I have had these headphones in my possession for a few days now, purchased on sale for €77 in metallic gray color. It is the first OnePlus product I have bought for personal use, fully appreciating the company.
The first earbuds I got were 4 years ago, the Anker Liberty Air (now Soundcore), mainly for listening to music and multimedia rather than calls. I used them until recently, but their battery performance had definitely decreased, and their sound was not at the same level as when I first got them.
Two years ago, I got the Airpods Pro. Very good headphones for music and also a good microphone for calls. Overall, very good in terms of connectivity, with a very good transparency mode and noise cancellation. Excellent experience after two years, still working after drops in water and on the ground.
However, I wanted a second set of wireless earbuds as a backup, replacing the Anker ones, and more dedicated to music through an app. From my initial impressions, they have very good, powerful, and clear sound, and compared to the Airpods Pro, they have the advantage. They have customizable settings through a mobile app. Extremely convenient feature where you can adjust the volume with a slide up/down, something that the first generation Airpods Pro do not have. They fit extremely well, and because they have the same design as the Airpods Pro, they suit me perfectly. Calls are great. They can also connect simultaneously to 2 devices, and when one is paused, the sound plays from the other and vice versa. They also have the feature that if you take one out, it pauses and if you put it back in, the playback continues. They have more battery life than Airpods Pro (which after 2 years still hold the same).
The negatives I have noticed so far are mainly related to the PC, where it takes 2-3 seconds when starting to play a video or a song in an app to hear the sound. For example, on YouTube via a browser, it does this when skipping part of a video. In the Spotify app, it only does it the first time the music starts playing, then it doesn't do it again. This may improve somehow, but I haven't checked. Everything is fine on the mobile.
The second "negative" is the ANC and Transparency feature, which are satisfactory but not at the level of Airpods Pro, let alone Bose and Sony versions. Of course, these devices are 3-4 times the price of OnePlus Buds 3, so it is "unfair" to make comparisons, so it is more of an observation rather than a negative.
In conclusion, for me, it is an excellent device for the money they ask for. They have very good sound, features, an app for customization, very good battery life, and an excellent app that does not tire even after prolonged use. Personally, I highly recommend them, especially if you find them for under €100, because they are very good overall headphones for what they offer and do not have any notable flaws in the requirements one has for daily and hassle-free use.
