OnePlus Buds 4 Review: Flagship noise cancellation, midrange sound quality

Pros:

Segment leading ANC and Transparency performance

Punchy sound output, support for LHDC 5.0 codec

Customisable sound and controls through companion app

Slide controls for volume and skipping tracks

Comfortable in-ear fit, IP55 dust and splash resistance

Wear detection, dual-pairing support

Very good battery backup, fast charging

Impressive call quality

Cons:

Default sound feels a step down from the OnePlus Buds 3

Adaptive Noise Control does not work as intended

Doesn’t get enough out of the dual drivers and dual DAC

Price: Rs 5,999

Rating: 4.1/5

OnePlus Buds 3 left a highly positive impression on us last year and we were looking forward to meeting its successor, the Buds 4. Unlike the Bullets Wireless Z3 neckband from the company that had a good three years to come up with a significantly better successor, the Buds 3 was always going to be a tough act to follow, and that too in just half the time. The OnePlus Buds 4 does strive to push the performance on every front. Let’s see if it succeeds.

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OnePlus Buds 4: Design and Comfort (7.5/10)

While the OnePlus Buds 3 looked like the Buds Pro 2, the Buds 4 design feels like a mix of Buds Pro 3 and Nord Buds 3.

Nothing bad about it at all, just that the Buds 3 looked better and had a bit more character. The Zen Green colour variant is more pleasing to the eye than the Storm Gray. The entire product sports a smooth matte finish, making it free of fingerprints and smudge marks. The buds have an IP55 rating for dust and splash resistance, however, the charging case is void of any ingress protection.

The build quality is quite solid despite the buds weighing less than 5 grams each. Along with the case, OnePlus has managed to keep the weight of the product under 50 grams. The preinstalled mid-sized silicone tips worked best for me and offered decent passive noise isolation. Two more pairs of tips are included in the bundle to choose from. As always, it is very important to choose the right sized tips for best audio experience and ANC (active noise cancellation).

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The case is lightweight and fairly pocketable. You get a tiny charge indicator LED at the front, a USB-C port at the bottom and a neatly camouflaged Bluetooth pairing/reset button on the side. The earbuds sit nicely into the ear canals and cause no discomfort even after wearing them for a few hours at a stretch. The fit could have been a little more snug though. On most occasions they didn’t pop out even during brisk walks, but at times, I had to readjust them a bit. In addition to the standard touch controls, the slide gestures have been retained, which is great.

OnePlus Buds 4: Features and Specifications (9/10)

Just like the Buds 3, the Buds 4 are fitted with dual dynamic drivers, with the size of the woofer going up from 10.4 mm to 11 mm, like on the Pro models. There’s also a 6 mm tweeter to handle the high-end frequencies, while woofer takes care of other frequency ranges. Each earbud also has three microphones for active noise cancellation (ANC) and calling. A new addition is dual DACs, one for each driver, just like in case of the flagship OnePlus Buds Pro 3.

Wear detection sensors and dual-pairing support have been retained in addition to Google Fast Pair. The OnePlus Buds 4 is Bluetooth 5.4 compliant, and supports SBC, AAC and LHDC 5.0 audio codecs. These buds can supposedly manage a higher throughput of up to 1 Mbps on LHDC at 24-bit 192 kHz sampling rate, but that can be phone dependent. In fact, if you do not have a phone that supports LHDC codec itself, you will have to make do with AAC. Support for a more popular codec like aptX HD/Adaptive or LDAC would have been better.

The latency can now go as low as 47 ms on these earbuds and there was no noticeable lag between audio and video when streaming content. ANC figures have seen an improvement too with the Buds 4 capable of reducing up to 55 dB of ambient noise across a 5,500 Hz spectrum. You also have Adaptive Noise Control that is supposed to switch between different intensities of noise cancellation as well as Transparency mode depending on the ambient noise. An AI Translate feature is also included that facilitates live translation.

There are a handful of sound tweaks, ranging from the usual sound presets - Balanced, Serenade and Bass, along with a 6-band equaliser to create your own sound profiles. Bold preset has been given a skip for some reason; just a musical chair of presets, I guess. Then you get the Golden Sound option to create an audio profile based on your hearing capability. And lastly, you can dabble around in OnePlus 3D audio for an extra immersive experience. More on the noise control modes and sound quality in a bit.

The top half of the earbud stems are touch enabled and the touch zone is marked with a slight indentation. The touch sensitivity is perfectly fine. You can assign various tasks like play/pause, previous/next tracks, game mode, voice assistant, ANC control etc to single tap, double tap, triple tap and touch-and-hold gestures; not all tasks can be assigned to all gestures though.

The touch zones also support slide gestures. One can simply slide a finger from top to bottom or the other way to decrease or increase the volume or change tracks. It remains a highly useful addition and it continues to baffle me how this feature isn’t standard on most earbuds yet. The sound and controls can be configured through Bluetooth settings on OnePlus phones released in the past half a decade. HeyMelody app lets you do the same on other phones.

OnePlus Buds 4: Performance (8/10)

Pairing these earphones with a phone or tablet is a standard process. The connection stayed strong for over 10 metres with a clear line of sight. The firmware was updated to the latest version 126.126.105 during the review process. The Buds 4 are quite loud and rarely did I need to go beyond 60% loudness even when outdoors. The sound is tuned differently from its predecessor. While sound is a subjective matter, we feel OnePlus played a bit too safe with the tuning and let go of the bolder tones of the Buds 3 in favour of some extra bass.

Let me dive a little deeper. The Buds 3 was one of the rare OnePlus products that wasn’t too bass-heavy. Of course, there was sufficient bass but the mids had a good presence and the highs were sharp and distinct. The OnePlus Buds 4 falls back on the more massy bass-heavy default sound (on Balanced preset) that doesn’t make it as unique as its predecessor. It comes at the cost of sharpness in the mids and highs. To make matters worse, the Bold preset, which is generally more balanced than Balanced, is missing here.

