The OnePlus Nord Buds 4, retailing at ₹3,299, offer impressive budget-friendly audio with notable active noise cancellation of up to 52dB, capable of cutting through significant ambient noise, and are powered by 12mm titanium-coated dynamic drivers for robust bass. While not matching premium options like AirPods Pro, they outperform older generations and provide a decent listening experience with Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity offering reliable, long-range performance and clear call quality, though lacking crispness for recordings. The earbuds excel in gaming with low latency and an optional Game Mode for a spatial audio-like experience, particularly on OnePlus phones where they exhibit seamless connectivity and advanced features including AAC HD and 3D spatial audio, surpassing even more expensive competitors in perceived audio quality. Innovative AI features such as live translation were also tested and found to be nearly perfect, and the Nord Buds 4 support Dual Device Connection, Google Fast Pair, and Microsoft Swift Pair, offering a substantial battery life that aligns with the claimed 54 hours in AAC mode with ANC off. The earbuds are comfortable with a snug fit, boast IP55 water and dust resistance, and their build quality and features make them a strong value proposition for young professionals and students.

The OnePlus Nord Buds 4, retailing at ₹3,299, offer impressive budget-friendly audio with notable active noise cancellation of up to 52dB, capable of cutting through significant ambient noise, and are powered by 12mm titanium-coated dynamic drivers for robust bass. While not matching premium options like AirPods Pro, they outperform older generations and provide a decent listening experience with Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity offering reliable, long-range performance and clear call quality, though lacking crispness for recordings. The earbuds excel in gaming with low latency and an optional Game Mode for a spatial audio-like experience, particularly on OnePlus phones where they exhibit seamless connectivity and advanced features including AAC HD and 3D spatial audio, surpassing even more expensive competitors in perceived audio quality. Innovative AI features such as live translation were also tested and found to be nearly perfect, and the Nord Buds 4 support Dual Device Connection, Google Fast Pair, and Microsoft Swift Pair, offering a substantial battery life that aligns with the claimed 54 hours in AAC mode with ANC off. The earbuds are comfortable with a snug fit, boast IP55 water and dust resistance, and their build quality and features make them a strong value proposition for young professionals and students.

The OnePlus Nord Buds 4, retailing at ₹3,299, offer impressive budget-friendly audio with notable active noise cancellation of up to 52dB, capable of cutting through significant ambient noise, and are powered by 12mm titanium-coated dynamic drivers for robust bass. While not matching premium options like AirPods Pro, they outperform older generations and provide a decent listening experience with Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity offering reliable, long-range performance and clear call quality, though lacking crispness for recordings. The earbuds excel in gaming with low latency and an optional Game Mode for a spatial audio-like experience, particularly on OnePlus phones where they exhibit seamless connectivity and advanced features including AAC HD and 3D spatial audio, surpassing even more expensive competitors in perceived audio quality. Innovative AI features such as live translation were also tested and found to be nearly perfect, and the Nord Buds 4 support Dual Device Connection, Google Fast Pair, and Microsoft Swift Pair, offering a substantial battery life that aligns with the claimed 54 hours in AAC mode with ANC off. The earbuds are comfortable with a snug fit, boast IP55 water and dust resistance, and their build quality and features make them a strong value proposition for young professionals and students.

As someone who got on the OnePlus hype train way before it became a global powerhouse brand, watching the company transform itself to bring some nifty wearables takes me back to my trusty OnePlus One and OnePlus Two phones. This made me all the more critical when I got my hands on the company's latest offering in sound devices, the OnePlus Nord Buds 4.

This nifty pair of in-ear headphones comes in Astral Teal and Stellar Black. I have been using the matte-finish Astral Teal one priced at ₹3,299 for the past four days. That too on a single charge. So here is my review.

For a set of earphones that claim to be budget, the Nord Buds 4 give you some impressive active noise cancellation. It is, of course, not as perfect as the AirPods Pro Gen 3 that are my daily driver, but the 52dB real-time ANC gives you enough to cut through the busy newsroom background noise even when not listening to any music. Turn on a track, and those bass-heavy 12mm titanium-coated dynamic drivers do the job, shutting out anything that can come through. For regular usage, this works.

