OnePlus Nord is now a popular brand in India. The company has been launching several smartphones under the Nord series, with the Nord CE 2 Lite 5G being the most recent. The CE 2 Lite 5G is the most affordable smartphone in the Nord series lineup in India. Another category where the Nord brand has debuted in India is the Truly Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds market. OnePlus launched the OnePlus Nord Buds as the company’s most affordable TWS in India.
Priced at Rs 2,799, the Nord Buds claim to offer clear sound and excellent battery life. However, the most affordable OnePlus Nord earbuds miss out on some key features that might be a deal-breaker for some. Will it be for you? After using the budget TWS for about a week, here is our OnePlus Nord Buds review to help you decide.
A pair of wireless earbuds might be able to deliver great sound for what you pay. But what good is it if the earbuds do not fit well in your ears? Fortunately, that was not the case for me with the Nord Buds. First, the earbuds have an interesting and unique design. We have seen many smartphones sport a flat frame design. The Nord Buds are the first TWS earbuds, according to my knowledge, to come with a flat stem design. Whether I like it or not is a different question. Since design preferences vary person-to-person, I will leave that open for you to judge. The stem is short and the earbuds, thanks to the silicone ear tips, offer a snug fit. They are also quite lightweight at about 4.8 grams.
Coming to the fit and finish, the Nord Buds did not fall off my ear when I was brisk walking, thus ensuring to be my true music companion for those rare workout sessions. Moreover, they have an IP55 rating. This means that you do not have to worry about water splashing or sweat dripping on the earbuds when you are working out.
At the top of each stem is a tiny, shiny circular-shaped button. You can tap on this button to play or pause music, answer or reject calls and invoke the voice assistant. Tap the button once to play or pause music, double-tap to switch to the next song and triple-tap to go back to the previous track. You can also customise the gestures in the Bluetooth settings if you have a Nord series smartphone like the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G. Others on Android and iOS need to download the Hey Melody app. You can also customise these gestures as per your liking.
Coming to the connectivity part, the Nord Buds support Quick Switch. As the name suggests, you can quickly switch between your connected devices, be it a smartphone or a laptop. The earbuds also support Fast Pair, which means that the earbuds will automatically connect to your smartphone every time you open the lid and wear the earbuds. The OnePlus Nord Buds support SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the Nord Buds to sound good, considering that they are the company’s most affordable pair of TWS. To my surprise, they sound really good for the price. The 12.4mm drivers offer enough thump for bass lovers. Be it listening to something like The Weeknd’s Save your Tears or A Different Way by DJ Snake featuring Lauv, you will have a good listening experience. The bass does not overpower the vocals, which is something I really liked about the Nord Buds.
There are times though when other instruments playing in the background get muddled by the lows. You will notice this while listening to Atif Aslam’s Tajdar-E-Haram, which has multiple instruments playing simultaneously.
Regarding the volume levels, the Nord Buds are really loud. Throughout my OnePlus Buds review, the volume was set to about 60 per cent. This might have also helped me get better than expected battery life, which I will get to in the latter part of this review.
The Nord Buds are quite good for calls. The person at the other end never complained about not getting a clear response. This, even when I was walking on Gurgaon’s busy roads where some people just love to honk when the signal goes green. There are times though when the earbuds fail to cancel out the wind noise, despite having two microphones and the AI noise reduction feature.
OnePlus claims that the Nord Buds can deliver up to seven hours of listening time on a single charge. During my OnePlus Nord Buds review, the earbuds lost 77 per cent juice by the end of an IPL match. That is roughly 3.5 hours of listening time. The max that I got was a few minutes over five hours on a single charge.
I could not kill the battery life of the case, but OnePlus says you can get 3-4 full cycles. So you can expect to get about 20-24 hours of battery life. The Nord Buds also support fast charging, where a 10-minute charge will give you up to five hours of battery life.
While the overall experience has been great, I wish the Nord Buds came with automatic wear detection. The feature automatically plays or pauses music when you wear or remove the earbuds.
Another feature that is missing on the Nord Buds is Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). The way around here is that you can increase the volume a bit more in case the ambient noise bothers you. In my case, the earbuds offered a good fit and the rubber ear tips ensured to offer passive noise cancellation.
Despite missing out on the two key features, the OnePlus Nord Buds are a great deal for Rs 2,799. The earbuds deliver good sound, especially for those who want more bass. The design is also quite unique, making the Nord Buds (and also you when you wear them) stand out from the crowd. I would personally pick the black colour option over the white one. Features like fast charging, and quick switch work as a bonus.
The Nord Buds are a no-brainer if you use the Nord CE 2 Lite 5G or any other OnePlus Nord smartphone. The earbuds offer more controls and options within the Bluetooth settings. This includes adjusting the EQ, customising the gestures, etc. For others, there is the Hey Melody app.
All-in-all, for those okay with missing out on ANC and automatic wear detection but want a pair of budget earbuds that sound fine, we give a nod to the OnePlus Nord Buds.
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