A Nice Pair of Budget Buds Despite Poor ANC

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro Review: Design

Impressive water and dust resistance.

The Nord Buds 3 Pro are available in a stunning Soft Jade and a Starry Black shade. Sadly, I received the latter. The Starry Black is not as cool as it sounds. It tries hard to give off a nice galaxy-like look, but it just looks like your case caught some dust. The little specks don’t resemble stars and, for some reason, aren’t on the rest of the case’s lid.

Apart from the starry theme, I like the charging case. It has a lovely pebble-shaped design, and its curved edges feel good in your hands. It slid easily into my pocket, and its rounded corners didn’t produce an awkward-looking bulge. For $50, it’s a pretty good-looking case that’s way sturdier than the CMF Buds Pro 2.

Unlike the Galaxy FE Buds, which sport a water and dust resistance rating of IPX2, these are rated IP55. You can rely on them at the gym for your sweaty workouts. I have been using them around the house, meaning these poor things have been going through a lot. They’ve been holding up pretty fine to the wet hands I subject them to in the kitchen and the light splashes they endure in the washroom as I cleanse my face. The case isn’t rated against dust and water, so be careful not to drop it in the toilet. 

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro Review: Fit and Controls

Annoying volume control.

In-ear buds rarely stay inside my ears, while on-ear earbuds usually provide a much more comfortable fit. These are some of the few in-ear buds that were snug on me. I instantly replaced the medium ear tips on the buds with the small ear tips in the box, and they hugged my ears tight throughout the review period. The earbuds weigh 4.4g each and are comfortable to wear for extended periods.

Weirdly enough, the only way to tweak volume on these is to assign the ‘long touch and hold’ gesture on the buds to either ‘volume up’ or ‘volume down.’ So, you can only use your buds for one of the two actions. I set it to ‘volume up’ and reached for my phone to turn it down. How convenient. To complicate this even further, another ‘tap and hold’ gesture is used to cycle between the ANC modes. The only difference is that the tap for volume is two seconds longer, which obviously leads to a bunch of mistaps. The rest of the playback (pause, play, forwarding, or skipping tracks) is all handled by single, double, and triple taps.

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro Review: Sound and ANC

Decent separation for the price.

The first impression I had of the sound was how bass-heavy it was. It favors the low end, with the mids taking second place and the treble being the least emphasized of all the elements. But the higher I raised the volume, the more you can hear the low end hit its limits. It sounded thick, heavy, and muddy. It feels like it lost the power it retained at a lower volume.

In terms of separation, these buds do a good job for the price. It was impressive that the $50 buds featured enough sound imaging for me to discern the various elements. The OnePlus Buds 3 still wins at providing even more detail than these buds, though, while these were easily better than the CMF Buds Pro 2.

Both mono listening and wear detection are supported, which means you can listen with just one earbud in, and your playback stops when you plug the buds out of your ears and resumes as soon as you plug them back in. They also support a find my earbuds feature on the app that you can navigate by hitting a little play button. I tried it, and the charging case produced a faint little beep that can be pretty helpful if I’m in the same room as it’s in. The Nord Buds 3 Pro can simultaneously connect to two devices. I connected them to my iPhone and the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus. I quickly listened to music on my iPhone and remapped its gestures on the Nothing phone, where I downloaded its companion app, HeyMelody.

The ANC on these buds is so weak that I often couldn’t tell whether it was on. I constantly cycled between the ANC modes at home while doing chores, and every sound sounded the same, including the tap running, the plastic and paper bags I was sorting, and even the bug spray I was using to get a gnat in my kitchen. I would focus on how loud a specific sound is with ANC off and then repeat the action with ANC on; there is barely any difference. It was the same at work when my coworkers were talking behind me, and I could hear every single word despite ANC being on. This wasn’t high-pitched chatter right next to me; that would still be forgivable as it’s harder to silence. It was a low hum a few feet away from me.

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro Review: Battery Life and Mic

Mic cancels wind really well

The Nord Buds’ 44-hour battery life is pretty in line with what competitors offer (OnePlus Buds 3 at 44 hours, CMF Buds at 43 hours). The Samsung Galaxy FE Buds, with their 30-hour battery life, might be the only ones these are trumping. You get 12 hours with ANC off, which goes up to 44 hours with the charging case. Turning ANC on would reduce that to 20 hours in total. 

There’s no wireless charging on these, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering their $50 price. They do offer quick charging, though. A 10-minute charge promises 11 hours of playback. 

The Nord Buds 3 Pro boasts an “anti-wind design” for its mic, which they elaborate as an “outer metal mesh and cavity structure to block wind noise [and] an internal acoustic mesh that further filters out wind and other noise.” I tested this in-depth with the wind outside and artificial wind from my tower fan, and it worked great. My caller reported that they couldn’t hear any noise even when my face (and earbuds) were around two inches from the fan. 

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro Verdict

The OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro ticks a lot of boxes but leaves a few essential ones unchecked. They provide a snug fit, sufficiently impressive sound imaging, and a high water and dust resistance rating. Their mic is excellent at canceling noise, and the battery life can easily last you more than a week of heavy usage. But they don’t do ANC well, for which their price shouldn’t be an excuse, considering both the Galaxy Buds FE and the OnePlus Buds 3 do an excellent job at it with similar price points. I can forgive the bass getting thick at higher volumes since that relies on driver quality, and I shouldn’t expect much from a $50 device. The volume control was finicky to use and was something that could’ve been avoided with a slightly more intuitive design. Some extra frills, such as support for finding my earbuds and mono listening, are welcome features.

Still, at their modest price, the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro offers way more than it lacks. That’s reason enough to opt for these unless the absence of quality ANC is a complete dealbreaker for you. In that case, the mentioned competitor offerings from Samsung or OnePlus are decent alternatives. For just $20 more, you get far better ANC on the OnePlus Buds 3.