Since the autumn of 2020 Apple released the "back to basics" right angle edge iPhone 12, the aesthetic wave of "machine circle" has also changed, and almost all mobile phone brands have begun to lay out right-angled side devices in the past two years, whether it is a flagship machine of seven or eight thousand yuan or a measuring machine of one or two thousand yuan, there are right angle edges. This design can not only return to the "classic", but also make the phone look more refreshing and concise, with a sharp and sharp feeling. In the TWS headphone market, "round" is still the main theme, but there will always be a game-breaker in the market, which is the first headphone from OnePlus's new N series of Buds - OnePlus Buds N.
OnePlus Buds N is an entry-level TWS headset, and the "N" given to it by OnePlus, I think it is the abbreviation of New, denotes youth, freshness and vitality. The packaging is still the familiar one-plus style, red and white color, stick figure outlines the appearance of the product.
The package contains the main body of the headset, a number of paper documents, an A to C charging cable, and two pairs of ear caps of different sizes. The overall accessories are excellent in workmanship, in line with the "no will" tone of OnePlus.
At the very bottom of the package, the words "Enjoy your new buds" are easter eggs, and the sense of ceremony is strong.
See the main body of the headset, first of all the headphone charging case part. It adopts the form of a "capsule-shaped" right-angled cylinder that is different from most of the "cobblestone" styles on the market, and the top LOGO adopts a metal style. Although there must be a certain sacrifice in the feel, it is much better than the common "pebbles" in texture, just like the classic jewelry box and jewelry box.
The interior of the headset is also a new design, first of all, the color of the inner compartment of the headset is distinguished from the outside, which is more layered. The way of picking up is also to choose a more convenient horizontal type, the surface of the inner warehouse is also intimately used "orange red" to identify the position of the left and right ears, which is similar to the labeling form of some international manufacturers.
Charging contacts at a glance.
Coming to the main body of the headphones, the sharp edge of the right angle continues from the headphone box to the headphone body, and the shape of the headphone handle is almost the same as the top view of the headphone box, and the capsule-like shape makes it look very delicate and small. At the same time, OnePlus also designed a metal circular patch for the headset as a decorative and touch area marking area, which is very flattering, which can not only make the somewhat monotonous headphone body itself embellish, add a sense of layering, but also allow users to know the location of the touch area for the first time, highlighting humanization.
The inside of the headset is the common TWS headphone form, charging metal contacts, distance sensor, mixing hole and pickup hole of the upper and lower microphones.
Oneplus Buds N's sound outlet adopts an oval design, with a dust net, the headphone cavity as a whole is still relatively "thick", with good surrounding support, the catheter is also relatively short, such a design makes the headphones in the ultra-long time wear will not appear obvious discomfort.
After seeing the appearance and experience of the headset, we use one plus's latest flagship mobile phone, one plus 10 Pro, to adapt with the phone, because oneplus Buds N uses a Bluetooth 5.2 chip, which can be automatically connected with the phone after opening the lid, fast and stable.
In the headphone function area, I am very interested in the personalized theme function of the headset, which is equivalent to the "pop-up skin", which is still very useful in this era of personalization and differentiation.
A list of pop-up windows of various themes, personally prefer the theme of "Garden of Saint-Adrés", the blue sky and white clouds and the garden constitute a pleasant and fresh scenery.
In addition, in the functional area of the headset, there is more content closely related to the sound quality of the headset, which is also in line with the attributes of the headset positioning entry level. The first of these is that in the tuning, there are three official tuning EQs of "bright and clear", "pure vocals" and "deep sea bass".
At the same time, the connection protocol can be changed in the options, and it is recommended to turn on AAC mode in a good and stable Environment of Bluetooth Environment, which can obtain a higher transmission bit rate and a better sound quality experience.
In terms of sound quality experience, OnePlus Buds N uses a 12.4mm low-frequency dynamic unit, which is currently the largest dynamic unit of in-ear headphones, and the larger diaphragm has more energy than the smaller unit when vibrating, bringing a more sufficient sense of low frequency, and can also harvest a wider dynamic range, which will be more obvious in the layering of music.
In the actual experience, we first turned off the EQ mode to audition the native quality of the headphones, we conducted a number of popular music tests, the first feeling is that the music of this headphones is very wrapped, the soundstage is moderate; the density is high, like a Livehouse with surround sound home theater. Among them, there is also credit from Dolby Atmos, in the same price of headphones, Dolby Atmos is rare, OnePlus Buds N brought dolby Atmos is multi-functional, full-scene, Dolby Atmos can better make the music present a sense of space and three-dimensional, increase the sense of layering and richness brought by music.
The second point is that thanks to the abundant, powerful bass performance brought by the oversized diaphragm unit, one plus Buds N does not make the bass appear very "greasy", deafening; the sense of headbang, but has a good transient performance, the bass retracts freely, like the multi-link suspension in the sports car, which is crisp and clean when dealing with vibration. After flipping through the product manual, I learned that OnePlus Buds N uses a titanium-plated diaphragm, which can effectively improve the rigidity of the diaphragm and make the bass sound not greasy.
The third point is from a plus official customized three EQ settings, "bright and clear" is a more balanced EQ, suitable for a variety of different types of music, I more recommend in the daily opening of this option, biased to the composition of complex style of pop music to listen, the EQ so that the sound of the image position is higher, and the distance is farther, can better play the advantages brought by the large unit, more durable. "Pure vocals" are more suitable for "female poison" vocals, with more obvious pull-ups at medium and high frequencies, which can better highlight the details and purity of the vocals, making the vocals more prominent and close. The "deep sea bass" is a must-have for electronic music, whether it is drum beats or electronic bass can have better physical feedback.
In general, as an introductory headset, a plus Buds N has the most "cost-effective" sound unit of the same level, which can bring users no less than a thousand yuan level of sound quality experience, although there is no noise reduction mode some regrets, but I believe that the N series has such a good start, there will be better comprehensive performance in the subsequent models.
In other aspects, one plus Buds N has a good battery life performance, single earphone use can probably go to 6-7 hours of continuous playback time, with the use of the headphone box, you can get a single charge of 30 hours of use time, a week can be charged. At the same time, it also supports charging for 10 minutes, listening to songs for 5 hours, going out in the morning to find that the headphones are out of power, and only need to fry an egg for a day to get a good sound.
In the pain points of TWS, microphone radio, thanks to the blessing of AI algorithms and the mixed radio of dual microphones, the actual radio effect of OnePlus Buds N can meet the standard of "easy to use", and the sound heard by the other party is clear and bright, although subject to the form of TWS, it is still a little too thin, but the flaws are not hidden.
Summary: As a plus that has recently entered TWS, with the huge and perfect ecological industry chain of Europe and Canada and its own innovative ability for headphone modeling in the past two years, it can be said that the growth rate is relatively fast in the TWS market, and the one plus mobile phone users around them are basically suffering from one plus headphones, and the evaluation is also good. Oneplus Buds N as a new entry-level series, bringing a very luxurious 13.4mm large unit and the official special EQ sound effect, to the user with a clean, bright, listening to the good sound, I think is very desirable, in the TWS headset market below 500 yuan gradually become the stock market today, OnePlus still hopes to make a breakthrough with cost performance and creativity.