Realme Buds Air 6 Pro Review: Old wine in a new but similar bottle

Pros:
- Good sound quality after audio tweaks
- Loaded feature set
- Impressive active noise cancellation
- Very good call quality, dual-pairing support
- Support for LDAC codecs, Hi-Res wireless audio
- Comfortable in-ear fit, wear detection sensors
- IP55-rated ingress protection
- Realme Link app offers a lot of customisation

Cons:
- Nothing new of note as compared to its predecessor
- Scope for improvement in the sound tuning
- LDAC + ANC drains the battery faster than it should

Price: Rs 4,999
Rating: 4/5

About this time last year, we reviewed the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro TWS (true wireless) earphones and were impressed with what it brought to the table in the sub-Rs 5,000 segment in India. A year later, we now have its successor, the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro. While this was supposed to get us excited, it made us curious at best. The reason being there seems to be hardly any difference between the two models on paper.

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Did Realme really need to launch this product this year? Could they have done anything differently or is there more to it than meets the eye? We will answer these questions and more in this Realme Buds Air 6 Pro review.

Realme Buds Air 6 Pro: Design and Comfort (7.5/10)
The Buds Air 6 Pro looks identical to its predecessor, barring two new colour schemes titled Silver Blue and Titanium Twilight. We got the latter for review and has probably the glossiest finish we have ever seen. It feels like a slightly darkened mirror and attracts smudge marks for fun. Beyond the finish, the design of the buds and the case, though identical, is still very likeable with the angled buds and short cylindrical stems.

The charging case is fairly compact and pocketable. The case has a tiny power indicator LED at the front, a USB-C charging port at the bottom and a Bluetooth pairing/reset button on the side. The earbuds are fairly light, offer a snug fit and are comfortable to wear for long. The silicone tips sit well in the ear canals and provide decent passive noise isolation. Three pairs of eartips are bundled, including the preinstalled medium-sized tips.

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It is important to choose the right-sized pair for active noise cancellation (ANC) to work well. The top half of the stems is touch-enabled, but again, there is no marked area to denote the touch zones. The overall build quality of the product is perfectly fine though you may need to wipe the case and earbud stems from time to time to keep them shiny.

Realme Buds Air 6 Pro: Features and Specifications (9/10)
The spec sheet is pretty much the same as that of the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro barring a couple of minor extras. These earbuds use the same dual-driver setup with a combination of an 11 mm dynamic driver for bass and a 6 mm micro-planar tweeter for highs and mids. You get support for LDAC codecs with Hi-Res Wireless Audio certification. These Bluetooth 5.3-compliant buds also support AAC and SBC codecs. There’s Dolby Atmos support too if the source device is Atmos compliant.

You get wear detection sensors to pause the audio when you remove a bud from the ear and resume when you put it back in; it works fine. The buds have an IP55 rating for dust and splash resistance, and the addition of dust resistance is one of the changes here; told you they were minor. The case remains void of any ingress protection. The other change is the addition of Mindflow mode, similar to Zen mode on certain OnePlus buds, which plays different white noises like the sound of waves or rain to help you relax. You get 11 different sounds to choose from.

The touch sensitivity of the buds is good as long as you tap in the right area. You hear a beep for each successful tap. You can assign different tasks like play/pause, previous/next tracks, ANC toggle, voice assistant and more to double-tap, triple-tap or touch-and-hold gestures through the Realme Link app. Be mindful that not all tasks can be assigned to all gestures.

There are three microphones on each earbud to handle calls and ANC. The latency can go as low as 55 ms for the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro in Game mode. Notably, it used to go lower to 40 ms in the Buds Air 5 Pro. Anyway, there was no noticeable lag between video and audio when watching content even in normal mode. These earbuds support dual-pairing and can be paired with two devices simultaneously; you can use the LDAC codec on both devices.

ANC numbers remain the same. The company claims these buds can cancel up to 50 dB of noise across a 4000 Hz wide band. You can switch between ANC on, ANC off and Transparency mode which lets ambient noise through. These buds also claim to support Smart Adaptive Noise Cancellation wherein they can intelligently adjust the depth of noise reduction in different environments like when indoors or on a street or at a train station.

Realme Buds Air 6 Pro: Performance (8/10)
Before we head to the sound quality, let’s continue on the topic of ANC for a bit. The ANC performance here in Max mode is similar to that of the Buds Air 5 Pro, which we still rate as one of the best in this segment. It cuts down on low-frequency sounds like the hum of an AC or whirr of a fan when indoors, and the sound of car engines when on the road. It also dampens some midrange sounds like human voices, though it cannot eliminate them completely.

