The OnePlus Buds 3 are the first OnePlus buds I’ve gotten my hands and I know the brand. From the days when you had to get a slot to buy their then exotic phones.
I knew them well enough then to know they’re an interesting brand with interesting products so I came into this review with high expectations and let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed.
Design
Interestingly these look very Appleyy. With my Apple AirPods close I could deffo see the many similarities between these and Apple Airpod. Different colors but yeah someone at OnePlus looked at the Apple AirPods and said that’s where I want our design language to go.
Usually I’m not a fan of that kind of stuff and I’m tempted to dismiss this and say yeah they should’ve been original but hey the execution is crazy good. These look and feel very premium in hand, so much if you told me they were by Apple themselves I wouldn’t argue.
I really love this green, opal color. I love the shiny finish, I usually say glossy but these go past glossy they’re in your face shiny. And the cutout for the touch pane looks exquisite.
The bud part of the Buds 3 is matte to feel and you’ll find that on most other buds in this price range but it’s the ‘mattiest’ finish I’ve touched in a while. and I don’t know if that makes sense to you but I genuinely haven’t touched any other bud with a matte finish that’s this smooth, it’s almost therapeutic to touch.
The carry case on its part has a very simple design. It’s boxed off with a full open lid, nothing special but again, from just holding it and opening and closing it, you can tell that a lot thought went into making this.
Fit and comfortability
I expected these to feel good in ear given it’s a rehash of the Apple earbud form factor and it lived up to that expectation. There’s a bit fullness when you put them on but that’s just about it, these sit nice and pretty in ear.
Even when you’re using these on the move, I’ve found them to sit nice and tight. Took them out for a walk in the park and at some point I even began to run and they remained a secure fit.
Comfortability is great as well. Even though these weigh a sizable 4.9grams (about 0.2grams heavier the Soundcore Liberty 5, still 0.6grams lighter than the QCY Melobuds N70) never had the level of ear fatigue I experienced on buds like the QCY melobuds N70 or Soundpeats C30.
There was some ear fatigue no doubt but it was minimal at worst and to be expected for an in ear earbud.
Feature list
So on these buds you get:
- Hires LDAC Audio
- Active noise cancellation
- IP55 rating
- Touch controls
Very much the stuff you’d expect from an earbud at this price point. Notable omission here is fast pair tech and wireless charging and that’s kinda expected since these were released way back in 2024.
Fast pair tech only very recently started making its way into the budget earbud segment on buds like the QCY Melobuds N60, N70 and the CMF lineup including the Buds 2 Plus, Buds Pro 2 and Buds 2a.
Moving on to what these buds do have:
LDAC audio
LDAC Audio support allows for high bitrate audio transmission provided your phone is LDAC compatible itself. Most buds aiming to be what the Buds 3 wants to be ship with this feature so good but not so much a differentiating factor.
IP55 rating
Which means these are immune to damage that can occur from exposure to water and dust just make sure you’re not soaking them in a pool for like 30 minutes.
Again, quite a common feature for buds at this price point, you’ll get it on practically everything from CMF. QCY’s range come with a slightly lesser IP rating, IPX5 which means they’re not rated to resist dust ingress or damage.
Touch controls
Touch controls worked great on the Buds 3. The panel is easy to place a hand on, responsive and accurate.
ANC
ANC is a 46db rated system and right now on the market you can get better. In practice, it was okayish at suppressing noise.
In my living room it was able to block out noise from the TV for volume levels lower than 60%. Greater than that and audio leaked through.
Outdoors it did a good job of suppressing background noise as long as I didn’t get into overly noisy settings. It was especially good at taking out background chatter so people talking, someone shouting, that kinda stuff.
Overall, decent ANC performance in my experience although you’d be better for choice with buds like the QCY melobuds Pro, N70 or the CMF buds Pro 2 if ANC is your major concern.
Sound quality
Great sounding buds all things considered. This thing has a very very balanced sound profile, with enough bass, mids and trebles to make for a very filling music listening experience.
Details on the bass was great, so these pump out mid bass in enough volume for enough punchiness and oomph rivaling buds like the Melobuds N60 which if you’ve read my review delivers stunning bass.
Details on Mids and trebles are superb as well. This bud had no issue delivering the myriad mixed instrumentals and adlibs from my favorite songs. Coming off reviewing the Soundpeats C30 which was goddamn awful at this, this was refreshing to experience.
Something peculiar about this bud is the way it manages to deliver a music experience that sounds a bit ‘open,’ similar to what you’d get from open ear buds like the Soundcore Aeroclip. So the music doesn’t pump directly into your ear for some reason, instead it feels like it’s coming from in and around your ear.
I guess that’s down to how tight the bass is, especially the sub bass is and also the very accurate treble delivery from these elaborate accessory speakers.
Pair that open ear feel to the superb clarity on these buds and what’s for me an immersive soundstage with decent bothering on great surround sound and what you get is a truly refreshing and exciting music listening experience.
Call quality
Sound performance on calls is great as well. The mics on these are decent. They manage to pick up voices with good enough clarity and that’s true even in noisy environments.
Check out the Youtube vid up top for samples of the mic quality.
Hey Melody App
You get the typical budget earbud app only this time it has a weird name – hey melody. Which made finding it on the app store for me difficult. Anyway, on the app you get settings for noise cancellation, an EQ, a tab for customizing the touch inputs, a toggle for dual device connection. LDAC audio the whole works.
The app itself is simple and intuitive to use and surprisingly it’s the first budget TWS earbud app I’ve used that doesn’t try to farm your email. That’s really good. Just open app, connect your device and use.
There’s a custom Oneplus 3D audio setting that further amplifies the surround sound experience for more depth in surround. It worked, although I did notice a slight drop in sound clarity with it on.
There’s also a tab to customize the audio experience to be specific for your ears. I tried to do it for and honestly I couldn’t tell any difference between the audio performance before and after the calibration.
Battery life
Battery on the Buds 3 is great for a bud at this price point. I easily got up to 6 hours of active playtime with ANC on these. On standby they easily went north of 72 hours. Very very good numbers, very few buds match them on the market at this price point.
No wireless charging as I stated earlier.
Whats good, What’s bad
What’s good
- Great design
- Great audio quality
- Great battery life
- Very comfortable to use
What’s bad
- Frankly nothing in particular. I could say the ANC on these is a little bit sub par but overall it works and it’s probably good enough for a bud at this price point.
Should you buy the Buds 3?
There are newer buds on the market right now with more features and better technology. The Melobuds N70 for instance ships with better noise cancelling tech, Bluetooth 6.0, wireless charging and QCY’s unrivaled surround sound performance.
So I’m tempted to say ignore this and just go for that. But, these are great sounding buds with an immaculate build quality. If you need something with great audio performance and a soundstage that’s atypical in the sense that it sounds more open (and that’s refreshing in many cases) then these are you buds.
They’re built solidly, they will last a lifetime and even though they were made in 2024, they still hold a bright candle to many of the buds made in 2026.
