OnePlus Buds 3 review: light, comfortable, bland

The OnePlus Buds 3 come with three standard size tips in the box, and you will very probably find your fit among them. The HeyMelody app has a fit test, which will check if you are getting a proper seal with the tips you choose.

We have IP55 rating, which means limited dust protection and resistance against jets of water. So, you can jog with them and sweat all over them, but don't throw them in the pond.

The active noise cancelation here is not going to amaze you. In fact, you may not even think that it's on. OnePlus promises -49 dB of reduction, with a range up to 4 kHz. What we can report — it does filter out low-level hums but a lot of noises still come through.

Common sounds like people talking in the office, the rustling of clothes and paper, the clicks and clacks of pens and office supplies being slapped against desks — these you will still hear, with a slightly reduced bass.

The ANC does have 3 steps of intensity — from Low to High — and there's an Adaptive mode, which picks the right one. At the highest level, it kind of, sort of filtered out the low-level hum of my space heater (but I could still hear the higher frequencies of the fan).

If you play music through them — then the outside world will get drowned out, definitely. But in case you are one of the people that picks these buds to be specifically noise blockers, these ain't the type.

The transparency mode is pretty OK. There's a rolloff in the highs, but otherwise, they do sound transparent. Representation of directional sound is mostly accurate — some sound sources from your right will feed into the left earbud (and vice versa), but at a low enough volume that you'd understand "Yes, this is on my right".

OnePlus' specs on the Buds 3 state — at 50% volume and with ANC off, you get up to 10 hours from the buds and an extra 34 hours from the case. With ANC on and 50% volume, it's 6.5 hours from the buds, plus 21.5 hours from the case. Then, you have fast charging — you should get up to 7 hours of listening from just 10 minutes on the wire.

The specs page doesn't say what kind of charger you'd need for that. But the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 needed a minimum of 5V 2A. We assume it's the same deal here — any modern smartphone charger will do. Don't worry if it has a rating well above 10 W, USB C will regulate power as per the needs of the Buds' case.

So, while we don't have an elaborate battery benchmark test of earbuds, we did try them out for prolonged stretches of time. After a couple of days of using them for 6 hours straight, we now have them charged at 100% in the case, and the case is still at 30%. That's with ANC on, and with pairing and swapping between different devices while testing. We are pretty sure they can hit the promised 28 hour mark (ANC on), or very close to it.

OK, so bottom line — these earbuds don't have a stellar ANC, and they won't let you indulge in your music on a deep level. However... they sound OK, and they are $99. Their true winning feature is the fit and comfort — take it from someone who has a very hard time of using in-ear headphones for prolonged periods — these are nice.

However, if ANC or sound quality are the bigger priority — at the time of writing this, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are discounted to $130, and they are better in both of these fields. The Samsung Galaxy Buds FE at $100 (commonly discounted to $80), which we haven't reviewed yet, are also supposedly stellar in those two fields.

If bang for your buck is what you are looking for, the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 are down to $40, and I distinctly remember that these sounded very good for their asking price.

While we feel like the OnePlus Buds 3 are being cannibalized by OnePlus' own portfolio, and that the Galaxy Buds FE may be the better choice for some people out there, our final word is this — they are certainly among the better $99 earphones we've tested.