How GOOD are $40 earbuds? - OnePlus Nord Buds
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2023-05-05
·
2,306 words · ~11 min read
0:00
Oh shit, it's ShortCircuit time.
0:02
Yo, what's up?
0:02
My name's Adam.
0:03
This is my first ShortCircuit.
0:04
Should we just get into it?
0:06
Who are you?
0:06
Oh, I'm Adam.
0:07
I'm a writer here.
0:08
I write some of the videos that you watch.
0:10
I just worked on an upcoming video
0:11
about our lab that we're building
0:13
that's gonna be doing like objective headphone testing.
0:16
That is not what we're here for today.
0:18
What we're here for today is a first impression,
0:21
an unboxing of the OnePlus Nord Buds.
0:24
The OnePlus Nord Buds are $50, Jono?
0:28
39 US.
0:29
39 US?
0:30
Yeah.
0:31
Okay, these are the newest headphones from OnePlus.
0:35
It's part of their Nord lineup,
0:36
which is their more budget kind of aim lineup.
0:38
Like they have the OnePlus Nord phone
0:39
as opposed to their flagships.
0:42
This is my personal device, OnePlus 7 Pro.
0:45
This is one that we got from work.
0:48
Yeah, so OnePlus has been making wireless earbuds
0:50
for a little while now.
0:51
I remember their first ones were iconic
0:53
for being the cheapest looking knockoffs
0:55
that you could find of the Apple AirPods.
0:57
So much so that, do you remember
0:58
that they got caught at the border?
1:01
There was a tweet from like the US Border Patrol.
1:04
We just blocked a bunch of fake AirPods from coming in,
1:07
but they were legitimate OnePlus products.
1:09
It was not, they're not knockoffs.
1:11
So OnePlus did come from kind of trying to bite Apple's steez,
1:15
but now it looks like they're trying to something
1:17
that looks pretty different, which is kind of cool.
1:19
I like the shape of this actually.
1:20
It's kind of a, it's like a very small watch box.
1:24
We got some Never Settle booklets.
1:27
That's just documented.
1:28
Documentation, instructions that I may refer to later.
1:34
Oh, the classic white and red OnePlus cable.
1:39
It is very short.
1:41
A little bit shorter than my face.
1:43
That's, it's one, it's a little bit longer than my face.
1:48
A banana?
1:49
If you're measuring from the outside,
1:51
it's one banana in length.
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If you're measuring from the inner radius,
1:53
it is a little bit longer, so.
1:55
Whoa, that seemed technical for a short second.
1:57
Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
1:59
I forgot it's an unboxing.
2:01
We got some spare ear tips.
2:03
Good, because, I don't know,
2:04
my ears don't always work with the default ones.
2:06
And now it's time for the OnePlus Nord Buds.
2:10
Ooh, ooh, that's actually a pretty slick look.
2:15
A nice hinge.
2:17
I like the hinge.
2:19
It's lightweight.
2:20
It doesn't feel premium because it's light.
2:22
I don't think that that makes it feel cheap in this part
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because the mechanism is really smooth,
2:26
but I'm not going to get caught up on the hinge
2:28
of a $40 set of headphones.
2:30
There's a lot more.
2:31
There's things that I'd rather,
2:32
I'd rather worry about.
2:33
There's like random bits of plastic, like to peel.
2:37
Two, three, four, five.
2:40
Get off me.
2:41
Six peels.
2:43
If you have a button, when you put it in your ear,
2:45
you press the button and you push it deeper into your ear,
2:48
which feels not good, also changes the seal,
2:50
sounds, it's all not great.
2:52
And I agree, that is bad.
2:54
But you have these beautiful little like tic-tacs here
3:00
where you could have put a button
3:02
all along the side, maybe two buttons even,
3:04
which would allow you to press the button here.
3:07
That would allow,
3:07
you wouldn't be pushing into your ear,
3:08
creating more pressure.
3:09
You would still be able to like control things easily,
3:13
but who knows?
3:13
Capacitive can be done well.
3:15
It remains to be seen.
3:19
Okay.
3:21
Actually, the default ones for my ears
3:22
get a pretty good seal.
3:24
They feel like they're in pretty secure.
3:26
I actually find these surprisingly comfortable,
3:28
a lot better than I thought.
3:31
We'll see if it is,
3:32
but we'll see if they can hold on.
3:37
I, yeah, those are in.
3:38
I don't even think that they're like,
3:39
they're not even like loose.
3:40
Like those are in really nicely.
