OnePlus has been making wireless earbuds for the last few years, but now it feels like the company might be finally ready to compete with the big brands with the announcement of the new OnePlus Buds Pro.
Sporting a design that looks a lot like wireless earbuds made by a certain fruit company—but with silver stems instead of white—there’s an obvious comparison to be made between the OnePlus Buds Pro and the AirPods Pro. However, by offering support for built-in active noise cancellation with a starting price of just $150 ($100 less then the AirPods Pro), OnePlus’ buds look like they offer a much better value.
According to OnePlus, the Buds Pro feature three mics in each earbuds that can filter out up to 40 decibels of noise, which unlike some other headphones, can adjust the level of noise cancellation dynamically instead of being restricted to a handful of preset ANC levels.
Audio is powered by two 11mm drivers, and OnePlus’ Audio ID promises to a calibrated sound profile. The Buds Pro also support Dolby Atmos audio. OnePlus says the Buds Pro should last about five hours on a single charge with ANC turned on (or around seven hours with ANC off), with OnePlus’ included wireless charging case adding more than 30 hours of extra juice. And if you’re in a pinch and need to charge up on the go, OnePlus says the Buds Pro’s charging case can suck up 10 hours worth of battery in just 10 minutes when connected to one of OnePlus’ Warp Charge power bricks.
For gamers, OnePlus also says the Buds Pro’s latency can go as low as 94 ms with the Pro Gaming mode enabled. In the U.S. and Canada, the OnePlus Buds Pro will go on sale Sept. 1 for $150.
Also, in addition to the OnePlus Buds Pro, OnePlus also announced a new budget/mid-range phone in the Nord 2 5G. The Nord 2 features a 6.43-inch 2400 x 1080 AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chip, 6GB/8GB/12GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage and three rear cams. And with a price tag that starts at 400 euros, the Nord 2 looks like a really great affordable phone. Unfortunately, OnePlus doesn’t have any plans to bring the Nord 2 to the U.S..
