When OnePlus revealed the OnePlus 11, they also revealed this – the OnePlus Buds Pro 2. The reason why I delayed the review until now is that I am worried about one thing – the price. It is at $179.99, and I think it is rather high. But then again, there is a lot of good stuff packed into this pair of earbuds that can justify the price.
So, let’s talk about it.
The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is pretty simple. Ours come in the Arbor Green color, and the design is like a square pebble. The overall design is simple as we have the OnePlus logo and also the Dynaudio branding as well since they collaborated to create this product.
The back here also has a USB-C port for charging – like many other earbuds in the market. You also can use wireless charging, by the way.
The lid opens up and swings far to the back – so that it’s easy to take out the earbuds. Here, we can once again see the Dynaudio branding.
The earbuds themselves are fairly simple in terms of design too. It uses an in-ear but with the stem sticking out, so it looks like… I don’t know, the pea shooter from Plants Vs. Zombies?
Anyway, instead of using touch to control the earbuds, it instead detects pinches. I personally prefer pinching over touching since I always touch it by accident.
Then, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 also has a rather fancy, non-conventional eartip design. It is still made out of silicone but there is some sort of mesh inside to prevent some earwax from falling directly inside the TWS. That’s good.
OnePlus also included a few different sizes of eartips for you inside the box – so you can change it however you want.
Looking further at the earbuds themselves, we have a microphone pointing downwards too – so here’s a sound test.
Let’s talk about the features then. The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 uses the Google Fast Pair service so when you unbox the phone and open up the lid, it will immediately tell you that there is a device nearby waiting to be paired. Just tap on that button and it’ll pair automatically.
To configure the features, we’ll have to head into the settings menu. Yes, everything is integrated into the Oxygen OS firmware. I also tried pairing the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 to the OnePlus 10T, and these options were not there. I’m not sure if this will be brought over via a software update or not.
Either way, if you want to use the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 with other phones, you can. Just install the HeyMelody app from the Play Store. However, I must highlight this – some features are missing, like spatial audio and also the codec selection.
On the OnePlus 11, there are two codecs to select from – starting with LHDC by default, also known as Low Latency High-Definition Audio Codec, and we can also change it to the standard SBC if we want to.
Within the functions menu, we have the usual options like noise control, the EQ, all of that stuff. You can also create your own EQ if you want to.
Now, it does have something special called Golden Sound which is similar to the Creative wireless earbuds that we’ve reviewed in the past. However, instead of using a camera to scan the ear’s shape, it uses sound instead. Just go through it step by step and you’ll get a response frequency that is tuned to your ear’s hearing range.
Then we also have spatial audio – which I think works really well here.
As for the Zen Mode Air – well it just plays some white noise for you to relax. So far, there’s only one soundscape to choose from – warm sunrise. I really wish they’ll add more – like rain or maybe jingle bells.
We can also change the functions when we squeeze the earbuds’ stem – 3 gestures in total for each earbud, so a total of 6 actions. Pretty comprehensive, actually.
Then one of my favorite features is the dual connection mode. I paired the earbuds to the OnePlus 11 and also my MacBook Pro and it works so well. I can just mute everything on my laptop and then continue playing music on the phone. The connection handover is seamless.
One more important feature is the earbud fit test. It just tells if you have a good seal around the ear – and that’s it.
So, how does it truly sound? Honestly, I think it sounds really good. Using the default EQ, it is slightly leaning towards the bass side but overall, sounds really good. My big band jazz sounds amazing and I am just loving it.
The ANC is also surprisingly clean and there is no weird hissing sound. I remember I wore this during the Lunar New Year because everyone was carpet bombing the sky and this pair of earbuds managed to cancel most of the sound away. I’m truly impressed. You can also select how much ANC you want – but I personally just use it in the “smart” mode.
The transparency mode is also fairly decent, nothing much to talk about since I can hear everyone else and that’s all that matters. Though, I prefer if it can automatically jump into transparent mode when I am speaking to someone.
Then, the one big feature highlight to me is actually its audio latency. The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is one of the rare wireless earbuds that is using Bluetooth 5.3, and with it – comes truly low latency audio that has good audio quality. Partly thanks to the LHDC too, I played COD Mobile with no atrocious audio delay. Firing a gun means that the sound is in sync with the muzzle flash – or at least so close to the point that I can’t distinguish it. This is truly amazing.
Do watch the video at the top of this review to watch how the audio latency performs.
By the way, since I also used the dual connection mode to pair with the MacBook Pro, I can edit videos using this pair of earbuds too. The audio latency is negligible.
I also tried this on the OnePlus 10T. Fortunately, it will have the same low latency too but unfortunately, the sound quality is horrendous on the 10T. Actually, pairing the Buds Pro 2 with phones other than the OnePlus 11 just sounds bad. It, however, sounds fairly okay with the MacBook Pro.
Should you buy the OnePlus Buds Pro 2?
So, for the price of $179.99 or RM869, I still think that it is expensive but the features make it justifiable. That is especially true since when we paired it with the OnePlus 11, we can get true low latency wireless audio with good quality and we can play shooter games without issues.
I just wish that the earbud configuration menu is available on more phones so everyone else who is not using the OnePlus 11 can enjoy this magnificent OnePlus Buds Pro 2 as well.
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