3:43
From the side view.
3:48
Yeah, no, I find these rather comfortable
3:49
and I actually do like the look of them.
3:51
I think they're quite stylish.
3:52
It's all plastic, but I think it looks classy.
3:55
This little reflective bit,
3:57
which I assume is gonna be the capacitive touch controls,
3:59
it like immediately got greasy and nasty.
4:01
I don't know, who's looking that close at your ears?
4:03
Probably weirdos.
4:05
The charging case and headphones,
4:07
they weigh about 50 grams together.
4:08
Case alone is saying 43.
4:12
So they're about four and a half grams each
4:15
in terms of weight, which is good.
4:16
They're nice and lightweight.
4:17
12.4 millimeter titanium drivers.
4:21
Bluetooth 5.2, which is great.
4:22
It allows you to connect to more than, to multiple devices.
4:25
Type C charger with fast charging
4:27
allows you to charge the headphones for 10 minutes.
4:30
That means you get three hours of charge.
4:33
Seven hours of playback with these at a full charge.
4:35
30 hours if you include the case.
4:37
So an extra 23 in the back.
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So like three extra charges, not bad.
4:40
They're IP55 water and sweat resistant,
4:43
which is great if you're working out, stuff like that.
4:45
Don't take them swimming though.
4:46
These have an app called the Hey Melody app.
4:50
You don't need the app if you have a OnePlus 6 or later,
4:53
which is different than what I saw online.
4:55
So I might not actually need to get the app
4:57
on my aging but lovely OnePlus 7 Pro.
5:00
I agree, it is the last good one.
5:02
And it has the amazing pop-up camera, selfie camera.
5:06
So I get the whole screen all the times.
5:08
And when you put the D brand case on it,
5:10
he gets a little chapeau, like a little paper boy hat.
5:13
He's like getting you the news
5:14
and the news is that you look great, honey.
5:16
All right, we're gonna connect these,
5:17
put on some music, take a listen.
5:19
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5:20
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5:22
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6:01
Oh, there is a pairing button.
6:02
I didn't mention that.
6:03
There's pairing button.
6:04
There's a charging light indicator.
6:06
I assume a pulse
6:08
is working for something.
6:09
It is actually not working in the slightest bit.
6:11
So if you have an iPhone,
6:13
Apple's very good at making their pairing system
6:15
relatively seamless,
6:16
unless though there is the issue
6:17
of having other iPhones in the area.
6:19
But if you have an iPhone and you open up your AirPods,
6:21
it lights up the phone saying
6:23
that your AirPods have connected.
6:25
I'm not cutting them slack.
6:26
Come on OnePlus, this is no good.
6:27
If Apple can do it, you can.
6:29
No, they got charged.
6:30
Like the case has charged.
6:32
If they didn't come charged, that'd be a big issue.
6:34
Hey Melody.
6:37
Yeah.
6:38
This is fun.
6:39
We get to do the permissions game.
6:40
Should we allow Hey Melody access to my location?
6:43
Yeah.
6:44
Okay, we'll say while using the app.
6:45
Add.
6:46
Okay, that's it.
6:47
That's it.
6:48
Apparently they only wanna know where I am.
6:51
I mean, why do they need to know where I am?
6:54
Maybe before we get anywhere,
6:56
we should try pairing with one of their newer phones
6:58
because that's the ones that they said should just,
7:00
it should do the Apple magic pairing experience.
7:02
Because I read online that it only worked
7:05
on the 9 and 10 Pro,
7:07
which is why I specifically asked Jono
7:08
to bring out a 9 and 10 Pro.
7:10
In the documentation in the device,
7:12
it says OnePlus 6 versions are supported
7:15
for this pairing and connecting.
7:17
So we shall get to the bottom of that.
7:20
How is this possible?
7:22
So OnePlus back in the day,
7:23
I remember buying their OnePlus Bullets,
7:25
which were like $20 wired headphones.
7:27
It was like the first rise of what's called Chai-Fi,
7:30
Chinese Hi-Fi.
7:31
Chinese brands started making really high quality headphones
7:36
and selling them at very,
7:38
or at least, I guess, let's say high quality for the price.
7:41
And so OnePlus was able to take advantage of that
7:43
by releasing their Bullets,
7:44
which were pretty, which were quite well received.
7:46
I liked them.
7:46
I thought they sounded really good
7:47
and they were only 20 bucks.
7:48
The fact that like six, seven years later,
7:51
they can now release a set of wireless earbuds
7:55
with way more tech in them for just $20 more.
