The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 is a premium pair of true wireless earbuds that strike a balance between high-end features and value. Featuring a dual-driver system, ANC, LHDC 5.0 high-resolution audio, and a collaboration with Dynaudio, these earbuds are designed for superior sound quality across a wide range of musical genres.
These feature-rich headphones include Spatial Audio, customized audio tuned for your ears, IP55 water and dust resistance, wear detection, posture detection, Android Fast Pair, and more.
Design
The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 exudes a premium feel right from the first touch. Their sleek, polished design combines high-quality materials with a refined aesthetic, making them a standout accessory. The pebble-shaped case is ultra-clean, with the front and back textured in a leather-style print. The finish is so refined, it took us way too long to realize the pairing button falls flush on the side.
The buds are AirPods-style with gunmetal reflective stems. They look similar to their predecessors and come with 4 different sizes of oval silicone ear tips. We love that there’s an “L” and “R” etched into each bud.
Even though our ears usually struggle with this style of earbuds, we found them very light and comfortable even for long wear. They stay housed nicely for most everyday stuff, but we can’t wear them for anything with much head movement like jogging, sit-ups, or going to the gym. They’re IP55 water and dust-resistant, so they’re a great gym companion if they fit well.
Controls
The controls are strange since they require a squeeze of the stem instead of a tap. That said, the controls are customizable and there’s a single, double, triple tap, and long hold control for each bud. There’s even a slide you can do on the stem for volume or track controls, but most of these controls don’t work well and mess up my fit.
Battery
The earbud battery is 5 hours with ANC and LHDC, 6 hours with ANC and AAC, and 10 hours without ANC. These times are good but somewhat average. The charging case quadruples the battery life, which gets you 21–43 hours. Battery shouldn’t be much of an issue, especially with fast charging. The charging case charges with USB-C or even wirelessly with a standard wireless Qi charger.
Audio Quality
The collaboration with Dynaudio significantly elevates the audio experience of the OnePlus Buds Pro 3. With dual drivers, each bud has an 11 mm woofer to handle the deep bass and a 6 mm tweeter for mids and highs, resulting in a richer, more balanced sound. The various Dynaudio presets, tuning, and personalization options make these sounds exceptional for any ear.
The bass is powerful—so much so that I had to turn off the BassWave feature and stick with Dynaudio’s default Balanced profile. All five of Dynaudio’s presets have their own personality and cater well to different preferences. I particularly appreciated Serenade, a tuning that “celebrates vocals.”
The buds deliver a rich profile with deep, punchy bass, crisp highs, and clear mids, all while supporting high-resolution audio streaming with LHDC 5.0. Sadly, there’s no high-res audio for iPhone. For a more 3D, immersive sound, you can also enable spatial audio, which works well, though it’s a bit more subtle than what you might get with other high-end earbuds. While I preferred it off, it’s definitely worth testing to see if it suits your taste.
Noise Cancellation
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 promises up to 50dB of noise cancellation. We found the ANC on these buds to be fairly average for in-ears but it is still appreciated. It’s a clean ANC, but it won’t silence most commuting noise. It didn’t even silence lawnmowers outside or a vacuum in the next room over, but it does still offer a noticeable improvement over passive noise isolation. You can adjust the strength of the ANC or leave the buds to automatically decide. We leave it on Max.
There’s also a transparency mode so that you can better hear your surroundings. The transparency on these buds is some of the best out there. It’s natural and easy to leave on in case you need to be present in your environment.
App/Features
The HeyMelody app is one of the nicer headphone companion apps. It’s simple, intuitive, and offers decent personalization. Most notably, there’s a lot of customization for the headphone’s sound. Anyone should be able to find the setting that sounds perfect to their ears. There’s a customizable EQ if you don’t prefer the presets.
There’s a “golden sound” feature where you take a quick hearing test and OnePlus adjusts different frequencies per ear for an enhancement you can actually hear. OneMelody also lets you control ambient noise preferences, your headphone touch controls, Spatial Audio, and a few other features. You can’t disable the wear detection for auto-play/pause.
Wear detection works mostly well. We had one bout of trouble where the music was auto pausing but a quick wipe-down of the buds fixed that. There’s supposed to be a neck health posture alert but it never triggered for us.
Final Thoughts
The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 is a strong contender in the premium earbud market, offering fantastic audio quality thanks to its dual drivers and the collaboration with Dynaudio. The sound profile is impressive across all presets, providing a tailored listening experience whether you’re into bass-heavy tracks or crisp vocals. The overall design looks and feels premium, with comfortable buds and a stylish case. However, the touch controls can be finicky, especially with squeezing and sliding actions, which can affect the fit during wear.
While the ANC isn’t class-leading, it still offers a solid level of noise reduction for general use, and the transparency mode is one of the best out there. The HeyMelody app adds substantial value, with features like Golden Sound and customizable EQ making it easy to shape the listening experience to your liking.
The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 delivers a lot of value for their price point, even if they aren’t perfect in every aspect. They’re currently on sale from Oneplus.com for $149.99, or for $159.99 at Amazon.