Did NOT expect this! 😮 OnePlus Buds 4 Review vs Buds Pro 3 vs Buds 3
Based on what I’ve seen in my previous comparison, the OnePlus Buds 4 is a huge upgrade over the Buds 3 in terms of sound quality and transparency. But how does it compare to the Buds Pro 3? Given that they both have dual drivers and DACs, is the Pro 3 even relevant anymore, or are these still the best earbuds that OnePlus has to offer?
Features
All of them are more or less on par in terms of features, but with a few differences. What the Buds 4 has that the others don’t is Adaptive mode, which is like transparency mode, but it will fade from transparency into noise canceling whenever your environment gets noisy.
I don’t like it that much because the switching’s too abrupt and not very smart. For example, sometimes it toggles out of noise canceling even when it’s still noisy, when it’s supposed to stay in noise canceling.
OnePlus Buds 4’s Adaptive Mode
As for the Buds Pro 3’s special power, it is spatial audio with head tracking. But with head tracking, its spatial audio sounds different, it has more reverb compared to its regular spatial audio without head tracking. It would be better to see some consistency in that area.
And lastly, the Buds 3 has most of the same features and settings as the others, but doesn’t have head tracking or adaptive mode. It’s not going to be a big deal to people who either don’t need head tracking, or don’t feel that Adaptive mode is necessary.
Control
As for controls, I prefer the controls of the Buds 4 and the Buds 3, because both of them employ tap and swipe gestures which I find easier to operate compared to the squeeze and swipe gestures of the Buds Pro 3. This simply is a matter of preference and some of you may prefer the squeeze swipe controls because it’s less prone to accidental taps, but I prefer tap controls because it’s easier to do stuff like pause, play, and toggle ambient modes on the move.
Microphone Quality
In terms of microphone quality, you’ll find that the Buds 4 is very comparable to the Pro 3 and the Buds 3 in terms of background noise reduction. What’s different is in terms of voice clarity and loudness. In noisy conditions, my voice on the Buds 3 Pro sounds as clear as the Buds 4, but much softer, whereas the Buds 3 has the loudest voice pickup, but more muffled and robotic compared to the Buds Pro 3 and Buds 4.
👉 Have a listen to the mic quality samples
Active Noise Cancelling
About Active Noise Cancelling, the results are surprising. I was expecting the Buds Pro 3 to still be the best, but it turns out that the Buds 4 has surpassed it. Not by a whole lot, but it has.
If we look at the above measurements, we can see that the Buds 4’s lower midrange is mostly quieter, in a little bit of the bass too, except for upper bass where it’s a bit weaker, but look at the upper mids to highs. Not only is the Buds Pro 3 less quiet, it’s actually amplifying a bit of the ambient upper mids, so you’re still going to hear a bit more voices coming through the mics. The Buds 4 is overall quieter as a result.
As for the Buds 3, it seems to do very well in the upper mids, but it’s not going to be as quiet in the bass, central and lower mids region which is where the more audible ranges of noise is. Of this group, it is the least quiet, followed by the Buds Pro 3, then the Buds 4 having the most silent active noise canceling.
👉 Have a listen to the ANC samples
Transparency Mode
For Transparency mode, the Buds Pro 3 has the clearest transparency, but it’s only a bit clearer than the Buds Pro 3. Clear, in the sense that you get an airier feeling. But they both are comparable with very little muffling of ambient sounds, and my own voice during verbal exchanges. The Buds 3 is the one that sounds the most dark, and even muffled. As you can see in these measurements, it amplifies a bit more in the 1khz but is much darker from 1.2khz on. While it still is somewhat useful for verbal exchanges and quick awareness, transparency feels more muffled than either the Buds 4, or Buds Pro 3.
Sound Quality
In terms of sound quality, like I said, the Buds 4 has a somewhat similar dual driver, dual dac setup as the Buds Pro 3, and it shows in my listening tests because they are similar in terms of clean separation of bass and mids, which correlates to midrange clarity. But they are tuned a bit differently.
No surprise there, the Buds Pro 3 is tuned in partnership with Dynaudio. They even have their own custom preset which mimics the warmth of Dynaudio speakers, but I’m basing this comparison on the default settings, with no special EQ, not even Golden Sound calibration. Out of the box, the Buds Pro 3 sounds very thin, less exciting than the 4 because it doesn’t have as much punch or gravitas.
But after more critical listening, I do think the buds Pro 3, in some areas, sound better. It’s a bit more airy in the soundstage, and even though it starts out sounding thinner by default, it has more bass potential than the 4. For example, if you set them both to bass mode, with BassWave set to max, the Pro 3 has more extension and gravity.
It also seems to reveal more transient details that are easy to miss, like texture in bass and strings instruments. However, if we look at these measurements, the Buds Pro 3 has a spike upwards in the 1.6khz, which could explain why vocals can sound a bit more shouty compared to the 4, which has a more relaxed vocal signature.
That being said, both the Buds 4 and the Buds Pro 3 sound superior to the Buds 3 in terms of separation, clarity and bass. Although the Buds 3 has more midrange emphasis, it sounds a bit more muddy, and bass has less loudness potential so even if you jack it up to max bass, it may not satisfy bassheads that much.
👉 Have a listen to the sound quality samples
Verdict
Overall, in terms of performance, the Buds 4 is the best earbuds OnePlus has released so far. Not only is it better than the Buds 3, it’s more or less on par with the Pro 3 in terms of mic pickup, sound and transparency, but it has better noise canceling. So in terms of performance, it’s a net improvement.
If I were to pick one of them, I would choose the Buds 4, easily. It’s a huge upgrade over the Buds 3, is cheaper than the Buds Pro 3 but very comparable in nearly all aspects. Only thing that you’ll be missing is the head tracking. If you want that, and you don’t mind paying a bit more, the Buds Pro 3 is a better choice. Otherwise, go for the Buds 4.
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OnePlus Buds 4 - https://amzn.to/4kY9EQ4
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 - https://amzn.to/4778heC
OnePlus Buds 3 - https://amzn.to/40DMcR7
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