OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro Review: Easily the best Nord Buds to date

Pros:

Cons:

Price: Rs 3,999

Rating: 4.2/5

The top variant of the OnePlus Nord Buds has always brought something new to the table over its predecessor year on year; at times even a feature not present in the more premium OnePlus Buds then. The fourth in the series is no different.

The newly launched OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro exceeds expectations on most fronts and is not just the best Nord Buds around but also one of the absolute best in the segment at the moment, but there’s a catch! Read on to know more.

OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro: Design and Comfort (8.5/10)

The design of the Nord Buds 4 Pro case is completely different from the Buds 3 Pro and a bit like the OnePlus Buds 3. The earbuds look a lot like the OnePlus Buds 4. Design inspiration aside, the product looks good and especially the Radiant Gray variant which can also be called matte silver. Most importantly, the case is a lot more compact and slimmer than before, and as a result, a lot more pocketable. The weight of the case has been kept under 35 grams.

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All that despite bumping up the battery capacity from 440 mAh to 530 mAh, which makes it more impressive. The smooth matte finish makes the product look polished and keeps it pretty much smudge-free.

A charge indicator LED is located at the front of the case, while a USB-C charging port along with a neatly camouflaged Bluetooth pairing/reset button are present at the bottom.

The earbuds are light at 4.4 grams each and have fairly short stems. They sit comfortably in the ear with a snug fit, and do not pop out even during a workout or a jog. The right sized silicone tips from the bundled options offer decent passive noise isolation and help in improving ANC performance too.

The touch zones at the back have indentations to let your fingers know where to tap; the touch sensitivity is good. The earbuds are IP55 rated dust and splash resistant, but the charging case does not have any ingress protection.

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

When it comes to features, the Nord Buds 4 Pro has everything one expects at this price point and some more. Each earbud is fitted with a 12 mm dynamic driver and three microphones for calling and ANC.

The buds claim to offer up to 55 dB noise cancellation and you also get varying degrees of ANC, which I will talk about in a bit. You also get dual-pairing support and wear detection sensors to pause the audio when you take a bud out the ear and resume when you put it back in.

The Bluetooth version has been upgraded to 6.0 and so has the codec support, which now includes LHDC 5.0 along with SBC and AAC; a welcome addition. Another useful feature borrowed from the OnePlus Buds is slide controls that I am a big fan of.

One can simply slide a finger from top to bottom or the other way on the touch zone to decrease or increase the volume or change tracks. Of course, you also get the usual double/triple tap and touch-and-hold gestures to assign various tasks to from the companion app.

Speaking of which, you don’t need to install any app if you use these buds with a OnePlus or Oppo phone. You get access to all its features in the Bluetooth settings itself. For other phones, you will need the HeyMelody app for the same. The app is available for Android and iOS both. You get to alter the sound output, now with a 10-band equaliser (6 previously even on more expensive OnePlus models) along with three audio presets and a Bass Wave slider.

Zen Mode from the Pro models of OnePlus Buds is also available here in the app. It’s simply called Sound and plays a soothing white noise or a soft tune to help you relax or sleep.

OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro: Performance (8/10)

Loudness has never been an issue on Nord Buds, and the Buds 4 Pro too is perfectly audible in the 50 to 60% volume range even when outdoors. The latency is low enough when watching content, and there was no perceptible lag between the video and audio when streaming videos from OTT platforms.

The wireless range is as advertised with a strong connection up to 10 metres with a clear line of sight.

Moving on to the sound quality, no surprises here, the default sound signature of the Nord Buds 4 Pro on the ‘Balanced’ preset is distinctly bass-heavy. And you also have a Bass preset in case you want even more bass.

Serenade preset tones down the bass a lot and is best suited for voice-heavy content like podcasts. However, it is worth a try in music too as it offers better tonal balance with cleaner mids (otherwise masked by the excess bass) and prominent highs.

