The realme Buds Air Pro is the upgraded variant of the original realme Buds Air, hence the addition of the “Pro” moniker in the name. Apart from just a name difference, the new Buds Air Pro actually receives a complete overhaul in design and receives necessary improvements in various areas. Let’s find out what changed, and what got better.
realme Buds Air Pro – Specifications
| Product | realme Buds Air Pro |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.0 |
| Colour | Rock Black / Soul White |
| Effective Range | 10m (in an obstacle-free environment) |
| Noise Cancellation | Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) + Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) |
| Water Resistance | IPX4 (Earbuds Only) |
| Battery Life | Charging case & earphones: 20hrs playback time at 50% volume and AAC quality with Noise Cancellation on; 25hrs playback time at 50% volume and AAC quality with Noise Cancellation off. Earphones: 5hrs playback time at 50% volume and AAC quality with Noise Cancellation on; 6hrs playback time at 50% volume and AAC quality with noise Cancellation off. |
| Charge Time | 2hrs fully charge for charging case and earphones; 1hr fully charge for earphones 10mins charge for 3hrs charging case & earphones playback (Noise Cancellation off, played at 50% volume, AAC) |
| Sound Driver Size | 10mm |
| Audio Codec | AAC, SBC |
What’s In The Box?
- realme Buds Air Pro
- Charging Case
- USB Type-C Cable (Short)
- Spare Eartips
Design
As mentioned above, the realme Buds Air Pro has its design completely overhauled. It now features an in-ear earbud design, as opposed to the semi-open design on the Buds Air. The original Buds Air looked a lot like the Apple AirPods, but now, the realme Buds Air Pro just seems to have more of its own identity.
Both the charging case and the earbuds themselves use the same glossy plastic material, which can be quite slippery. The charging case now has a rounded circle design, with the status light on the front, and the USB Type-C port on the bottom. Also, the Buds Air Pro earbuds has a larger and thicker stem as compared to the original Buds Air.
Comfort
The realme Buds Air Pro feels supremely comfortable and lightweight (5 grams on each side) when you put them on. They stay in place no matter how you move your head. But, after long hours of use, once you take them off, you might feel a little soreness on your ears. This may just be for my use case, but just something you should know.
As for the stems, you can feel it sticking onto the side of your cheeks. But because it’s thicker, it takes up more space and sort of hugs your face so it doesn’t feel loose. This is much better than the slimmer stems on the Buds Air though.
User Experience
The realme Buds Air Pro is a very simple and straightforward pair of earbuds to use. It features Google Fast Pair, so if you’re using an Android device, when you open up the case, your device should automatically detect it to start pairing, provided it supports Google Fast Pair. For devices that don’t support Google Fast Pair, you’ll need to go to your Bluetooth settings and pair them up manually.
Once connected, every time you open the casing, it will automatically turn on and start pairing immediately. However, I did notice that if the earbuds leave the phone’s Bluetooth distance, you’ll need to place the earbuds back into the case and take it out again for it to re-connect.
The charging case is fairly small, and has a nice comfortable grip to it. But, what I would’ve like to see is wireless charging on the charging case. The realme Buds Air did have wireless charging, but the Buds Air Pro seems to have left that feature out.
Another feature that’s very welcome on the realme Buds Air Pro is wear detection. Once you take any side of the earbuds off, the music will pause and when you put them back on, it will resume where it left off. Nice!
The Buds Air Pro also has an accompanying app, which is the realme Link app. This is where you can further customize the earbuds to your liking. The app allows you to customize your own touch functions, turn on/off ANC, switching bass boost+, perform firmware updates, and more. It’s easy to use, gives you a quick glimpse of your battery status, and lets you switch on/off Game Mode, Volume Enhancer, and more.
Touch Controls
The touch controls on the realme Buds Air Pro is fairly responsive, as long as you remember to tap on the top half of the stem, and not the bottom. You might also want to not tap too fast, because the touch sensor may not be able to recognize the gesture.
The only thing missing from the touch controls is the ability to change volume. If this feature were to be added, that would increase the user-friendliness of the earbuds even more.
Command Actions (Interchangeable) Single Press N/A Double Press Play/Pause Music
Answer/End CallsTriple Press Left – Previous Track
Right – Next Track
Summon Voice AssistantPress and Hold (2s) Switch between ANC/Transparent Mode Press and Hold (Both Sides) Switch between Normal/Game Mode
Audio Quality
When it comes to audio quality, the realme Buds Air Pro is equipped with 10mm Bass Boost drivers, low latency gaming mode for gamers, as well as hybrid active noise cancellation.
Let’s talk about the drivers, it’s paired with the new realme S1 chip to offer improved noise cancellation and better bass performance with the Bass Boost+ mode. So, what you hear is bright highs, very high mids (a little too high, vocals can be too sharp depending on your volume), and very rich bass. Soundstage is great, with each frequency isolated well so they don’t drown each other out.
For the hybrid active noise cancellation system, there’s two modes you can switch between – Transparent and ANC mode. With Transparent mode on, you can hear your surroundings and when someone is talking to you. The microphone combines both FeedForward and FeedBack microphone to detect unwanted noise, then it emits high precision anti-noise waves to cancel them out up to 35dB. Although, what we realized is that if your music is too loud, it will still drown out the environment noise.
In ANC mode, this is where everything gets quiet down. The dual microphone system helps to pick up environmental noise, and cancels them out so you don’t hear any of it. It creates this vacuum effect in your ears, where you can hear only your music. Standing right beside a turned on hair dryer, I could still hear a little buzzing sound.
Call Quality
The dual microphones also assist calls, where it utilizes the ENC noise cancelling algorithm. This allows the caller to hear you more clearly. On testing it with normal and Discord calls, the microphone picks up my voice nicely with great volume. When I’m eating chips, no one in the call could even hear the crunching sound, and that’s remarkable.
Battery Life
The realme Buds Air Pro boasts a long battery life, thanks to its ultra low-power realme S1 chip and the 486mAh battery on the charging case. Charging the earbuds from zero to full took me about an hour, where the charging case and the earbuds took almost two hours. And because the earbuds does support fast charge, a 10 minute charge in the charging case did give me 2 hours and 49 minutes of music playback, which is close to realme’s claim of 3 hours.
Listening to music of different genres at 60% volume with ANC on, I was able to listen for approximately close to 5 hours on a single charge. With ANC off, I could get close to an additional hour more.
Conclusion
Priced at RM369, the realme Buds Air Pro has almost all the features you could look for in a pair of TWS earbuds. It has hybrid ANC, app customization, great audio quality, fast pairing, low latency mode, and a long battery life.
While it does lack features like wireless charging and volume control, these aren’t dealbreakers and you can easily live without them. In comparison with the other more expensive TWS earbuds in the market, it still offers a plethora of features at a more affordable price.
