rarely, I got about 9 hours of battery life in about 60% volume, so it is good. For calls, it lasts for less than 5 hours since it uses call noise cancellation tech.
With the 440mAh charging case, it promises up to 43 hours of total battery life without ANC and 28 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.
The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 is the world’s TWS earbuds to receive the TÜV Rheinland Battery Health certification, guaranteeing that at least 80% of the original battery capacity will remain after as many as 1,000 charging cycles, said the company.
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 minutes charge with earbuds alone with ANC off.
Conclusion
Overall, the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 offers good audio quality tuned mainly for bass, offers decent noise cancellation and the call noise cancellation is good for the price. This adds features such as volume controls which the Nord Buds 2 lacked, but still doesn’t have in-ear detection.
Priced at Rs. 2,299, which is Rs. 1000 cheaper than the Buds 3 Pro, and this goes down to Rs. 2,099 with bank offers. The earbuds will be available from Amazon.in, Flipkart.in, OnePlus.in, OnePlus Store App, and offline partner stores starting from September 20th.
Pros
- Good audio quality tuned for bass lovers
- 32dB ANC is decent
- Dual-device connectivity
- Volume controls
- IP55 ratings for the headset
- Good battery life with fast charging
Cons
- No in-ear detection
- Glossy Case is prone to scratches