OnePlus Buds Pro 2 review

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are the company’s second generation premium wireless earphones. The first-generation model was a decent attempt and a good overall product for the $149 asking price, but it was a letdown in terms of audio quality and noise cancellation.

The Buds Pro 2 promise improvements across the board; better audio quality with a new dual driver system developed by Dynaudio, improved adaptive noise cancellation and improved battery life. The new model also includes spatial audio with head tracking, which is all the rage these days.

All of this comes at a slight premium, with the Buds Pro 2 priced at $179. This puts it closer to Samsung’s more premium competition and especially close to the excellent $199 Sony Linkbuds S, which can often be found for as low as $199. 149. This is serious competition, so let’s see if OnePlus’ latest offering is up to the job.

Project

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is aesthetically very similar to its predecessor. Both the case and earphones are nearly identical with only side-by-side comparisons revealing the differences. For example, the latest model case is always slightly larger in each dimension. The inside of the lid is hollowed out differently and the earpieces are slightly chunkier, but otherwise things look very similar.

However, you won’t catch me complaining about the design of the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 as the original model had one of the best designs I’ve seen in this product category. The compact design of the case with its gorgeous matte finish exterior looked and felt like a small jewelry box with really attractive earphones inside that had a two-tone finish. The second generation keeps all that and adds a stunning green colour. However, the even more striking mirror-finished variant of the first generation model is not being offered, at least for now.

And the build quality is also good. Everything has a premium finish. The zipper of the case is very sturdy and moves smoothly. The supplied earphones are soft and comfortable.

On this subject, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 earphones are very comfortable to wear. They are relatively small and light with a nice shape and don’t protrude too much from the ears. The stems are also easy to access for pressing. You can easily wear them for hours without feeling discomfort.

Rounding out the build quality is IP55 water and dust resistance for the earphones and IPX4 for the case.

Software and features

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 lets you access its features through the built-in software on OnePlus phones or through Oppo’s HeyMelody app on other smartphones.

While the user interface looks different between the two, the available features are mostly the same. In fact, the HeyMelody app is a better solution since it’s easier to access while the built-in settings on OnePlus phones are buried pretty deep in the Bluetooth menu.

Being a premium product, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 enables some options within these menus. There’s the noise canceling settings, which have been expanded from what you found on the original OnePlus Buds Pro. The noise canceling mode can now be switched between mild, moderate, maximum and smart, which is essentially automatic, while OnePlus Buds Pro only had normal, maximum and smart. There’s also a custom noise canceling option, which adjusts the effect for specific ear canals and ear tip fit.

Buds Pro 2 settings

The EQ options have also been expanded. The OnePlus Buds Pro shipped without an equalizer, but inherited them later via a software update. The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 comes with a similar set of presets and a new default Balanced preset, which was tuned by Dynaudio. You can also create custom presets with a six-band equalizer and these are saved onboard the earphones and transferred to other devices.

There is also a Hi-Res mode, the function of which remains a mystery. Even with the feature disabled you can still access 24-bit/96kHz LHDC and enabling it doesn’t change anything. We have yet to receive clarification from OnePlus on what exactly it does.

Sound settings

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 also has Golden Sound, identified as Audio ID 2.0 in pre-release press materials, which adjusts the sound to your hearing through a manual calibration process. The process has changed from the OnePlus Buds Pro, where you simply had to answer “yes” or “no” to test tones depending on how audible they are, but with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, you have to manually adjust a slider until you stop hearing. hear the sound, which is a bit fussy and more difficult to achieve. This test needs to be done in a very quiet environment and, if done correctly, should allow you to hear sounds optimized for your hearing impairments, which we all have to some extent.

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 also supports spatial audio with head tracking. Spatial audio itself isn’t a special feature of the earbuds as it’s now part of Android 13, but head tracking requires dedicated hardware support built into the earbuds, which currently only works with the OnePlus 11. If you pair it with other Android phones 13, you can only use spatial audio without head tracking and only in specific apps like YouTube and Google TV with surround sound content.

Other characteristics

Moving forward, the Zen Mode Air feature is back and can play soothing sounds and white noise to help you relax. The camera setting lets you take pictures using gestures on the earbuds, and finally, the dual connect feature lets you pair and monitor two different devices simultaneously.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 can also use its motion sensors to detect head position and provide alerts to move and adjust your posture. However, this feature was not enabled at the time of writing.

Performance

Audio quality

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 earphones have a new dual driver design with an 11mm dynamic driver that covers 10Hz – 8kHz and a 6mm dynamic driver that covers 8kHz to 40kHz.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has an aggressive V-shaped sound, with an emphasis on low and high frequencies and a dip in the midrange.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2’s low end hits like a truck carrying bricks, more so than the original model’s already generous bass response. It can be quite boomy and overwhelming at times, not to mention borderline fatigued at higher volumes.

The midrange seems deliberately suppressed, which makes vocals sound fuzzy and muffled in the mix. The lower mids in particular are lackluster, but the upper mids can be a bit bright and nasal. Timbre is lacking as voices and instruments have a distinct metallic sound.

