OnePlus Buds Review: new buds

Let's just play a quick game. Okay, which one of these earbuds cost $20? Which one cost $80? Which one cost $160? The $80 ones are the OnePlus Buds and the point is OnePlus made an AirPod alternative,it looks just like every other AirPodalternative on the market and like, of course they did. I mean, this stem design has proven to be hello functional. The mic is close to your mouth,the fit fits most people, and the amount of ambientsound that went through is just enough to still feelpart of the world around you, but also be able to hear your music. Okay, so the question for the OnePlus Buds is not about fit and form, but instead it's did OnePlus makean AirPod alternative for half of the price that is as reliable and as functional as AirPods? Let's get into that. (bright upbeat music) So the OnePlus Buds, they come in a pretty plasticky ovalcase, that is a bit wider than the case of the Google Pixel Buds and thicker than the AirPod's case. 

On the bottom, there's a USB-C port, on the back, a pairingbutton, on the inside magnets hold the buds snugging the case. They come in black, white andthis kinda crazy teal color that I think is a little bittoo much of a purple color but I have about Andrew who like is totally gonna take these. On a full charge, the buds get you around seven hours ofcontinuous music playback and the case holds 30hours of music playback, which is around four full charges. It takes around 80 minutes to charge the case from zero to a hundred and I have had zero issues with battery life while using these and I am a bud's power user, but I'm also a wireless charging super fan and there's no wireless charging in these. OnePlus claims that these buds, hold on, I wanna quote this, I wanna get this right, "These buds have uniquenoise reduction algorithm and three microphones oneach bud to improve clarity." That sounds like a hell of a claim and it also sounds likewe need to do a mic test. And we're doing kitchen again,because I really think that (tap water running) this is a hell of a backgroundnoise to try to get rid of. First up we had theseheadphones from Letscom, they were $20 on Amazon, I bought these because they were thecheapest I could find that looks like AirPods and also have pretty decent reviews. And for $80, we have the OnePlus Buds. These have three microphones on each bud so it should really be picking up my voice and I mean, of course theselong stems absolutely help. And for $160, these are the AirPods and we say this everytime we do a mic test, this is the gold standard,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah but usually it is pretty good. Run the water. (tap water running) Can you hear me now? 

We have the sink running, maybe when you're washing yourhands, washing the dishes. Life cannot stop 'causeyou gotta wash your hands we're gonna be like thisfor a long time folks. And here are the AirPodsstanding next to you this small waterfallthat is my kitchen sink. Can you hear me over this small waterfall? Wow, never so clearly have I been able to hear a price difference. These AirPods blow these other two pairs out of the water andyikes, these OnePlus Buds do not sound much betterthan this $20 pair, but let me know what you think down below. Okay, I understand my qualityis very important to me and maybe not as important to you, so let's talk audio quality. (bright upbeat music) Buds, they sound pretty good like I sat on my couchfor a very long time trying to differentiatethese from the AirPod Pros, the first gens and I could not. There's a song by JAWNYcalled "Anything You Want", it has like this subtle shakerin the back of it's chorus and I was really trying to like see who could differentiate that sound better and I couldn't find a difference. I mean, you're not gonna get a crazy amount of basswith this open-ear design, but there are 13.4millimeter drivers in here that can actually kick and compared to these like$20 ones I got off Amazon, I mean the audio qualityon the OnePlus Buds is much better than the $20 version and very comparable to the $160 AirPod. Yeah, these $20 buds,they sound like $20 buds. The words I would use to describe their audio quality is tinny, very small, $20, the end of story. (chuckles) The OnePlus Buds are IPX forwater and sweat resistant. These buds will be good in the rain and definitely protected from sweat. A big downfall to these buds though is that you cannot useone bud independently, and as soon as you take oneout, your music will pause, and when you put it backin your music will resume. There's also no app for these buds and the tap control outof the box are limited. 

Double tap a bud to skip to the next song or hold down on a bud for three seconds to switch between synceddevices and that's it. OnePlus claims that when these buds start shipping in lateJuly, OnePlus phones will be pushed a softwareupdate, allowing them to choose their preferredaction for double tapping, including pausing music,jumping to the previous track or activating the Google Assistant. But that's only for OnePlus devices and dudes, (sighs) our$20 faves off of Amazon have more touch controlsthan the OnePlus do at this moment in time. On the $20 buds, tap once to pause, double tap to skip a track and triple tap to go backto the previous track, which I think are great controls and should just bestandard amongst all buds, but you know, to each their own. (bright upbeat music) So are the OnePlus Buds, ahalf-priced AirPod alternative that are reliable and functional? Yes, yes they are, and if you're a OnePlus user, you're gonna have full control over these. But for everybody else,there is a massive market of AirPod alternatives out there that range from $20 to $160 and beyond. And (sighs) there are otheroptions that maybe have a little bit morefunctionality than these do. If you'll allow me to be in my feelings for just like two seconds more, (sighs) from a company whoseslogan is "Never settle", I was just like hoping, yeah, like really, really hoping, hoping for a little bit more innovation.