 "Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro Review: Nothing flashy but easily worth the asking price")
Pros:
Loud and lively sound output
Customisable sound and controls
Compact design, comfortable in-ear fi
IP55-rated dust and splash resistance
Impressive battery backup, fast charging
Dual-pairing support
Good call quality
Affordable
Cons:
Highs could have been tempered a little better
No ANC or wear detection sensors (we are nitpicking)
Price: Rs 1,799
Rating: 4/5
It started with a weird coincidence. I found my nearly three years old Oppo Enco Buds2 a couple of weeks back while cleaning my drawers, which still works fine (surprisingly) and sounds good too. Trying them on brought back some fond memories and I wondered why Oppo did not bother launching its successor till now. The very next day, Oppo unveiled the Enco Buds3 Pro. What are the odds?
The Pro suffix is a little misleading as these are pretty much meant to succeed the Enco Buds2, and they exude the same simplicity too. The true wireless (TWS) earbuds market has evolved significantly in the past three years. Would a simple, sound-focused pair without active noise cancellation (ANC) still work? What new features and enhancements does the Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro bring to the table to justify its existence? Let’s find out.
Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro: Design and Comfort (8/10)
For starters, the design is nothing like that of its predecessor (the circular case which I liked) and more like the Realme T300/310, which itself draws inspiration from Apple.
Though not unique, the Enco Buds3 Pro doesn’t look bad at all with a good build quality and a dark grey matte finish.
The case is largely immune to fingerprints and smudge marks but not scratches. So avoid keeping it in the same pocket as your keys.
The case is compact and lightweight weighing under 35 grams and can be slipped into your pocket without a noticeable bulge. It hosts a 560 mAh battery with a tiny status LED and a USB-C charging port located towards the base. A Bluetooth pairing/reset button is absent here, but that function can be performed by touching and holding both buds simultaneously for a few seconds. A small indentation at the back of the buds denotes the touch zones. The touch sensitivity is generally good.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe buds are quite light at 4.3 grams each despite hosting 58 mAh batteries. The fit is snug and comfortable and can be worn for long. They don’t pop out of the ears during strength training or a jog, and as a result, can be your workout buddies as the buds are IP55 rated dust and splash resistant. The right sized silicon tips from the three bundled pairs offer decent passive noise isolation, which is necessary as there’s no ANC here.
Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro: Features and Specifications (7.5/10)
Each earbud is fitted with a 12.4 mm dynamic driver with a titanised diaphragm and a microphone for calling. As I mentioned, you do not get ANC here, nor are there wear detection sensors - but you rarely get those in this price bracket. But on the positive side, the Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro supports dual-pairing and can be connected to two devices simultaneously. These Bluetooth 5.4 compliant TWS buds support SBC and AAC codecs. You also get Spacial audio that’s called Oppo Alive Audio here.
You do not need to install any app on Oppo or OnePlus phones to access the features of these earbuds or update its firmware. You can do so directly from the Bluetooth settings. You will need the HeyMelody app on other phones to do the same. It lets you alter the sound profile, configure the controls and more. You can assign play/pause, previous/next track, voice assistant etc to single, double and triple tap gestures. Touch-and-hold lets you increase or decrease the volume.
Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro: Performance (8/10)
These earbuds produce a loud and punchy sound output. They are perfectly audible around half the volume when indoors and I didn’t need to push it beyond 70% even in noisy public transport. The wireless range is fine too with the buds maintaining a stable connection at 10 metres with no obstruction between them and the source device. Moving on to sound quality, the default sound of the Buds3 Pro is distinctly V-shaped but with a decent balance.
Oppo offers three sound presets for these TWS earbuds - Original sound, Bass boost and Clear vocals. For a change, all three are usable, though the default Original sound preset is easily the best of the lot. The output is a lot more balanced with ample but fairly tight bass, decent midrange reproduction with good vocal clarity and sharp highs. The highs have ample sparkle but could have been tempered a little better, especially the S sounds that tend to feel a little harsh in certain tracks.
While I found the default bass level adequate, some may crave for more. That’s where the Bass boost preset comes in handy to produce a more bass-heavy sound that many prefer. The Clear vocals preset is better suited for podcasts and other voice heavy content. Oppo has now added a 6-band equaliser to tweak the sound of the Enco Buds3 Pro further and create your own sound profiles - something missing in its predecessor. It can be used to temper the highs a little to make the output a touch smoother.
The passive noise isolation just about holds up in not-very-noisy areas but you do miss ANC in places like public transport. The soundstage is not too broad but par for the course for the segment. We faced no latency issues with no perceptible delay between the video and audio when watching videos. The latency can supposedly drop to 47 ms in Game Mode, but we had no means to verify the number.
Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro: Call quality (8/10)
The call quality on these Oppo buds is quite good, with people on the line clearly audible to each other indoor as well as outdoors. In busy areas outdoors, it filters out a reasonable amount of ambient noise without impacting your voice clarity much. While the microphones do a good job, the caller sounded just a little softer than ideal; a bit more sharpness in their voice would have been nicer. Having said that, these earbuds are still quite good for calling.
Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro: Battery life (8.5/10)
The battery backup on the Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro is impressive. The company claims a whopping 12 hours for the buds alone and a total of 54 hours overall with the charging case. Given the battery specs and lack of ANC or a high-end codec, these numbers don’t seem too farfetched. With the average loudness between 50 to 60% during testing, the earbuds actually managed to go on for close to 11 hours on a full charge, and for about 50 hours with the case.
An overall battery backup of 50 hours even without ANC for a compact product like this is pretty impressive. These buds also support fast charging, with a 10-minute charge promising close to 4 hours of playtime, which is more than handy. The product can be fully charged in less than a couple of hours, while the buds alone take about 60 minutes to go from empty to full. The battery level of each earbud and the charging case is visible in the Bluetooth settings of the synced device or in the HeyMelody app.
Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro: Price and verdict
The Oppo Enco Buds3 Pro is reasonably priced at Rs 1,799 with a one year warranty. Given its performance and features, you easily get your money’s worth. This compact package looks good, sounds good, is comfortable to wear for long, offers good call quality, impressive battery backup with fast charging and can also be paired with two devices simultaneously. Considering all that, it is a worthy successor to the Oppo Enco Buds2 and easy to recommend for those on a tight budget and do not require ANC.
While the Buds3 Pro is a good product, the competition is quite brutal in this segment, and ironically from its sister brands. For a couple of hundred Rupees extra, you can get the Realme Buds T200 or T310 or the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 which also offer ANC in addition to comparable sound quality and most of the features that you get on these Oppo buds. You will have to make do with slightly less battery backup, though not significantly lower. Take your pick depending on features that matter to you more.
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