Thankfully, one can make the Buds 4 sound a lot better using the Sound Master EQ. A few tweaks can go a long way in making the output sharper and actually more balanced. Though it still doesn’t have the sparkle of the Buds 3, these buds sound pretty good for the segment with ample thump in the bass, above average midrange reproduction with clear vocals and reasonably sharp highs without any sibilance. The overall detail in sound is pretty good with a decently broad soundstage, though not very expansive.

Beyond the presets and EQ, you can also create your personalised audio profile using the Golden Sound feature in the app courtesy of a listening test that determines the hearing profile based on your sensitivity to different sounds. It boosts certain frequencies to produce a sharper output. You may or may not like the results, but it is certainly worth a try. You can always disable it if you don’t like the results.

While the sound quality is good for the segment, we feel the output could have been tuned better to make better use of the dual drivers and even the dual DACs. Interestingly, the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 has a very similar setup but sounds significantly richer and more detailed with far better frequency separation. Dynaudio has done a great job with its tuning. Of course, we are talking about a product twice its cost, but the point being similar spec-sheets don’t necessarily produce similar sound.

The sound quality may be par for the course but the ANC certainly transcends the segment. The Buds 4 arguably has the best noise cancellation among all OnePlus earphones and that also includes the Buds Pro 3. And it’s not just the decibel numbers we speak of but the actual real world performance. You get four ANC modes - Low, Moderate, High and Auto. Auto mode switches between the other three depending on the quantum of ambient noise.

I wouldn’t bother with Low as it is passable at best. Moderate mode is good enough in most cases, barring truly noisy areas like public transport, where High ANC would be the right fit. Interestingly, the High mode is also a variable ANC mode and it keeps adjusting the degree of noise suppression depending on the ambient noise, and does a great job of it. When enabled, it perfectly cuts out a lot of low frequency sounds like the whirr of a fan or even traffic noises when outdoors and even some midrange sounds. Though it cannot eliminate human voices entirely, it can noticeably reduce the background chatter in public transport.

The only downside being, High ANC mode tends to build a bit of pressure in the ear canal which can be uncomfortable for some. In that case, switch to Moderate mode, which though not in the same league is still effective and better than the peak noise cancellation from most brands in this segment. The Transparency mode here is equally impressive and feels natural. When enabled, it keeps you well aware of your surroundings and you can easily have a conversation without removing the buds from your ears.

A quick word on Adaptive Noise Control, a new addition to the Buds 4. It is supposed to be a highly smart option meant to automatically adjust different levels of noise cancellation and also switch to Transparency mode if it feels someone is trying to talk to you or there’s an announcement that you should hear. Unfortunately, it seems to have a mind of its own and doesn’t work as intended. It still has a lot to learn and probably a firmware update or two away from being smart enough.

OnePlus Buds 4: Call quality (8.5/10)

The call quality on the OnePlus Buds 4 is quite impressive, and not just indoors. Even when outdoors, the wind noise suppression works well and most of the low frequency to lower midrange ambient sounds were kept well in check. On a busy street, the sound of vehicles was barely audible to the person on the call. Only some nearby human chatter and high pitched sounds like horns trickled through, which none of the earbuds filter out anyway. Your voice sounds clear and natural and the Buds 4 is a very good option if you are looking for wireless earbuds to be used for a lot of calling.

OnePlus Buds 4: Battery life (8.5/10)

Each bud here is fitted with a 62 mAh battery, while the case packs 530 mAh. The company promises an impressive 11 hours of playback for the buds when using AAC codec at 50% loudness with ANC off and 6 hours with ANC switched on all the time. With LHDC codec, the figures drop to 9 and 5.5 hours respectively. The case provides three more recharges and the overall stated battery backup is four times the above numbers with buds and case combined.

The battery status of each earbud as well as that of the charging case is visible in the companion app. I largely tested these earbuds on LHDC codec and the numbers were quite close to those claimed. With loudness between 50 to 60%, the buds lasted a shade over 5 hours with Moderate ANC switched on all the time and about 8 hours and 15 minutes with ANC off. With the case, the overall battery backup figures ranged between 20 to 33 hours depending on your use of ANC on LHDC codec.

Though I did not repeat the battery tests using AAC codec, a single run did result in over 10 hours of playback without ANC, so one can safely assume that the AAC figures will be at least 90% of those claimed by OnePlus, which is quite impressive. While the battery backup of the Buds 4 sees a small improvement as compared to the Buds 3, fast charging sees a noticeable jump. A 10-minute charge can now give you close to 11 hours of play time (7 hours previously) on AAC codec with ANC off. All the above battery figures will be lower if you indulge in a lot of calling.

OnePlus Buds 4: Price and verdict

The OnePlus Buds 4 is priced at Rs 5,999 in India with a one year warranty. Though Rs 500 more than the Buds 3 at launch, it is still competitively priced for its performance and features. These TWS earbuds offer a punchy sound output with a handful of customisations, great ANC and Transparency, slide controls and very good battery backup and call quality, making it a solid all-round product in the segment. As for the competition, there are largely two options that the Buds 4 should worry about.

Firstly, the Earfun Free Pro 3 that sells for a similar price and offers even more features than this OnePlus product like wireless charging and support for Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive codec and Snapdragon Sound. Its sound quality is marginally better too but cannot say the same about its ANC performance where the Buds 4 tops the charts by a distance. The other option is the OnePlus Buds 3 that is still available, and for a good Rs 1,400 less. It is similar to its successor in many ways except ANC, and in fact looks better and sounds sharper, making it a better value-for-money option overall. Take your pick.