Experimenting with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 headphones: Surprising with their excellent sound

Mobile manufacturer OnePlus presented new wireless headphones alongside its flagship phone. They impress with their sound quality.

Text and screenshots: Joni Nikkola
Photos: Joni Nikkola and the manufacturer

In addition to its new 11-inch flagship phone, OnePlus has unveiled the wireless Buds Pro 2 headphones, priced at 179 euros, in between the two most competitive models: the Apple AirPod headphones. The cheapest version of the AirPod costs 159 euros, and the most expensive Pro version 299 euros.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2s give a fairly high-quality first impression in the series of wireless headphones. The charging case is slim in size and its dark black surface does not collect fingerprints. Behind the case is a USB-C charging port and in front there is a LED indicator showing the charging status.

The headphones have shiny details that give a slightly more luxurious feel, and otherwise they are finished in a pearl-like finish. There are pressure-sensing touch controls on the earcups for control. Like the OnePlus 11, the headphones are available in black and green.

The weight of one earbud is around five grams, so they don’t press hard on the ear. The earbuds have anti-bacterial ear tips that can be placed in the ear canal. To improve fit, they are available in three sizes. According to OnePlus, machine learning and thousands of ear measurements have been used in ergonomics design, and more than a thousand experts have analyzed the data.

The headphones are easy to put on and take off, and they are also discreet to wear. When listening for a longer period of time, the headphones do put a little pressure on the ear canal, but the pressure feels more even and more gentle than in many other on-ear headphones.

Touch controls include, among other things, pressing two fingers to start and stop playback. The headphones respond to short presses with a faint click, and longer presses with a beep. When you remove the headphones from your ear, the playback stops automatically and starts again when you put them back on.

The battery life of the headphones is promised to be around 8–10 hours, depending on whether the noise cancellation function is on or off. The charging case has enough power for three full charges, so the total battery life is stated as 25–39 hours. With fast charging, you can get an additional 10 minutes of listening time in 3 hours. Wireless Qi charging is also supported.

The headphones with their case are compact in size.

Tactics of two elements

In terms of their basic technology, the headphones are more specialized than usual. Usually, snap-on headphones have only one audio element, and in solutions with multiple elements, the second element is often a Balanced Armature type.

The MelodyBoost system in the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has two traditional dynamic elements. The bass element is 11 millimeters in size, and the treble element is six millimeters. The Danish audio manufacturer Dynaudio has been involved in the design of these elements. The upper register is promised to reach 40 kilohertz, which is well above the human hearing range.

Wireless playback is achieved via the latest Bluetooth 5.3 connection. The latest version features improved compatibility, connection stability, and power consumption compared to previous versions. The headphones can be connected to two devices simultaneously, for example, if you want to keep them connected simultaneously to a phone and a computer. Thanks to Bluetooth 5.3 LE, or Low Energy, power consumption is reduced. Latency is reported to be 54 milliseconds, which should help with gaming.

The Buds Pro 2 headphones support Google's Fast Pair feature, which means they automatically search for nearby Android devices and connect them. However, to work, they require the OxygenOS 11 operating system of the OnePlus One or a newer version. The headphones are rated IP55 for dust and water resistance. That means they are dustproof and can withstand a water spray from all directions. The charging case is more modestly protected with IPX4. The rating is on a better level than, for example, in the Apple AirPods.

The base code is supported by lhdc 4.0, which offers better sound quality. An update will also include even more recent 5.0 support. The headphones have also received the Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification.

At least as tested on the OnePlus 11 phone, Spatial Audio added a bit more space to the immersive experience. The feature launched by Google is included in the Android 13 operating system.

In addition to stereo sound, the headphones support the Spatial Audio mode introduced by Google's Android 13 version. To get the best possible experience, the manufacturer recommends using the OnePlus 11 5G phone. We didn't have any other Android 13-powered phones available for testing, but the spatial audio settings in the OnePlus 11 can be found directly from the phone's menu. Spatial audio enhances the three-dimensional effect, even if the placement isn't exactly the most precise we've heard.

Six-axis head position detection is included, which is useful for spatial audio playback. The positional rendering algorithm is developed by OnePlus itself. Using the same sensors, the headphones will also be able to advise the user in the future on correcting their sitting posture to a more upright position, once the feature becomes available as a device software update.

Adjustment options in the app

The HeyMelody app is available for the headphones, and it features features such as noise cancellation, a frequency adjuster, detection of the headphones’ fit, and the ability to customize touch controls. It also shows the remaining charge level of the headphones and charging case. In addition, you can choose from features such as high-resolution mode, find lost headphones, and update the headphones’ firmware.

The first time you connect the headphones, you select the Bluetooth device from the phone menu. When using a OnePlus phone, pairing and connection is handled via a pop-up window. In this case, the connection status and remaining battery capacity are also displayed in the pop-up window. When connecting to a Xiaomi phone, pairing did not work immediately from the app for some reason, so the headphones had to be pulled from the Bluetooth menu.

There are four noise cancellation modes: light, medium, deep, and intelligent dynamic. The latter identifies the surrounding noise profile and selects the most appropriate level. The function can also be customized, adapting to the fit of the headphones and the shape of the ear canal. In addition, there is a Transparent mode if you want to let ambient sounds through.

According to the manufacturer's announcement, the noise cancellation function reduces noise to a maximum of 48 decibels. Both headphones have three microphones that monitor the noise level in the environment.

You can only achieve the same level of attenuation in some ear-covering noise-canceling headphones, but for example the noise from the keyboard is quite muffled. When testing the noise-canceling function in the car, the engine noise was almost completely suppressed except for the lowest noises.

The headphones have one default frequency adjuster setting configured by Dynaudio, plus three custom versions. In addition, there is a six-band graphic equalizer with six-dB adjustment range in both directions.

The app customizes the sound by scanning the ear canals, after which the volume is manually adjusted until the sound stops being loud. In our test, the sound was in place after the adjustments.

The Golden Sound function in Buds Pro 2 customizes the playback profile based on the user's hearing. As in many similar implementations, the app plays back the audio from multiple different frequencies, and the volume slider is adjusted at the point where the sound stops. The results were convincing, as the sound felt remarkably in place after the adjustment.

The Zen Mode Air function, in turn, plays sounds intended to help with tasks such as working or falling asleep. The app offers five different options, in addition to white noise, including bird song, soft ambient music, a lullaby, sea sounds, and piano music. You can also turn on the mode directly from your headphones by pressing the button for three seconds.

Easy authority

The manufacturer promises that the bass can reach up to 10 Hertz. The playback reaches surprisingly low levels. Even with the extreme treble bass, the sound doesn’t go completely flat, although it is somewhat dark in nature. There is authority even in the low frequencies, as the bass from Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, for example, is played in a nice, round and full-bodied way.

The soundstage is also more natural and spacious than with many headphones. The guitar stereo effect that can be detected on quite a few headphones surprised Led Zeppelin in Whole Lotta Love by standing out.

The headphones can be described as effortless to use. In terms of sound, they are among the better wireless headphones available. Compared to that, the price of under 200 euros seems quite reasonable. Hopefully, more value for money will be added when the spatial audio and the newer LDC codec arrive with the software update.