Realme Buds Wireless Pro ANC Review

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Realme launched two affordable ANC earphones at its recent Mega IoT launch – Buds Air Pro and Buds Wireless Pro. The Realme Buds Air Pro that we recently reviewed offer TWS style & convenience and the Buds Air Wireless Pro that we will be talking about today are neckband style earphones that are more affordable and focus on audio quality. 

Highlights include support for Sony’s hi-res LDAC codec, ANC, and long-lasting battery. In our Realme Buds Wireless Pro review, we will share our experience over the last few weeks and try to answer if they qualify as a worthy recommendation. 

Realme Buds Wireless Pro Review

ProductRealme Buds Wireless Pro
Driver13.6mm bass boost driver 
Noise cancellationRealme S1 chip for noise cancellation
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.0 over LDAC, AAC, SBC; 10m range
Water resistanceIPX4 (splash and sweat resistant)
Battery160mAh22 hours audio playback, 16 hours with ANC; USB Type-C Charging port
Weight33 grams
ColorsParty Yellow, Disco Green 
PriceINR 3,499

Realme Buds Wireless Pro Review: What’s in the box

  • 1x Realme Buds Wireless Pro
  • 6x Ear tips
  • 1x Type-C cable
  • Documentation

Realme Buds Wireless Pro Review: Design and Comfort 

These are neckband style buds that come in two vibrant colors – yellow and green – that should appeal to youngsters. We’d have preferred a sober black, but everyone else I showed these buds to seemed perfectly content with the bright yellow – so, it’s a subjective thing. 

The rubberized neckband is light and well balanced. The design also makes it easy to distinguish which side goes on the left and which on the right. Similarly, buttons are tactile enough and it’s easy to locate and distinguish controls on the in-line remote with just our fingers.

The buds themselves sit very comfortably in our ears. The fit is not tight enough to block ambient noise but it’s still secure enough for wearing during workouts (we tried them while jumping rope). The IPX4 splash and sweat resistance is further assurance. We had no trouble wearing the Realme Buds Wireless Pro over a long duration.

The buds cling magnetically to each other and that’s also how these buds power off. All you need to do is pull the buds apart to power them.

To put Realme Buds in Pairing Mode, separate the two buds and hold the multi-purpose button (in the middle of the volume rocker) for three seconds. 

Realme Buds Wireless Pro Review: Link App and Features 

The proprietary Realme link app is available only for Android users. The app has ANC controls, mode switching options, and allows users to remap gestures – to an extent. 

Press & hold, single, double, and triple tap actions on the multifunction button can be mapped for music playback controls (Play/pause, next, previous) or Google assistant. 

On TWS buds it’s easy to accidentally trigger gestures, particularly while lying in bed. This isn’t a problem on neckband-style Realme Buds Wireless Pro, though, but it’s still good to have an option to disable unwanted gestures.

Single tap is reserved for ANC. Double-tap, triple tap, and press and hold on the ANC button can not be mapped to music playback, but users can remove the option to cycle through the ‘transparency mode’ and also map a quick trigger for gaming mode or action to switch between two paired devices.

These gestures don’t always work reliably in spite of the hard buttons and that can get a tad annoying.

Realme Buds Wireless Pro review: Sound Quality, ANC, and Performance

Realme Buds Wireless Pro comes with 13.6mm Bass Boost drivers with LDAC, AAC and SBC codec support. We’d say the overall sound quality is pretty good for the price. We tested them mostly on Spotify Premium at ‘Very High’ audio quality with Vivo V20, Pixel 4a, and Galaxy S20 FE. 

These earphones have a warm signature with a focus on lows and mids and sound best with LDAC turned on. The music sounds full and it’s easy to figure out and grasp vocals and sound from different instruments. 

This doesn’t mean the highs have been neglected, they are just restrained which makes for a comfortable listening experience if you are to use them for a long duration. Treble is relaxed and cymbals and high hats sound a tad flat. If you need more details in the highs, you may choose bright presets in third party equalizers like wavelet.

Low bass isn’t overpowering as was evident in ‘Oh my Ghosh’ from Jamie xx, but if you prefer more thump and rumble, you may use the Bass Boost present in the Realme Link App or other equalizers.

The sound stage is reasonably wide and Buds Wireless Pro get sufficiently loud. These earphones managed to pick fine detail and subtle nuances rather well considering the price you’d pay for them. Stereo imaging is decent enough.

We didn’t face any latency issues while gaming in the low latency gaming mode. Connectivity in the Bluetooth range (10m) was fine and in line with what you’d expect of regular wireless headphones.

Active noise cancelation doesn’t actually cancel out much. With the onset of winters as our ceiling fans aren’t adding much noise, we didn’t feel much reason to use ANC indoors.

We didn’t face any issue with call quality on the Realme Buds with both ANC off and ANC on. Voices were clearly audible on both ends. Of course, there were random occasions when things didn’t pan out well, and that’s to be expected of all affordable wireless options. 

As for the impact on audio quality, the Buds Wireless Pro sound slightly better with ANC turned off, but the difference isn’t appreciable and not something that normal consumer would notice. 

Realme Buds Wireless Pro Review: Battery Life and Calling

Battery mileage is excellent, no issues here. The 160mAh battery fully charges in around 1.5 hours and the headphones lasted for around 20 hours of playback with our mixed usage (ANC was mostly off). 

We didn’t face any issue with call quality on the Realme Buds with both ANC off and ANC on. Voices were clearly audible on both ends. Of course, there were random occasions when things didn’t pan out well, and that’s to be expected of all affordable wireless option

Realme Buds Wireless Pro Review: Should you buy them?

The Realme Buds Wireless Pro gets the basics right and performed better than what we usually get at this price point. They are comfortable to wear over a long duration, offer above-average battery life, decent calling experience, and fabulous battery mileage.  For these reasons, they qualify as a worthy recommendation for the price. 

You shouldn’t base your buying decision on ANC. It’s an added bonus, but it’s very basic ANC which you probably won’t be using very often. 

Pros

  • Above-average sound quality and LDAC support
  • Excellent Battery Life
  • Attractive and comfortable design

Cons

  • ANC is not effective
Deepak SinghDeepak Singh
Deepak has more than 8 years of experience in covering technology for several eminent publications in India. He currently leads an enthusiastic team of young writers at Smartprix and tries to uphold the highest quality standards.

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