Realme Buds Air 3 Review – Solid ANC at Budget

The Realme Buds Air 3 comes at a price of Rs. 3,999 in India. The earbuds are available in two different colour options: Galaxy White and Starry Blue.

You can buy the earbuds directly from Realme’s official website or other e-commerce platforms like Croma, Flipkart and more.

The Realme Buds Air 3 packs the following items inside the box:

• Earbuds
• Charging Case
• Additional Earplugs
• Type C Charging Cable
• User Guide

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Before we talk more about the Realme Buds Air 3, let’s see what on-paper specs look like:

• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2
• Supported OS: Android & iOS
• Battery: 460 mAh
• Weight: 57 gm

The Realme Buds Air 3 appears to be nearly identical to its predecessor, the Buds Air 2. It has a simple design with a matte finish all over the charging case and flaunts a transparent plastic top that reveals the Realme branding. The earbuds are built well, and the case lid opens and closes with a satisfying sound, thanks to magnets.

The case is small, portable, and simple to open with one hand. The front has an LED light to indicate the battery condition, and the bottom side has a USB Type-C charging port. I have the Starry Blue colour option for review, but Realme also has a more standard Galaxy White option which comes with a glossy finish.

The buds are made entirely of plastic, with a glossy finish on the top part and a matte texture on the stems. They do a good job of keeping fingerprints off and are also easy to hold.

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Speaking of the buds, they have shorter stems, which makes them lighter than last year and contributes to their excellent fit in my ears. They have interchangeable silicone tips and provide the same in-ear fit just like other earbuds.

Each earbud has a silicone ear tip already in place, and Realme is kind enough to include three additional sets of silicone ear tips if the first ones don’t quite fit your ears. Talking about the fit, the Buds Air 3 fit perfectly in my ears with the included M-size silicone tips, and their lightweight design allowed me to wear them for a long duration without any discomfort.

The earbuds fit easily into the ears and stay in place even while walking or jogging. The earbuds come with an IPX5 rating, so it’s safe to wear during your sweaty gym sessions.

So, what do the Realme Buds Air 3 sound like? They pack 10mm dynamic drivers which produce a loud, punchy sound with good bass but not at all overpowering levels. When attempting to describe the Buds Air 3’s default sound profile, the word “balanced” comes to mind. These earbuds are undoubtedly some of the good-sounding earbuds I’ve recently used.

The ANC offered by the buds was really good and surprised me with how well the background noise outside was muffled. Of course, the price should be taken into account along with the noise cancellation quality. However, both the ANC and transparency modes were good enough for casual usage.

With the Buds Air 3, I listened to a variety of music genres, watched some videos on YouTube and played games on my phone. They did an excellent job in each scenario, providing a reliable connection and sound quality.

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The Buds Air 3 have three sound profiles: Balanced, Bass Boost+, and Bright, with the latter being the default. Bright mode is my favourite, while Bass Boost+ overpowers the bass in favour of a more balanced sound profile.

The Realme Buds Air 3 have two AI noise-cancelling microphones located on each earbud that work together to reduce the background noise during calls. Now we’ll talk about the microphone quality. During the testing, I discovered that the mic quality was adequate for both indoor and outdoor calls. Moreover, it did a good job of blocking out ambient noise to some extent.

The Realme Buds Air 3 packs a 460mAh battery inside the charging case and each earbud holds another 43mAh battery. Realme claims that the earbuds can offer 7 hours of battery life with ANC turned off and 5.5 hours with ANC turned on at 50 per cent volume. When paired up with the case, it can deliver a long 30 hours of playback time without ANC.

However, I tested the earbuds in real life and got about 5.5 hours of playback time with ANC turned off and 5 hours with ANC enabled. I know this is not exactly what the brand claims but I would say it’s not bad either.

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The case can charge the buds about 4 more times. So, altogether you are looking at a total battery life of about 25 hours. The good thing is you don’t have to wait long to charge the buds. A quick charge of just 10 minutes will give you a playback of 100 minutes.

It takes about two hours to fully charge the case and about an hour to fully charge the earbuds. There is no wireless charging support, as expected at this price point.

The Realme Buds Air 3 have a lot of features for the price. They are equipped with Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity that supports SBC and AAC. Talking about features, you get a low latency gaming mode, ANC that can be adjusted, multi-point pairing, and customisable sound profiles.

The Realme Link app’s app support for the Realme Buds Air 3 is the next best feature, and it is a welcome addition that it runs on both Android and iOS phones. The Reame Link app lets you customise the double, triple, and tap-and-hold gestures for each earbud.

Most of the time, touch controls work well, but there were times I noticed some delays after touch registration and execution. Buds Air 3 support multipoint connectivity with up to two devices, and it worked really well for me, with a solid and stable connection between my phone and laptop.

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The earbuds also support Transparency Mode, which lets you hear the surrounding sounds without taking off the earbuds. It does its job, but the sound is not as natural as one might expect.

The earbuds have a Smart wear detection feature that can detect when it is in your ear and automatically pauses the songs when removed and resumes it when you put it back.