 "OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC review: Budget neckband earphones with ANC")
In a market full of true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, Chinese electronic maker OnePlus pushes to keep the neckband trend alive with its recently launched Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC. The earphones feature active noise cancellation, up to 45 DB, which was missing in the previous neckbands in this lineup. The new bullets are powered by a 12.4mm dynamic driver, which is said to hit up to 102Db maximum sound pressure level. OnePlus claims 28 hours of battery life with ANC turned off and 20 hours with noise cancellation. At Rs 2,299, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC seems to be a better package compared with similarly priced true wireless earbuds. Is it? Let us find out:
Design
The OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC has a hard plastic body with a rubberised covering on wires, similar to the previous generation, that looks premium and durable. Its lightweight design makes it comfortable around the neck even if you have it around you for the entire day. It comes with IP55 rating, providing resistance from water and sweat ingress.
Sound quality
With a 12.4 mm driver, the earphones are capable of getting loud while maintaining audio quality. The active noise cancelling feature works well both for voice call and while playing your audio track, and that makes the experience better than the last generation model. For personalised experience, the earphones support supplementary smartphone app named HeyMelody. The app provides access to earphones key features such as three different ANC modes and transparency mode. You also get 4 pre-set equalisers in the app and an option to customise your own.
Voice call quality
The earphones sport a three-mic setup, which OnePlus said are powered by AI call noise cancellation tech for background noise suppression. In experience, it manages to block background noise but degrades voice quality in the process. That said, the earphones are best experienced for voice calls in environments with no or limited ambient noise.
Battery life
On-battery time and fast charging option is a big plus for the earphones. In a single full charge, the earphones work for more than 20 hours in mixed usage. As for the charging, there is support for fast charging in which a quick 10 minutes charge provides around 15 hours of battery life.
Pairing and connectivity
Although the process of pairing with a new device using the newly added function button is a bit tedious, quick pairing and switching between multiple devices is seamless. The device auto reconnects swiftly as well with previously paired devices.
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Utility
The new OnePlus Bullets features the Play button atop the volume rockers, which leads to accidental change in sound level while trying to play or pause a track. The newly added function button does not add much utility to the device, apart from pairing options that were previously accommodated within the play button in older generation bullet neckbands.
Verdict
At Rs 2,299, these neckband-type earphones offer multi-point connectivity and active noise cancellation. These features are not available in wireless earbuds in this category. Therefore, these are the features that the earphones have going in its favour. Otherwise, there are better sounding TWS options available in the market.