7:59
We did, I did a video about knockoff AirPods
8:03
and we had $35 AirPods.
8:05
These are $5 more than this.
8:07
These are $35.
8:08
Those knockoffs.
8:09
But like, it's not like you're buying it
8:11
from some sketchy, like random seller online.
8:16
Or AliExpress, exactly,
8:17
where you just don't have really have any recourse
8:19
for if you get a crappy product or a malfunctioning product.
8:23
Oh my God, look at these titles.
8:25
We have Balanced, that's just default.
8:27
Bold, which is the featured sound signature of today.
8:32
Serenade and Bass.
8:35
There's a customizable six level EQ.
8:38
And you can make custom profiles.
8:40
That's actually-
8:41
A $40 earbud.
8:42
A $40 earbud.
8:44
Oh, it just offered me to do the tutorial
8:46
after I've spent 10 minutes fiddling in the app.
8:49
All controls learned.
8:51
To learn again, go to earbud controls,
8:53
learn earbud controls.
8:54
That's actually a nice experience.
8:55
I think for, the issue is that you have to download an app.
8:59
We're gonna listen to some tunes.
9:00
I use YouTube music.
9:03
Sweet, let's listen.
9:07
Initial impressions.
9:09
It tends to be a little bit sharp in the high end.
9:12
I think they kind of do that to boost it,
9:13
make a more excited sound.
9:16
It's a little bit bassy, not super detailed.
9:20
Yeah, so this is kind of actually, I don't know.
9:22
I mean, maybe I have to mess around.
9:24
Maybe I need something more like Serenade rather than,
9:28
so this is the EQ.
9:29
If the bass is boosted pretty heavily on the headphone,
9:31
the bass just disappears when it jumps up.
9:34
And that's 100% what's happening here.
9:35
So they're very much,
9:36
they're very aggressively curving the audio
9:38
to give it that kind of more fun and popular V-shaped feel.
9:41
I'm actually surprised by the imaging.
9:44
It actually makes a pretty wide soundstage,
9:47
a lot wider than I expect from something this cheap.
9:50
If we listen to something really dense,
9:51
let's see how we can hear the...
9:55
So this is a really dense track.
9:56
It's got a lot of instruments.
9:57
It's very noisy.
9:59
So trying to test like to hear if the separation's good.
10:02
I can't hear you.
10:04
I'm not playing the music very loud.
10:05
I see you talking, but I can't really hear you.
10:07
I'm very much in my own head here.
10:09
I'm pretty impressed.
10:10
I don't see at this point.
10:11
We're gonna listen to Crab Rave because if,
10:14
Crab Rave sounds like crap on this,
10:15
then what are you gonna do?
10:17
Oh, so Jono, this one's for you.
10:28
The bass, it's very fun.
10:31
It's a good experience.
10:32
The bass is tuned for a fun experience.
10:34
Let's check out, that's balanced.
10:36
It's not.
10:37
Let's check out Bold.
10:38
Okay, Bold is literally just that same V shape
10:41
that I was talking about, but worse.
10:44
Serenade just tones down the highs a little bit.
10:48
Bass sounds stupid.
10:50
It's just all bass.
10:51
It's just, it's just,
10:52
it's just, and then like the rest of you is like,
11:00
like it's horrible.
11:01
Hi, Jono.
11:02
Hey, how are you doing?
11:04
I'm doing pretty good.
11:06
Oh, I mistakenly called Nicole before calling you.
11:09
Oh, that's okay.
11:10
We have very similar names and also look the same.
11:12
You sound great.
11:13
How do I sound though?
11:15
You actually sound really good.
11:16
Like it sounds like you actually answered the phone itself.
11:19
Not like earbuds or anything.
11:21
Yeah, that's good to hear.
11:23
Cause I am definitely on the earbuds.
11:25
Bye Jono.
11:28
You know, all things considered at the end of the day
11:31
for $40, pretty good for, for 40 bucks.
11:34
Your next challenge is to just be flat out pretty good.
11:37
If this is too poor for your blood,
11:38
you can check out some of the more expensive stuff
11:40
that Linus has unboxed.
11:41
Like the Sennheiser headphones.
11:43
IE 600, I think they're 3D printed.
11:46
Check them out.
11:46
I think Linus liked them, right?
11:47
It ruined other things for him.
11:49
Yeah, so they're that good.
11:50
These didn't ruin anything for me.
11:53
That's it.