A solid set of earbuds, but they won't appeal to hardcore audiophiles.
Finding a good pair of headphones or earbuds used to mean turning to the big players, like Bose or Sony. Now, though, many phone companies have surprisingly solid earbuds of their own. One such example is OnePlus, which recently revealed the OnePlus Buds 3.
Building off what the company learned with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 last year, the OnePlus Buds 3 sit right between the company's cheaper Nord-branded earbuds and the Pro options. At just $99, the audio and features that come standard in the OnePlus Buds 3 are pretty solid, though there are times where they show their price point in really noticeable ways. I've spent the better part of two weeks using the OnePlus Buds 3 as my daily drivers for audio listening, and overall I'm pretty impressed, especially for this price range.
When it comes to midrange earbuds, a lot of companies just don't do it right. Either they skimp on audio quality, or the features offered on the earbuds just aren't up to the job. That isn't the case with the OnePlus Buds 3. While I don't think they sound nearly as good as my Pixel Buds Pro or my AirPods Pro, the OnePlus Buds 3 do an extraordinary job of delivering solid quality audio and features that you might not expect in a midrange pair of earbuds.
Right out of the box, audio quality is decent, though not really anything to write home about. If you pair the headphones with a OnePlus phone, like the new OnePlus 12, then you'll get access to a bevy of different options right inside your phone's settings. If you use another type of Android phone, or an iPhone, then you'll need to use the HeyMelody companion app to tweak things and get these earbuds to sound their best. I typically dislike having to download additional apps to manage a single device, but I have to say, setting up things on the HeyMelody app was really easy, and the different features—which I'll explain soon—really made it worth using.
Everything I have listened to on these earbuds has sounded good, from songs by Noah Kahan to the latest masterpieces from Hozier and even some older titles by Metallica. Everything comes out sounding good, especially with some tweaking of the equalizer in HeyMelody.
These earbuds offer support for SBS and AAC coders, as well as LHDC 5.0, which is less common on major smartphones. I also noticed that the quality didn't falter between devices, either. Listening to the earbuds via the OnePlus 12 sounded just as good as it did through the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Pixel 8 Pro, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Overall, the microphone quality isn't the best, but for a $100 pair of earbuds, I wasn't expecting it to sound like a professional setup. It's more than clear enough for conversations, even when walking through slightly noisier environments, like the grocery store.
Battery life is another thing that was slightly better than I was expecting. OnePlus claims that the Buds 3 can last up to six and a half hours on a single charge, even when using ANC (active noise cancelling). Based on my time with the Buds 3, that feels pretty accurate, and I honestly never felt like I was going to run out of charge before I was done listening.
They also charge up relatively fast using the USB-C cables that OnePlus provides, and the charging case holds up to three additional charges before you need to worry about plugging it in. Overall, for a $100 pair of earbuds, the battery life is a win.
This is, in my opinion, where the OnePlus Buds 3 really start to shine. Despite its midrange price point, the OnePlus Buds 3 come with a ton of features that you might expect to see in more expensive earbuds. These features include active noise cancellation (ANC), a transparency mode (a bit more on that in a second), the option to use fast pair, and even multipoint connectivity, which let me easily switch between listening to game audio on the Steam Deck and answering calls on my phone.
A lot of the really nice features don't come into play unless you use the HeyMelody app, though, which allows you to create a "Golden Sound" profile. OnePlus claims this maps your ears to provide sound that is designed just for your unique ear layout. It's an interesting feature, and I definitely noticed a small difference when it was switched on. That said, it isn't really a selling point for the earbuds, as they sound just fine without using Golden Sound, too.
The Buds 3 are moderately comfortable, though it did take some tinkering to get them to stick in my ear during more active testing. When they stayed, though, it was easy to forget I was wearing them because of how light they are. The touch controls, which are situated on each bud, are also really easy to work with, though I did sometimes accidentally press controls when I was readjusting the fit within my ear. That's a problem we see on most earbuds, so it's hard to dock OnePlus for that.
Despite all the upsides, there are some not-so-great things we need to talk about when it comes to the OnePlus Buds 3. Most notably, the ANC on the Buds 3 just isn't great. Sure, it cancels out some noise, but it also lets a lot of noise in. Further, the transparency mode seems to work better at blocking out noise than the ANC mode does, as I could often overhear people in the office around me while using ANC, but when I switched to transparency mode, the voices and background sounds got much quieter.
I'm not sure if this is just a bug in the system or what the deal is, but it definitely made me miss the excellent ANC on my Google Pixel Buds Pro. I also noticed some connectivity issues while using the HeyMelody app. The Buds 3 would connect to my phone or Mac without issue, but when I tried to pull them up in the app, it would say I needed to connect. And then, when I tried to connect, it would time out, saying the connection wasn't available. Again, this might have just been a bug or glitch on my end, but it's still worth noting because it did impact my usage.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the OnePlus Buds 3, and if I had purchased them myself, then I'd have no regrets about having dropped $100. The ANC could be better, but I think most people will find that the OnePlus Buds 3 are a really solid pair of earbuds, especially at their $100 price tag. Sure, they won't deliver the top-notch quality expected of more expensive earbuds, but they do bring some features we don't often see in the midrange area, and that's a nice bonus.
You can purchase the OnePlus Buds 3 for $99.99. They are available in both Splendid Blue and Metallic Gray.
