Remember the good ol’ days of Sony Walkmans? You could find people walking down the street with cassette players clipped to their jeans. Soon, the Walkman was phased out by CD players which offered superior audio quality with less noise intrusion. Then came Apple’s iPod, which became a sensation and took over the world with a physical scroll wheel, a digital display, and 5 gigs of onboard storage. Several iterations of the iPod arrived, but the goal remained the same – to make listening to music more accessible, and affordable.
Throughout this technological revolution in the music industry, one thing remained the same – earphones. If your earphones sucked, the CD or MP3 player you had didn’t matter much. It was a time when 3.5mm headphone jacks weren’t a relic of the past and even a slight cut in your earphone’s cord could break them. You then had to find the perfect angle of the wire when the earphone worked and attach it to your iPod with a band. This soon changed when Onkyo launched the W800BT, the world’s first pair of truly wireless earbuds. Then came the AirPods which soon became the most popular wireless earbuds on the planet despite the seemingly high price tag. But great earbuds do not necessarily need to be super expensive like your AirPods Pros or your Sony XM5s, they just need to deliver on the sound quality.
With this in mind, Oppo has launched its latest earbuds – the Enco Air 3 Pro at a price tag of Rs. 4999, but do they hold up well in such a competitive segment? I spent a substantial time with them as my daily driver, and here’s how the experience was.
Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro: Design and Build
The Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro feature a minimalistic look which looks better than some of the flashy, LED-lit earbuds that you find in the market today. It is a tried and tested design and is nearly identical to its predecessor. Oppo has provided a jelly case with a transparent lid, meaning you see the earbuds as soon as you take it out of the box without even opening it. In many ways, the Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro is similar to the AirPods. It features the same glossy design with an affinity for picking up micro scratches, buds with long stems, and touch controls. The soft silicon ear tips create a good seal and there’s rarely any sound leakage.
The ‘Air’ tag in the Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro certainly fits, since I forgot these were in my ears and the case was in my pocket half the time, especially compared to my heavy AirPods Pro.
Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro: Audio
Despite a relatively low price tag, the Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro are packed with features. One of the standout features is the adaptive ANC, which is a boon especially when you’re in crowded places like the Delhi Metro. With 12.4 mm drivers, it offers crisp vocals which is noticeable, especially in tracks with multiple percussion instruments such as Hotel California by the Eagles. The bass isn’t too bad either. Although you won’t get the thumping bass of the Oppo Enco X2, the buds hit the sweet spot around the 70%-80% volume mark.
The buds pair with the Hey Melody app which offers options to tweak the touch controls and features the Enco Master with three preset tunings – Original Sound, Bass Boost, and Natural Inspiration. There’s also a spatial audio feature called Oppo Alive Audio, and although it works decently, those who are moving from high-end AirPod Pros won’t prefer it.
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One of the best features of the Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro is the dual connection which lets you connect to 2 devices simultaneously. It worked very well as it switched between my phone and laptop seamlessly, thanks to Bluetooth 5.3.
The call quality is decent, owing to the Dual-mic AI noise cancellation which reduces the external noise up to a certain extent.
Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro: Battery life
The battery life on the Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro is great, perhaps even better than my first-generation AirPod Pros. This is particularly why I found myself picking them up on a regular basis over TWS buds that cost approximately Rs. 20000 more! Oppo claims up to 7 hours of playback on a single charge and I was able to extract around 6.5 hours of listening time.
With the charging case, the battery life extends to 30 hours which is at par, if not better than the other TWS earbuds in this price bracket. Despite having excellent battery life and a quick charging feature that offers 2 hours of listening in just 10 minutes of charging, the wireless charging feature is missing here. In many situations, I found the earbuds draining and attempted to charge it via reverse charging on my phone, but realized the feature wasn’t present, which is a bummer.
Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro: Verdict
The Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro are one of the best TWS earbuds you can go for under Rs. 5000. With an AirPods-esque design of the buds, they are very lightweight and comfortable to wear for long periods without slipping out. The earbuds offer well-balanced and fuller sound with crisp vocals and decent bass. The adaptive ANC works well and cuts out background noise decently in most situations. The Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro are equipped with various features such as Oppo Alive Audio, Dual Connection, Enco Master, LDAC codec support, Bluetooth 5.3, and more which make it stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best earbuds in the sub-5K segment.
The battery life is great with nearly 6 hours of playback on a single charge and up to 25 hours with the case, although the lack of wireless charging sticks out. So, should you go for them? Definitely, especially if you’re searching for a great listening experience under Rs. 5000.
Product Name
Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro
Pros
Great sound Adaptive ANC works well Supports LDAC codec
Specifications
-
Bluetooth Version
5.3
-
ANC
Yes
-
Battery Life
Up to 30 hours
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First Published Date: 10 Oct, 18:28 IST
