Firstly, I want to thank my production team for providing me with a new set of OnePlus Nord Buds CE to review. I am excited to share my thoughts on The Tech Outlook. OnePlus recently launched these earbuds along with the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G smartphone in India. The company offered them at an affordable price point of ₹1,899, and during the launch, they ran promotions where some users even received the buds for free with the smartphone.
First Impression
The OnePlus Nord Buds CE are aesthetically pleasing and give off a premium feel despite being affordable earbuds. They provide decent bass while working out, however, they may not be compatible with all ear sizes. In my experience, they were difficult to keep on while exercising or running, and I constantly feared that they would fall out. This could be a problem for some, but those with regular ear sizes may not encounter this issue. I personally prefer earbuds that fit snugly and offer different ear tip sizes.
Design and features
As stated earlier the design is quite lightweight and can easily fit inside your pocket. One of the features I really liked about these earbuds is the magnet that keeps both the earbuds together. These earbuds come in two colors White and grey. But I really liked the White color and when you open the case a green light will appear in the front and when you take the buds out it will turn blue in color. I also noticed when the battery is low and you take the earbuds out the same blue light turns red in color.
There is one more setting that you can play with which is Control Camera with stylus. In this setting, you can double-tab either of the earbuds to take pictures. This feature is only available if you are using either a OnePlus phone. You can install the Hay Melody app for it if you have another Android smartphone for it. But you won’t find these settings when you will use it with an iPhone as the Hey Melody app is also not available on Apple.
Another feature that I was able to explore was that you can control the equalizer with the OnePlus inbuilt app for these earbuds. You will have Bass, Balanced, Serenade, and Gentle, out of these I only liked the Bass rest all have a lot of treble and may become irritating after a certain use.
Each earpiece of the OnePlus Nord Buds CE weighs only 3.5g and has an IPX4 rating for water resistance, while the charging case weighs approximately 33g.
It has a USB Type-C port for charging, and an indicator light below the lid, just above the OnePlus logo. However, there is no pairing button on the charging case, and the earpieces do not have wear-detection sensors. Additionally, the earbuds lack active noise cancellation, but they do feature AI noise cancellation technology that improves voice call clarity.
Featuring 13.4mm dynamic drivers, the OnePlus Nord Buds CE offers a rated sensitivity of 128dB and a frequency response range of 20-20,000Hz. These earbuds connect via Bluetooth 5.2 and support the SBC and AAC codecs for seamless connectivity.
Sound Quality and Battery life
This is the most important part I want to discuss: while I wasn’t able to fit the OnePlus Nord Buds CE comfortably in my ears, the bass in the EQ settings on my OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite was really good. I listened to “Demons in my Soul,” and while the sound clarity was not that great, it was still decent for the price you pay.
Now onto the battery life: each earbud of the OnePlus Nord Buds CE comes with a 27mAh battery, and the charging case has a 300mAh battery that provides additional listening time. During my testing, I was able to play music non-stop for approximately 4 hours, and with the charging case, I was able to extend that to a total of 15-16 hours of listening time.
Here is the unboxing video
Final Verdict
Overall, I enjoyed using the OnePlus Nord Buds CE, but the only drawback is their fit in the ears. Additionally, I noticed that if you have an iPhone, you cannot control any of the EQ settings. When I tried them on my iPhone, the sound had too much treble, and I personally prefer a lot of bass when using earbuds. Therefore, if you are looking for earbuds to use during a workout, these might not be a good fit for you since I was constantly worried about them falling out of my ears. Instead, you might consider earbuds that fit inside your ears and have different size ear tips for a more secure fit during physical activity.