I took it to a busy street, and it was also impressive. Suffice to say, it was not on par with Apple's latest offering. But I have used the 1st generation AirPods Pro, and these budget OnePlus earpods kick it out of the park. Human sounds are almost cut, as well as regular ambient noise. The one-off horns and sirens make it through, though.

In fact, due to its Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, Nord Buds 4 gave me almost seamless, decently long-range connectivity, and it only cut out at almost the same distances and obstructions that my daily headphones also saw disruptions.

The call quality was decent, and the microphone picked up my voice clearly. However, the crispiness was lost, so I would not recommend it for recordings or voice notes.

Apple Music's lossless audio performed okay on the earbuds. However, certain older codecs gave me slight hissing at higher volumes. That seems more like a reproduction issue of a certain range of frequencies.

The HeyMelody app on both Android and Apple lets you change the equaliser settings for the Nord Buds 4, and mine were a bit better after I changed it to a treble-first "Serenade" setting.

After much iPhone testing, I took the Nord Buds 4 to run on a Google Pixel. This is where it outdid itself as a budget option. Gaming was the focus, and the latency was impressive on both Dead Cells and Monument Valley 2.

The app also lets you switch to a Game Mode, which ups the ante when playing first-person shooters such as BGMI, providing something akin to Spatial Audio.

Then came the final test: pairing to a OnePlus phone. And let me tell you, the Nord Buds 4 were made for it! The moment I clicked to pair on a OnePlus 13R, it popped up like 'em AirPods notifications on the iPhone.

Seamless connectivity, and it also did a quick firmware update as soon as I connected it.

The headphones menu (information icon on the Bluetooth list) opened up a host of functions on the OxygenOS, including switching to AAC HD audio and my favourite, 3D spatial audio in the "Earbuds function" submenu. This was on par with the 1st-gen AirPods, if not better. In fact, playing HD music on the OnePlus phone through the Nord Buds 4 was so good that they put the other paired earbuds, the twice-dearer Galaxy Buds Core, to shame in direct perceived audio quality when the spatial audio came to life.

It also comes packed with some nifty AI features, such as an AI assistant and AI Translate. We put the latter to the test too. My chief subeditor was made to speak in Malayalam and Hindi while I wore the earbuds. We got near-perfect live translation in English fed to my ear, and we were both blown away by how this device handled it.

The Nord Buds 4 also connected to my MacBook Air and my Galaxy Notebook laptops whenever I wanted, while being connected to the OnePlus, due to its Dual Device Connection ability. The Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair protocols are active on this pair of earbuds.

To do this, all I had to do was place the earbuds inside the case and then hold the physical pairing button at the bottom for 2 seconds. Sadly, we couldn't do that with other phones. This was disappointing as a reviewer, but that seems to be an industry issue of coordination rather than a device issue. We want to see Android-first earbuds seamlessly connect across the Google and Microsoft ecosystems, and even Linux, seamlessly in the future. At least, that is the dream.

OnePlus claim 54 hours of battery life on a single charge for the Nord Buds 4, in AAC mode with ANC off. I have been using the earpods for the past four days on a single charge with ANC on, and I figured I would have put in about 25 hours into it. The earbuds independently gave me around 5-6 hours before I had to pop them back into the case. So far, I have yet to plug it into a charging slot. So, their claim seems to have some credit.

The earbuds are soft and feel premium. The rubber has a snug fit, and you can also do a fit test with the HeyMelody app or directly on OnePlus devices. The buttons on the earphones were tacky, though. The taps sometimes registered, but at times missed. Double taps became triple taps, and single taps missed. And, for the life of me, I couldn't recall which tap does what (double-tap on the right earbud gets you to the next track, thanks Google). I hope OnePlus fixes these UX issues soon, though.

The Nord Buds 4 are IP55 water and dust resistance rated, with the buds weighing around 4.3g each. Total, with case, comes to a little less than 43g. Carrying them around was not an issue, and they kept themselves in place when I got on my treadmill at the gym.

The build quality is decent for the price, and the matte finish makes it on par with its premium cousins. That, combined with the features I mentioned, makes this pair of earpods a great choice for young professionals and college students who want music on the go. With both SBC and AAC codec support, decent ANC, and a snug fit, the OnePlus Nord Buds 4 is bang for the buck. 

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