- Tell me that's what I think it is,
tell me that's what I thought,
new buds who dares?
(bright upbeat music)
Come on.
(sighs)
(bright upbeat music)
(keyboard typing)
- [Man] The next day.
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 AirPod alternative 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 ambient sound that went through
is just enough to still feel part 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 make an 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 oval case, 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 pairing button, on the inside
magnets hold the buds snugging the case.
They come in black, white and this kinda crazy teal color
that I think is a little bit too 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 of continuous music playback
and the case holds 30 hours 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 unique noise reduction algorithm
and three microphones on each bud to improve clarity."
That sounds like a hell of a claim
and it also sounds like we 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 background noise to try to get rid of.
First up we had these headphones from Letscom,
they were $20 on Amazon, I bought these
because they were the cheapest 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 these long stems absolutely help.
And for $160, these are the AirPods
and we say this every time 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 your hands, washing the dishes.
Life cannot stop 'cause you gotta wash your hands
we're gonna be like this for a long time folks.
And here are the AirPods standing next to you
this small waterfall that 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 and yikes, these OnePlus Buds
do not sound much better than this $20 pair,
but let me know what you think down below.
Okay, I understand my quality is 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 couch for a very long time
trying to differentiate these from the AirPod Pros,
the first gens and I could not.
There's a song by JAWNY called "Anything You Want",
it has like this subtle shaker in 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 bass with this open-ear design,
but there are 13.4 millimeter drivers in here
that can actually kick
and compared to these like $20 ones I got off Amazon,
I mean the audio quality on 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 for water 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 use one bud independently,
and as soon as you take one out, your music will pause,
and when you put it back in your music will resume.
There's also no app for these buds
and the tap control out of 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 synced devices and that's it.
OnePlus claims that when these buds
start shipping in late July, OnePlus phones
will be pushed a software update, allowing them
to choose their preferred action 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 controls than 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 back to the previous track,
which I think are great controls
and should just be standard amongst all buds,
but you know, to each their own.
(bright upbeat music)
So are the OnePlus Buds, a half-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 other options that maybe have
a little bit more functionality than these do.
If you'll allow me to be in my feelings
for just like two seconds more, (sighs)
from a company whose slogan is "Never settle",
I was just like hoping,
yeah, like really, really hoping,
hoping for a little bit more innovation.