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[Accessory Review Challenge] OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 Aug 29, 2020

yashwant24 , Aug 29, 2020 :

Hello,I am here to give a detailed review on OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2.
Buckle up, Let's go for a ride[e]1f680[/e]

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
View attachment 1420946

- A beautiful unboxing experience
- Oneplus Bullets wireless 2
- 2 pairs of silicon eartips (one large, one small)
- 1 pair of silicon eartips attached to the earbuds
- 1 USB 2.1 charging cable
- 1 silicon pouch

- 1 user manual and 1 product information manual

I have spent a lot of quality time with Bullets Wireless 2 and I am going to speak about:-
A) Design and Fit
B) Technology
C) Connectivity
D) Sound and Call Quality
E) Controls
F) Charging and Battery
G) Issues Faced




DESIGN
Bullets Wireless 2 design is neat, clean and ergonomic. The sea-Shell design stands unique from others. They are combined ly made of Aluminium and Plastic. The aluminium part is slippery that it may slip out of the hands when holding the earpiece alone. The aluminium part gives a richer look to the earphones,the plastic part sits inside the ears,thanks to extended ear-tips so that they don't take away premium look of earphones. The magnets hold earbuds really good, after a year use they stick like new. The rubber band is soft and sits comfortably over the neck. The strings are made of good quality rubber, however a bit extreme use may break them. A red plastic outer lining round each earbud gives a visual appeal. Bullets wireless 2 are not IP certified.
All these make them to look more premium.

FIT
Bullets Wireless 2 fits really good into ears. Their angled ear-tips design allows them to sit inside ears without causing any pain to internal or external ears. They really don't harm when you're wearing for a long time, but while sleeping on a single side they may cause a little pain. They are very much light in weight that, sometimes I forget that I am wearing one. Silicon rubber tips make them more comfortable to fit in years at the same time providing passive noise cancellation. The passive noise cancellation is so good that, sometimes I use them just as earplugs while sleeping, they cancel around 60% of the ambient sound. The earbuds are totally weightless that I don't feel them sometimes. The neck band is soft and doesn't harm the neck at any instance. But the neck band tends to fallout rarely while sleeping(might not happen to all), but are good for jogging and other activities. They are not IP certified so they are not suitable for workouts and sweaty works. They don't have rubber fins like the original version but I don't find its need with this design.

RATING: 8.5/10
Inclusion of silicon ear tips might be good.
IPX 4 certification would be good.



TECHNOLOGY
Bullets Wireless 2 is a hybrid earphone. They pack 3 drivers on each earbud, One dynamic 10mm driver and two balanced armature drivers. The two Knowles armature drivers are present to increase the clarity of sound to greater extent. Bluetooth 5.0 is present which makes them to pair easily and have strong connection. It comes out with Qualcomm's AptX HD which improves the quality of the sound. There is a notable difference when the AptX HD is on and off, they are a good addition. To increase call quality Qualcomm's CVC technology is added which should record decent audio in noisy environment, but I don't find any difference.

RATING: 7/10
12mm dynamic drivers instead of 10mm could be better for that price range.
Environmental Noise Cancellation can be included with 1 or 2 extra microphones instead of Qualcomm's CVC.


CONNECTIVITY
I have tested connection possibilities with 3 devices.

OnePlus 6: OnePlus fast pair is seamless, it connects in an instant. Fast pair is one of the best solutions for quick pair between devices. I have never faced any connectivity issue yet with Bullet Wireless 2 on Oneplus devices. They connect to the device even before I fit them into my ears, Sometimes I check my status bar whether they are connected are not because I am late for the indicator tone and every time they did. The Quick Switch also feels instant, it takes a maximum of 4 seconds to switch. I never faced a connection loss issue on oneplus 6. They have a decent range of 7-8m (but claimed as 10m). The remote functions has a notable lag. The earphones turns off automatically after 5 minutes if no music is played which is good to save battery.



Redmi Note 8 Pro: I need to connect them every time from the Bluetooth settings which is little irritating, but they connect instantly after the tap. Quick switch works instantly even with the device. All the remote functions remains the same.

Asus TUF Laptop: With the recent introduction of Quick connect in Windows, the connectivity experience is good but they don't connect both voice and music at the first try, I need to disconnect and connect several time which is a bit frustrating. I faced a lot of connection issues in the recent week but after a factory reset everything worked fine. The Quick switch works instantly like the other 2 devices.



RATING: 8/10
The connection possibilities with laptops must be explored.



SOUND
TESTING ENVIRONMENTS:

1. Zero ambient sound

2. Loud sound under a sound bar

3. Travelling

1. Under zero ambient sound everything was crisp and clear. The armature drivers has payed a lot with very good high frequencies, the vocals are very clear and you will discover new background music that are never heard before on a normal headsets. The highs and upper mid frequencies are really good. AptX HD brings a very notable difference while they are ON, the sound quality does become better without any distortion. Treble production is excellent. All the frequencies were clearly differentiable. The only place where I was not satisfied was the low frequencies, the bass was not very good compared to the competitors, The bass could have been more punchier. Some consumers enjoy low frequency songs more than anything else. Other than the lower frequency issues, it is an immersive experience which most of the users will enjoy. I enjoy melody songs the most on Bullets wireless 2.

2. Under a sound bar the passive noise cancellation was put to a test and i was pretty impressed. I still was able to hear vocals clearly, this where they surprised me. But with a larger driver it would have been a more better experience under a noisy environment. The sound quality was good but it has the potential to be better with larger dynamic drivers.