This is taken further by the high end. The dedicated driver adds a lot of shimmer and sizzle to the sound, which sounds disjointed from the rest of the soundscape at times. You can hear the tweeter kick in at around 40% volume, as below the high end the aforementioned sizzle is missing. It can sound quite aggressive at times and is particularly loud at higher volumes.

The sound changes noticeably with ANC disabled. The low-mids sound a little leaner and the upper-mids sound more prominent, resulting in an overall brighter and more open sound. I preferred turning the ANC off as earphones often sounded much better that way. Whatever the ANC is doing, it’s making the sound worse down the road.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2’s overall default tonality is fine for some genres of music, but the aggressive bass and highs can be overpowering at times, and the sunken midrange leaves it sounding hollow and claustrophobic. Sound is also very busy overall, and despite claims of lossless audio, sounds are sharply compressed.

The most shocking revelation during this review was that the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 actually sounds noticeably worse than the original Buds Pro. While I wasn’t too happy with the Buds Pro’s overly bassy sound when I reviewed it, the Buds Pro 2 push it further. the bass while also increasing the highs and crushing the mids.

Going back and forth between the Buds Pro and the Buds Pro 2, the Buds Pro were noticeably more balanced and cleaner sounding of the two, with a much thicker midrange and less piercing highs. They also sounded more open and natural than the Buds Pro 2s, with a less metallic timbre to vocals.

Making this back-to-back comparison made me appreciate the original model a lot more, which is probably not something you want to see in a review of the new model. There were times when I had to stop listening to the Buds Pros and upgrade to the newer model for the purpose of this review because the older one sounded better although the Buds Pro 2s aren’t necessarily terrible, especially with ANC turned off. . But whenever I had to choose one for personal listening, I always went with the older model.

Compared to the Sony LinkBuds S, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is much richer in bass and treble. Thinking that a Sony product would be the least heavy in comparison is hard to believe, but OnePlus has done away with Sony of Sony. The LinkBuds S have a much duller and darker sound with less powerful but still some low end and full midrange. They’re quite different so it’s hard to pick one since neither is perfect out of the box, but Sony’s shortcomings are easier to correct with an EQ while the OnePlus Buds Pro 2’s tonal issues and congestion lack a proper solution.

Spatial audio

When paired with the OnePlus 11, the Buds Pro 2 can enable spatial audio with head tracking. While spatial audio isn’t unique to the Buds Pro 2 as it’s now built into Android 13, they do allow for head tracking with the built-in six-axis IMU (inertial measurement unit). Also, the spatial audio implementation on the OnePlus 11 is different from the native Android implementation.

For one thing, the OnePlus 11’s spatial audio works with almost any content, not just surround sound sources, meaning you can use it with stereo content as well. It also works on top of the built-in Dolby Atmos implementation, which is strange since the Dolby Atmos feature has already provided spatial audio for stereo and surround sound content.

OnePlus’ spatial audio implementation is simply poor. It creates a ridiculously wide soundfield as if you were inside a giant empty warehouse and rarely sounds nice or natural. It also adds its own metallic timbre to the sound, which makes vocals feel particularly robotic on the Buds Pro 2. I personally prefer the more subtle and natural Dolby Atmos effect, especially when fed content actually mastered in Atmos from apps like Apple Music, in which case you get a more nuanced and curated spatial audio effect instead of the DSP effect of OnePlus’ 90s cheap surround sound.

Of course, Atmos doesn’t support head tracking yet, which is why OnePlus’ implementation must exist. Head tracking is, well, lame. I honestly struggled to figure out in what situation this feature would be useful or necessary. I suppose that would make sense for a TV where the display is fixed and you want to emulate a speaker-like experience on headphones, but with a phone, both the device and your head can move freely, so there’s zero point in It’s anchoring sound at a random point in space when the phone can just move away from that point and the whole charade would fall apart instantly.

Also, the head tracking doesn’t even work well and if you move your head enough it eventually loses track of where the source device is in relation to your head and now the sound comes out slightly to one side instead of the center. And yet, it still feels like you’re in an empty warehouse the entire time this is happening. This experience is really bad and I see no reason to use this feature.

OnePlus is also working with Hans Zimmer to create what I assume would be a demo piece to showcase the spatial audio feature. Zimmer will also create a custom EQ profile. Both will come in the future.

Microphone

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has average microphone performance. In a quiet environment, vocals sound a little muffled and less natural than something like the LinkBuds S, which has stellar microphone performance for a Bluetooth headset.

In a noisy environment, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 does a great job of suppressing background noise, but voice quality remains mediocre.

Compared to the original model, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 doesn’t show much improvement in microphone performance.

Noise cancellation

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has decent noise canceling performance. It is quite effective at reducing low frequency noise, but less effective at mid and high frequencies. This makes it suitable for air travel where noise is dominated by low-end rumble, but not so much for things like loud air conditioners and running faucets.

The three levels of ANC are moderately different from each other. Compared to Max, Moderate lets in slightly more of the lower mid-frequency noise, and Mild lets in more low- and high-frequency noise. If you choose Smart, you’ll almost always choose Moderate, which works well in most cases since Max isn’t noticeably better.

