I haven’t been this excited to review a TWS product like I have with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2. I’ve tried several TWS products from phone brands before and have settled that, for the most part, they all do their jobs – that is to quiet the ambient noise of the outside world so you can have a better auditory experience. And while design and performance definitely comes into play, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 having Hans Zimmer as their celebrity ambassador definitely makes it more exciting.
Let me gush a bit on my nerdiness of Hans Zimmer. While most people may know him for his bombastic horn noises in Inception, Zimmer has been behind some of the most moving pieces of movie music in modern history. He painted the animated African Savana with mixture of lively chants, haunting strings, and rhythmic percussions for the 1997 Disney Animated Classic, The Lion King; he revealed to us the mysteries of the far east in his scoring of The Last Samurai; and of course, he was the man behind grounding the Dark Knight back into the modern world with his Batman: Dark Knight Trilogy soundtrack.
All-in-all, Hans Zimmer’s love of music spans from finding indigenous sound to experimenting with the most modern contraptions in technology. And it’s fitting that OnePlus would appoint him as their official face (or ear, rather) for the Buds Pro 2.
So, after tinkering with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 for about a week or so now, does it live up to the hype that I was building it to be because of the Zimmer connection?
Geek-sthetic
Let’s start with the overall design. We’ve seen TWS encapsulated in pebble-like designs, or cylinders even, but I’m quite happy with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2’s minimalist clamshell-like form factor. It’s small, handy, and light. Not to mention that it has a nice matte sheen to it as well. The Arbor Green colorway compliments the OnePlus 11’s Eternal Green colorway brilliantly as well, giving a nice muted contrast to the smartphone’s otherwise liquid glass-like luminosity.
On top of this, the Buds are extremely light – weighing only 4.9g, which should reduce ear fatigue when you’re wearing them for an extended period of time.
The Buds themselves come in with extra silicon ear tips for better fitting and noise reduction and if you’re unsure which tips fit your ear, you can have the app determine that for you. You will have to download their HeyMelody App though (I know, the name could use some rebranding).
Sound to Binge To
With up to 39 Hours of playback, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is a joy to bring around and use. In our real world use, however, we’re leaning closer to 30 hours (because we kept using the ANC from time to time) before we had to charge the unit again – not bad considering the fast charging capability of the unit.
Speaking of charging, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 also supports Qi wireless charging. Options, they matter.
Whether it’s binging on your favorite movie or tv series (we’ve been going down the rabbit hole of His Dark Materials and The Last of Us on HBO Go) or sound tripping on Spotify, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 gives crystal clear audio thanks to the large 11mm woofer and 6mm tweeter dual drivers.
Bass is deep without being too punchy even at higher volumes and there the earbuds support Dolby Atmos profiles and Spatial Audio to add to more color to your listening experience.
ANC-wise, the unit has 3 modes of ANC – Max, Moderate and Mild which you can choose your preferred setting to. Or leave the unit at Smart setting where it detects your surroundings and chooses the best ANC for you.
Of course, there’s Transparency Mode as well so you can hear your surroundings, a useful setting when you’re walking on the street (or crossing the road). As far as ANC goes, however, even at Max setting if you’re not listening to any media, you’ll still be able to hear people talking to you or loud bumps or noises in your proximity. It doesn’t filter the outside world 100% but it does keep general noises at bay (like when a kid cries inside the plane).
For gaming, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has a fast 54ms latency so there’s hardly any disparity between what you’re playing and the audio cues you need to hear to give you that winning edge.
The 10m connection (Bluetooth 5.3) also comes in handy when you have to go around without being near your source of audio. In my case, I can leave my phone on the ground floor, go all the way up to my room on the 2nd floor and still get crystal clear music connection. It’s pretty impressive.
Your Sound, Your Way
Perhaps what we love about the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is the fact that it has a myriad of different sound profile settings for you to choose and play around with. As mentioned there’s a huge Dolby Atmos pre-setting that you can try (you’ll need to turn off Spatial Audio to gain access to this, though), but more than that, the HeyMelody App has a customizable Sound Master EQ for you to create your own sound profile if you want to.
It’s here that the Hans Zimmer partnership come into play. In the latest update, you’re supposed to gain access to Hans Zimmer’s Sound Tunning of the OnePlus Buds Pro 2. Currently we don’t have access to it (yet), but there are users in the West that are now enjoying EQ tweaked by the Oscar Award-winning composer.
Still even with the standard settings that the app has, listening to a retuned Lost but Won score from the master himself re-calibrated for OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is a joy to be had — especially if you turned the Spatial Audio on.
Chills.
As far as audio profile is concerned, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is clean and open to a lot of customization as mentioned. It reminds me of Audio Technica’s sound profile a bit. And while people might find that a but plain, the mere fact that you can tweak it extensively is such a big plus for us. Need the bass to be punchier? Okay. Want the mids to dominate? Done. You can create many customized profiles for different albums as well. Experimentation and customization are very much welcomed with these buds.
Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict
If you’re a OnePlus 11 user, it makes perfect sense to get your hands on these pretty amazing buds. But even if you’re not and just in the market for a TWS with decent Noise Canceling (up to 48 decibels), long battery life, and a customizable sound profile, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 is a very solid option to consider. The device retails for retails for Php 9,990 but you can get it for Php 1000 less over at their official Lazada Store or Shopee Stores until March 7, 2023.
For more info, do check out their official site and social media channels.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Specs:
- 11mm woofer + 6mm tweeter dual driver (10Hz ~ 40Hz frequency response)
- 9g (buds) / 47.3g (charging case)
- ANC up to 48dB Smart Adaptive Cancellation
- Transparency Mode / Zen Mode Air
- 3 Mics per side with a microphone sensitivity range of -38dB
- Touch Control
- Bluetooth 5.3 (LHDC/AAC/SBC/LC3)
- Latency: 54ms
- 10m distance
- Google Fast Pairing/ Dual Connection
- Sweat & Dust Resistant: IP55 (Buds)/ IPX4 (Case)
- Battery: 60mAh (Buds) / 520mAh (Case) / Wireless Qi Charging Support/ USB-C Charging
- Arbor Green, Obsidian Black
- SRP: Php 9,990