Though there are multiple ANC modes available here including the aforementioned Smart mode, it is best to use Max noise cancellation when you need to use ANC and just switch it off completely in quieter areas to save battery. The Transparency mode remains par for the course for the segment but nothing groundbreaking. When enabled, you get a constant hiss, and though it is on the softer side, it is hard to ignore. Despite that, you can have a quick chat without removing the buds from the ears as long as the person is loud enough.

The wireless range is good with a strong connection at 10 metres with no obstruction between the source and the listener. These Realme buds are quite loud, and with volume enhancer enabled, they are loud enough at 50-60% volume level even outdoors. You get four audio presets - Clear Vocals, Nature Balance, Clear Bass and Bass Boost, of which the second is the most balanced of the lot and the third is usable too if you like extra bass.

As we have seen in the past, having two drivers gives you the flexibility of distributing the frequency range across them rather than having one driver manage everything, but it doesn’t guarantee a great output. A lot of things contribute to the sound quality, the most important among them being the tuning. Unfortunately, Realme still hasn’t managed to crack the code on this second attempt either, and the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro produces a largely V-shaped sound with boosted lows and highs.

If anything, the highs are even brighter here than those on its predecessor with the midrange frequencies getting suppressed from both sides. Yes, there’s a pronounced bass too when using the default EQ, which eats into the lower mids, and the highs feel a bit too bright and impact the upper mids. Thankfully, Realme offers a 6-band equaliser to tweak the sound and make the output much better. Using the equaliser, the Realme Buds Air 6 and Buds Air 5 Pro can be made to sound almost identical.

The equaliser helps in controlling the upper bass, reigning in the highs and boosting the mids and the sub-bass, thus bringing a much better balance to the output with good detail and vocal clarity. No, it doesn’t transform into an audio product selling at 1.5X its price, but the overall sound output feels more refined and quite good for a pair of TWS earbuds priced under 5K. The soundstage is decently broad too, giving different frequencies some breathing space.

The above observations about sound quality are based on the LDAC codec. The detail in sound drops a notch when using AAC, but the output isn’t drastically different and certainly not poor. Other than custom EQ, the Golden Sound feature is also available here.

Using a listening test, it creates a custom profile based on your ear canal structure and hearing capabilities. When enabled, the output does sound more lively in certain tracks but not always. Do give it a try, and you can also create multiple profiles to see what works for you.

Realme Buds Air 6 Pro: Call quality (8.5/10)
The call quality is very good on these earbuds and the Buds Air 6 Pro is a viable option for those looking for TWS earbuds under 5K for calling. People on the call were perfectly audible to each other with impressive voice clarity indoors as well as outdoors.

When outdoors, the microphones help in keeping the wind noise and other ambient sounds in check. Though it doesn’t eliminate the background chatter completely, it doesn’t impact the conversation much.

Realme Buds Air 6 Pro: Battery life (8/10)
Realme hasn’t bothered changing the battery backup figures on their new buds. It still touts the exact 10 hours of playback for the buds and 40 hours along with the case as its predecessor. However, this is achievable when using AAC codec at 50% loudness with ANC off.

The corresponding battery figures with ANC switched on come down to 7 hours and 28 hours respectively. When you switch to LDAC codec (and you should), the numbers drop further.

During our testing with LDAC codec, ANC was off and loudness was around 55 per cent, the buds lasted close to 5 hours. With ANC switched on, it dropped a shade below 4 hours. On AAC codec, the numbers were about 90 per cent of what the company advertises, which is great. The case manages to charge the buds fully thrice over in each of the cases.

That takes the overall battery backup of the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro in the range of 15 to 20 hours when using LDAC codec and between 25 to 36 hours when using AAC, depending on the quantum of ANC usage.

These buds support quick charging and a 10-minute charge can give you close to 7 hours of playtime (buds and case combined) on AAC with ANC off. The buds take less than an hour to charge fully from empty, while the case takes just under two hours to go from 0 to 100 per cent.

The battery level of each earbud and the charging case can be seen in the companion app. To sum it up, the battery backup using AAC codecs is very good but average at best when using LDAC.

Realme Buds Air 6 Pro: Price and verdict
The Realme Buds Air 6 Pro can be purchased for Rs 4,999 with a one-year warranty, which was the launch price of the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro last year. The price is still very reasonable, but the only problem is that the Buds Air 5 Pro currently sells for Rs 500 to 700 less. While it is still around, there is no reason to buy its successor as they are pretty much the same product. That brings me back to my original question - did Realme really need to launch these earbuds this year?

My answer would be an emphatic no. These are earphones, not a smartphone that needs a refresh every year. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing truly bad about the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro and it would be one of the best options under Rs 5,000 in India once all the units of its predecessor are sold out. But the Buds Air 5 Pro is still an excellent option that the competition hasn’t truly caught up with to warrant a successor so soon, and especially one that has no worthwhile upgrades to show.