3. I had the best travelling experience ever accompanied with Bullets Wireless 2. I generally spend huge amount of time watching movies while travelling and I never felt disturbed. The quality of the sound was nearly same as the zero noise environment. Bullets Wireless 2 are my best buddies while travelling. Real problem is when you are immersed in the music world and forget the entire world, you forget everything. I missed my get down location twice.

GAMING
I have spent countless hours of gaming with Bullets wireless 2. I have very mixed feeling in gaming. Because of armature drivers the clarity is so clear I can detect enemy approach easily with a clear audio while activating grenade and other throwables. The audio is really good and clear in all the games I ever played. The real problem is with latency, I notice audio latency while playing multi-player games. There is a notable lag in PUBG and other battle royale games. Bullets wireless 2 is not really meant for hardcore gamer.

RATING:
AUDIO: 8/10
GAMING: 6/10
Better Dynamic drivers could have given a more beautiful overall experience.
Latency issues while gaming must be explored.
CALL QUALITY
TESTING ENVIRONMENT

1. Zero Ambient Sound

2. Home conditions with electricals running

3. Noisy Bus Station

1. The audio was pretty clear but there is a little disturbance even in quite environment. The quality could have been more better. My friends on call heard a little amount of noise even in a quite environment. The call quality could have been a little better at least in zero noise environment. I am attaching a audio file recorded with bullets wireless 2 under no noise environment. https://drive.google.com/file/d/15EJg7h28dr8K1W6YULLGHMI4NjPMoZLV/view?usp=drivesdk

2. Under a little noisy environment the audio is little distorted. I was not at all happy with the call quality because my friends weren't able to hear me clearly, they were complaining about background noise that there was continuous disturbance. The background noise was heavier than my audio, so the call quality should improve a lot. I am attaching a audio file recorded with bullets wireless 2 in home conditions with electrical running . https://drive.google.com/file/d/15Cgdj6sGXySQvlYd-ecOWdvdTciz5twA/view?usp=drivesdk

3. Everyone can clearly expect what the result could be, the audio was not at all clear, there was a whole lot of noise. Not even the noise cancelling earphones cancelling earphones can perform well in this environment. I didn't expect a lot in this segment. Qualcomm's CVC tech didn't really pay off. Call quality should be improved a lot.

I certainly feel the mic placement is bad because they tend to hit the body while doing fitness activities.
RATING: 5/10
This the big con in BULLETS WIRELESS 2. Number of microphones could have been increased which could have acted as a noise cancelling microphones to some extent.
Qualcomm's CVC isn't that good


CONTROLS
One of the best carry-ons from the original version is the magnetic controls. Connecting them together pauses the music and separating them plays the music. I love the magnets soo much that I play with them when i'm bored. Then there is a classic 3 button in-line remote, a volume increase button, a volume decrease button and another central button which skips to next track on double click, plays previous track on triple click , single click to pause/play music, long press to activate Google assistant. However I was not impressed by the remote because of the noticeable lag. Switching between two connected device has never been easier before Bullets Wireless 2. As stated before the quick switch is instantaneous. The remote function remains the same for all devices, a standard one.

FYI, The audio cutoff is made by the right earpiece

RATING: 8.5/10
The remote could have been better.



CHARGING
OnePlus has excelled in charging department from a long time, they've done it again. Charge for 10 minutes listen for 10 hours. I never regretted that I didn't charge my buds earlier. The warp charge is excellent. For full charge it must take 150 minutes as stated but It gets charged under 45 minutes. Oneplus introduced a new warp charge technique with BW2, we don't need a fast charge brick to warp charge,It charges at a high speeds with any charger and even when connected to laptops and power banks which is amazing.
BATTERY
Bullets wireless 2 has one of the best battery technology. 10 hours music on 10 minutes charge is no small thing. They are said to serve for 14 hours on full charge but in my conditions it serves a little bit more longer than that even at high volumes which is amazing. I usually use them around 7-8 hours a day, So I charge them once in two days. I have been using them for nearly a year and the battery life is not compromised yet. The earphones indicate low battery with a indicator tone at 10% battery life and disconnects after 5 minutes. You can connect the earbuds again and run for another 10 - 15 minutes until the next indicator tone.

RATING: 9.5/10











ISSUES FACED
- There is some sort of issues when connected to laptop, they disconnect suddenly(happens rarely, resetting the earphones fixes it)
- Some users in community complained about the wire quality, the wire broke without any heavy usage was their claim(I feel the wires are of good quality)
- When the earphones are put in pouch sometimes the magnets decouple because of its size and pressure.
- One complaint raised in the community was that because of the pouch the earphones got damaged, he was offered a replacement by the service center and was provided with a zip type pouch.


FINAL VERDICT
I have tested many neckband type Bluetooth earphones previously , out of these OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 impressed me a lot. OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 is a good improvement over the original one. The audio quality has increased a lot but it is not satisfying in every setup especially the Bass part is not soo satisfying. The call quality must be improved which is important. They are not match for gamer and fitness freaks. If you don't consider high bass and call quality under you requirements then you can go BW2, if you own a oneplus device then yes. If you want to upgrade from the original version then you must put your thought on hold. Pricing of the earphones must be reviewed again.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

Image Source:- Oneplus.in, Amazon.in