Realme Buds Air Neo Review: An improvement over Realme Buds Air?
Realme Buds Air Neo is the company's second truly wireless earbuds launched. Read on its review to know how the pair performed
Six months ago, Realme forayed into the truly wireless earphones segment and launched for us the Buds Air, coming under Rs. 5,000. Of course, the company didn’t have to stop and just recently introduced another variant of the earbuds -- the Realme Buds Air Neo. The new Realme truly earbuds aim to provide users with affordable ones, thus competing with the expensive ones such as the Apple AirPods, the Samsung Buds+, or the earpieces coming from Bose or Jabra.
With a similar design ethos as the Buds Air but a slightly lower price tag, is the Realme Buds Air Neo you can go for right now when you are on a budget? Read on my review after almost a month to find out.
Realme Buds Air Neo Review: Design
The Realme Buds Air Neo has nothing really new in terms of its looks. It is a complete copy of the Buds Air launched in December 2019, which took its inspiration from the Apple AirPods. It comes with the same round-cornered square wireless charging case (with micro-USB port, a LED light, and a button for connection) and the AirPod-like earbuds. The only change is new colour options seen with the ‘Pop’ White colour -- the Punk Green and the Rock Red.
I got hold of the white-hued Buds Air Neo and while using it, I couldn’t really make out a difference. The goods about the earbuds are that it is quite lightweight and are easy to wear too. Although there is a problem that persists over here too; the earbuds tend to come off that can cause discomfort more often than not.
The build quality is similar to that of the Buds Air and appears plasticky on a closer look. As for the box, the Buds Air Neo comes in a small yellow box with just three elements: the earbuds inside the charging case, the micro-USB cable, and the manual. The inclusion of the micro-USB port, ditching the USB Type-C one is another distinctive feature.
Although I would have expected something different than the already-copied Buds Air design, its portability and lightweight make you forget all the design issues. I liked the new colour options too.
Realme Buds Air Neo Review: Tech Specifications, Features
The Buds Air Neo comes equipped with the R1 chip, a 13mm large bass driver for Dynamic Bass Boost, and Super Low Latency mode. It offers Instant Auto Connection with Google Fast Pair and one-touch Google Assistant usage. The comes with IPX4 water resistance, micro-USB support, Bluetooth 5.0, claims to have 17-hour battery life and support for the Realme Link app.
Additionally, the Buds Air Neo supports Intelligent touch controls such as double-tap to answer calls/pause music, triple-tap for the next song, press and hold one side to end call/activate Google Assistant, and press and hold both sides to end/exit super low latency mode.
Realme Buds Air Neo Review: Performance, Battery
The second truly wireless earbuds by Realme has a similar process of connecting to a smartphone as the Realme Buds Air. You have to enable Bluetooth on either your Android or iOS smartphone, press the button on the case to detect the earbuds’ name, and by tapping on the name the device gets connected. However, the process wasn’t as easy as with the Buds Air. It took me a while to connect it with my iPhone and the Android phone and didn’t connect in a snap. However, the good thing is that the auto-connection feature works pretty smooth and connects the earbuds to the device with ease.
Once I was done with the hassle of connection, I finally used the Buds Air Neo as my go-to audio accessory and used it to listen to music mostly while working every day. My playlist includes a mix of music genres; you will get EDM, Punjabi, Hip Hop, Rock, and even Hindi songs. So, I tested the earbuds on most of these genres. The Realme Buds Air Neo has the focus on the bass and it feels high on it; higher than the Buds Air. However, the bass is overly-highlighted and that can get overwhelming for some. This happens more in high volumes and it gets a lot to take. For instance, ‘Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran was a delight to listen to but strong bass deviated me from paying attention to other elements of the song.
Then there have been songs that highlighted the bass, the treble, and the vocals aptly. The popular Punjabi song ‘Lamborghini’ had strong bass but appeared a well-balanced song. But, the song ‘Baby I Like It’ by Enrique Iglesias was treble-centric and the Buds Air Neo, in this case, promoted more distortion than clarity.
As for the touch controls, they were disappointing and only worked when the earbuds were touched accidentally and not intentionally. The touch controls on the Realme Buds Air were way better and I wished the ones on the Buds Air Neo were like them too. Having said that, the battery life was quite decent. On a single charge, the case remained charged for 3 to 4 days and the earbuds lasted me a day on a single charge, which is quite decent. But, the charging time was at least more than 2 hours, which was below average for me. Among others, the noise-cancellation is decent but only works when on high volumes.
Realme Buds Air Neo Review: Verdict
The Realme Buds Air Neo is the company’s second innings in the truly wireless audio arena that has gained sufficient popularity in over the years. Priced at Rs. 2,999 (Rs. 10,000 less than the Buds Air), the earbuds prove to be a decent attempt. But it being Realme’s second attempt proves to be alarming for the company as it lacks in some areas. While it has features such as Google Fast Pair, R1 chip, one-tap Google connection, and several touch controls, it still doesn’t suffice people looking for great audio.
Having said that, if you are a bass person and loves the heavy bass more than anything, the Realme Buds Air Neo is a competent option for Rs. 3,000.
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