The effectiveness of the custom noise cancellation isn’t always apparent, especially if you’re in only moderately noisy environments. It is more effective on airplanes where the system can analyze background sound and produce more effective ANC than if you leave it off. The feature requires manual setup when you first enable it, and the process is quick but can only run in noisy environments. I’ve noticed audible changes in calibration on repeated attempts and it’s hard to get the best results every time

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Compared to the original OnePlus Buds Pro, the newer model has a more effective ANC, but the difference is only noticeable in very noisy conditions after consecutive tests. The older model also has slightly better handling of midrange frequencies and doesn’t let them in as much as on the newer model. However, the older model had an audible background hiss with ANC enabled, which is not present on the Buds Pro 2.

As mentioned in the audio section, ANC significantly degrades audio quality, making it shallow and congested. I often found myself turning the feature off when listening indoors as the slight increase in noise came with a dramatic improvement in sound quality. This is definitely something OnePlus needs to address as ANC-on should be the default way to listen to the earphones, and the mode that sounds best, too.

Compared to LinkBuds S, the ANC on OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is not as good. The LinkBuds S ANC performs incredibly well in virtually every situation and has far fewer weak points in the frequency range than the OnePlus model. If ANC is your priority, then the LinkBuds S are still by far the best option in this price range.

Latency

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has a respectable latency performance. OnePlus claims 53ms, although this is only likely with OnePlus phones with game mode enabled.

When used with the OnePlus 11 with game mode enabled, latency performance was very good with near-instantaneous responses. Unless you’re a serious competitive gamer, you’re unlikely to notice or mind the slight lag. With Game Mode disabled, latency is noticeable but still decent.

Unfortunately, when tested with non-OnePlus phones with AAC, the latency is terrible. It’s crappy even with Game Mode enabled in the HeyMelody app, and absolutely atrocious with it disabled.

When testing with a Windows PC, latency was still noticeably high and distracting when doing things like watching videos, which don’t automatically sync for the lag on Windows.

Connectivity

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 supports Bluetooth 5.3 LE and uses SBC, AAC and LHDC 4.0 codecs. Using LHDC instead of the more ubiquitous LDAC means that far fewer phones can actually deliver high-resolution audio and have to switch to using AAC.

OnePlus claims to support lossless audio with LHDC, which is interesting as this is the first time I’ve heard of LHDC supporting lossless, at least with v4.0. The confusion increases when the Bluetooth settings in the developer settings only allow you to maximize the bitrate to the typical 900kbps, which doesn’t seem sufficient for lossless transmission. OnePlus promised HDC 5.0 via a future update, which should bring higher resolution 192kHz support.

As with the original Buds Pros, the LHDC bitrate option on the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is a bit buggy when tested with non-OnePlus phones, as switching between 500kbps and 900kbps does nothing. Also, on OnePlus phones, switching between 48kHz and 96kHz causes the treble performance to become even more sibilant and harsh.

In terms of reliability, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 had quite a few dips in sound and some crackle and pop to boot. This happens more when manually adjusted at higher bitrates, but random drops can occur at any time, even if the phone is two feet away from the earphones in clear line of sight.

The multi-device pairing feature works well, and I was able to pair the earbuds to two phones at the same time and switch between them with ease.

Battery life

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has a claimed battery life of 9 hours of continuous music playback.

In my testing, I was able to get 6 hours and 34 minutes using the AAC. That figure dropped to 4 hours 56 minutes when using LHDC. The ANC was enabled in each case and set to the Moderate setting, which is often the default.

While nowhere near the claimed figure, battery life is improved over the previous-generation model, which ran about two and one hours shorter, respectively, on LHDC and AAC. It seems that OnePlus has chosen Smart or Moderate ANC for the battery life test, which should last longer than Max, which is what I used for testing here.

The Buds Pro 2 can be charged using a USB-C cable or via a Qi-compatible wireless charger.

competition

Compared to OnePlus Buds Pro 2, Sony LinkBuds S is an overall better product while being cheaper. The audio quality is decent but the ANC is much better, as is the microphone quality. The original Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro are also a good alternative with good audio quality and decent ANC, and are often available at big discounts these days. Sadly for OnePlus, even the original Buds Pro is a better product than the newest model right now.

Variants

There will also be a OnePlus Buds Pro 2R variant, which will be available in India and select markets. This variant lacks wireless charging and head tracking. It will be available in Misty White and Obsidian Black colors.

Conclusion

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is a decent sequel to the original model. It improves in a variety of areas including noise cancellation, battery life, and latency performance. The design, while similar, is also more comfortable while still looking good.

Where the new model doesn’t improve is in audio quality. The lower, harsher, more congested sound is a direct downgrade from its already disappointing predecessor. The culprit here appears to be the new ANC system, which makes the sound noticeably worse when enabled. Even the much-hyped spatial audio adds nothing to the experience.

For the price, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 doesn’t look as compelling as any of its rivals. Aside from the design and comfort, there aren’t any standout features to consider, and options like the LinkBuds S offer a much better overall package while still having great ANC and microphone performance.

In the end, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is only worth considering at a steep discount unless OnePlus is willing to make some major changes via updates.