Review of new $150 OnePlus Buds Pro: lightweight and water resistant with good controls, sound quality, and ANC, but no EQ adjustments in its app
The company's most refined earbuds yet — The new $150 OnePlus Buds Pro are the company's most elegant, polished set of true wireless earbuds so far.
Context & Ripple Effects
OnePlus’ earlier earbuds competed on aggressive $79 pricing and battery life, but their custom controls were limited to OnePlus phones. The Buds Pro moves the line into the $150 tier with a more polished feature set, while retaining an app-level limitation that matters for sound customization.
At the same price, the related coverage found the Beats Studio Buds delivered good sound but weak ANC. That makes the Buds Pro’s favorable noise-cancellation assessment a meaningful differentiator within this price band.
First-order effects
- Buyers looking for $150 true-wireless earbuds gain a OnePlus option with lightweight, water-resistant hardware, strong controls, sound quality, and ANC, but no in-app EQ adjustment.
- OnePlus’ earbud lineup shifts from a low-price, battery-led proposition toward a more premium package where ANC and finish are central selling points.
Second-order effects
- Beats faces a sharper comparison at $150: its Studio Buds’ reported ANC weakness stands out against a OnePlus model reviewed more favorably on noise cancellation.
- The missing EQ keeps sound personalization as a competitive gap for OnePlus, even as its controls and ANC improve.
Third-order effects
- True-wireless competition at the midrange is increasingly organized around a baseline bundle of comfort, durability, controls, sound quality, and ANC; software tuning features become a clearer point of separation once that baseline is met.
The trend: Midrange earbuds are moving from price-led differentiation toward feature parity in hardware, with companion-app control becoming a key remaining distinction.