However, as is the case with most OnePlus audio products, it is best to leave the presets alone and head straight to the 10-band Sound Master EQ and create a custom sound profile that suits your taste in sound. You can create multiple profiles that can be used in different genres of music.

If playing with the equaliser is not your game, you also get a BassWave slider to lower the bass or bump it up. After a few sound tweaks, the Nord Buds 4 Pro sounds quite good and produces an energetic sound output with a better balance and sharpness.

Worry not, there is still ample bass to enjoy, just a little tighter which leaves space for the midrange to breathe better. The vocal clarity on these buds is good and the highs are tempered just right. The soundstage is not too broad but acceptable for the segment.

All said and done, the sound quality of these earbuds, though not drastically different from its predecessor, is perfectly fine for the segment. And if you like a bit of extra bass, you will totally enjoy it.

More than the sound quality, the real star of the show here is the active noise cancellation (ANC) which sees a jump from 49 dB on the Nord Buds 3 Pro to 55 dB here. Numbers aside, the ANC here is noticeably better than before and easily the best in the segment currently. It significantly reduces several low frequency ambient sounds like the buzz of an AC at home or work or the sound of car engines when outdoors.

More importantly, it shines even in tough places like public transport where it reduces quite a bit of the background chatter. And it does that in Moderate and Max modes both.

As I mentioned earlier, you can choose between varying degrees of ANC from Low to Max depending on the quantum of ambient noise. Higher the ANC, the more battery it consumes. Moderate offers a fine balance or you can simply set it to Auto and let the buds handle it for you. The Transparency mode here is average and could have done with a bit of boost to the vocal frequencies.

It does help you stay aware of your surroundings, but tends to amplify all the sounds and you often need to strain your ears to have a chat with the buds in your ears.

OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro: Call quality (8/10)

The call quality on these earbuds is quite good indoors and more than decent in noisy outdoor areas too. People on the line were clearly audible to each other most of the time. When outdoors, the background noise and wind noise are kept in check, though it cannot eliminate them entirely. Despite that, the voice clarity doesn’t get impacted too much even in noisy areas. The Nord Buds 4 Pro is a good option if a lot of calling is a key use case for you.

OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro: Battery life (8.5/10)

Like its predecessors, the Nord Buds 4 Pro boasts of impressive battery backup figures. The company claims 13 hours of audio playback for the buds alone and 54 hours overall with the charging case at 50% loudness with ANC off and when using AAC codec. With ANC switched on, those figures come down to 7 and 29 hours respectively with AAC codec and 6 and 26 hours with LHDC. We carried out our entire testing using LHDC codec with the loudness in the 50 to 60% range most of the time.

The buds lasted for a little under 6 hours with moderate ANC enabled all the time and over 9 hours without ANC. With the charging case, the overall battery backup ranged between 24 to 37 hours depending on your ANC usage, which is quite impressive. The numbers should be even higher on AAC.

A 10-minute charge promises close to 13 hours of playtime with the buds and case combined on AAC without ANC, which is equally impressive. The buds can be charged fully in less than an hour, while the case takes another 30 minutes for a full tank.

OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro: Price, verdict and alternatives

The OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro is priced at Rs 3,999 with a one year warranty and can be purchased for a couple of hundreds lower at the moment. That makes it about Rs 500 pricier than the Nord Buds 3 Pro at launch, but you get enough extras like superior ANC, LHDC codec support and slide controls to justify the premium. Yet, a Rs 3,499 price tag would have been better. Given its sound quality, battery backup, call quality and features, it would have been a straightforward recommendation (and it is), but for the presence of one of its cousins.

The OnePlus Buds 3 with similar features, dual drivers and superior sound quality currently sells for a shade over Rs 4,000. While it is still available, I would suggest spending a couple of hundreds extra and opting for it over these Nord Buds.

Once its stocks are exhausted or the price jumps closer to 5K again, the Nord Buds 4 Pro are the ones to buy under 4K. Or rather, it becomes a two horse race with the CMF Buds Pro 2, which sells for a similar price and offers comparable features and performance.