What OnePlus was able to accomplish with the Nord Buds of last year, while keeping the price at an astonishingly low $40, made the very basic earbuds one of the best audio solutions of 2022. With the company’s newest version – the Nord Buds 2 – it’s hard to see if the increase in price is worth the few improvements made.
In our review of the Nord Buds, we praised OnePlus for packing only the functions and features that mattered into the cheap but stout earbuds. For $40, users found themselves getting a completely competent sound profile with slightly accentuated bass. Even still, the Nord Buds sounded downright fantastic for $40, even competing with some $200 earbuds we’ve spent time with.
The catch? The Nord Buds lacked all superficial features like ANC, transparency mode, wireless charging, and more. OnePlus’ mid-tier Nord Buds were built sound-first, and for the price of an average dinner for two, who cared?
As for the Nord Buds 2, OnePlus decided to change a few things about the feature set.
Build
At first glance, there are a few key differences in the Nord Buds 2 case design. Rather than those sharp plastic edges, the new model has a radial edge that feels better in the hand. With that one change, the case looks smaller, even though it comes in as a hair taller – right at 1-1/8 inches tall.
The other minor adjustment is the material color. The Nord Buds 2 come in a speckled white or black colorway, with the white variant having small blue paint variations. With that, the white version’s lid has a silver finish.
Besides those two details, each is the exact same. Same USB-C port on the rear, same status LED, and same lack of wireless charging.
When opened, the case greets you with two earbuds that are similarly the same design as the previous model, albeit the touch sensor is bored out rather than concave. The lid’s open motion also has a slightly more stable feeling when compared to the older case.
When looking at the individual earbuds, the similar build means that the earbuds still fit very well in the ear. The Nord Buds 2 sit comfortably without fatigue, and since they weigh next to nothing, get lost after a short period of time.
Sound
The Nord Buds 2 sound decent – plain and simple. OnePlus tuned these earbuds to be a little more emphatic on the lower end, though it isn’t overwhelming, and I’ve found that the overall warm signature is smooth.
On the higher end, however, I’ve noticed instances of tearing or artifacting, though it’s only in certain instances and only when using the AAC standard on both the Pixel 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. On the OnePlus 9, this issue was non-existent.
As an example, Colors by Black Pumas starts with a gorgeous finger-picked guitar strum. On the Nord Buds 2, those individual notes are processed twice and play a reverberated echo. The echo itself sounds like 8-bit audio, and it’s completely disorienting.
The Nord Buds 2 have similar yet updated drivers to the first generation, coming in at 12.44 mm. These are supposedly titanized, which is said to improve quality. On paper, it seems like it might beat out the 12.44 mm drivers in the original Nord Buds, though testing has had me stressing over that mysterious ghosting in the mid-high to high range.
In truth, the difference in sound quality between the generations is minimal other than that strange issue. If anything, I don’t recall the Nord Buds ever having any trouble with the high ends like the second-gen seems to.
The fact that the Nord Buds 2 sound worse on non-OnePlus devices is disheartening. Down the road, OnePlus could seemingly patch this issue as it’s clearly software-related. In both instances, the ghosting happens when using AAC on other devices. On OnePlus phones with AAC, the sound is perfectly fine and matches up more closely to that of the original buds.
Even more features
Of course, the Nord Buds 2 added a few of the staples we’ve come to expect from the audio market. Transparency mode, ANC, and OnePlus Fast Pair are all present. To add, pairing the Nord Buds 2 to a OnePlus device gets you Dolby Atmos and a built-in Dirac Tuner.
ANC is sort of a sore point for me, as I don’t often like using it since it can muddy sound quality sometimes. That said, there are some devices that take the feature well. The Nord Buds 2 set seems to be one of those, though the inverse transparency mode doesn’t sit well. The audio pulled in from the outer world is muffled, and the mode offers no real utility.
Price and final thoughts
If you took both versions of the Nord Buds and set them side by side, you’d only see a couple of key differences. The addition of ANC and transparency mode are the two main additions, but do they really add much? For some, yes. It can, however, go both ways.
What made the Nord Buds so recommendable was their simplicity. They were earbuds that sounded great and offered comfort, reliability, and extreme ease of use. The Nord Buds 2, on the other hand, are $20 more, offer arguably worse sound if you don’t own a OnePlus device, and bring in added features that feel a little half-baked.
Of course, fully-baked ANC and transparency require more mics and/or better processing, which costs more in development. The dilemma that sprouts from that is the question of whether you should stick with the Nord Buds of last year or splurge at $80 and above for something better, like some of Sony’s mid-tier offerings.
I, for one, am of the opinion that the original Nord Buds reign supreme. OnePlus knocked those out of the park, and it’s a shame that the Nord Buds 2 didn’t follow suit. If the new earbuds were priced at a similar cost, there wouldn’t be a question – so long as that audio complication is solved via an OTA update.
Buy the Nord Buds 2
Buy the Nord Buds (first-gen)
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments