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OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 - There's hope Jul 2, 2019

Shivang Joshi , Jul 2, 2019 :

Introduction​

Hello, I’m Shivang Joshi – Oh damn! I forgot this introduction wasn’t meant for me. As you can read from the title of the thread, it’s going to be my review for the OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2. And yeah, so the introduction is also meant for the same.

OnePlus introduced their first pair of Bullets Wireless last year with the OnePlus 6. I was excited and I was going to buy them as soon as possible. And luckily, I was able to grab them in the first sale itself. There was a musical contest going on in the forums, hosted by one of our favourite staff members, @Ruby G. and I was all in for participating in that. So, as soon as I received my pair, I began my testing. After quite a lot of testing, I was ready to share my review with everyone – and that’s what I did.



Right after reviewing them here, my journey as an Accessory Tester began. This year, OnePlus launched the OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 along with the introduction of the OnePlus 7 Series of smartphones. As an Accessory Tester, I had the prototype unit sent to me for the testing purpose. And that’s exactly what I did. I tested them and provided my feedback about the same. But after over a month of the launch event, I’m here to share my entire review with this community. So, let’s just dive into it.

Build and Design​

You might be wondering why there isn’t any unboxing part here? Well, as mentioned above, it’s due to the fact that it was a prototype unit. Oh, you weren’t wondering about that? Ah, alright. Then, let’s start with what you want to read.



The build quality of the earbuds seems to be solid. It’s having a metal construction with glossy polish on the top which gives them that premium look. Also, the red coloured ring around the earbuds themselves make it stand out from the usual pair of Bluetooth earphones. Again, I’m really happy to see the build quality of the OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2.

You might know that I like the Earplugs + Fins design as they allow for a much more secure fit in the ears. The Bullets Wireless 2 have ditched the Fins, but I’m glad to say that they stay right there in your ears even without the Fins. But it’s just not able to provide me with that confidence of an ultra-secure fit which I had with the Fins.





There’s an in-line remote control on the left side of the earphones which can be reached easily. You can control the volume directly by using the volume buttons present on the in-line remote control. Also, you can play/pause the music (or videos, if you’re watching one), go back to the previous track, go ahead to the next track and also activate the Google Assistant. It’s important to note that the microphone has been finally shifted to this in-line remote control which is a better position to take some calls.



Coming to the neckband, I prefer it over the wires hanging around the back which is quite uncomfortable – at least, for me. Also, the battery can rest comfortably around your neck. This is much better than those earphones which have their battery floating on either side of the earphones on a thin wire. To charge the battery, you have the Type-C Port right on the neckband itself – One cable for everything. Also, the tiny white LED is present and does the job well. There’s also a small circular button near that LED, and it has a special function which will be listed below. Other than all that, I’m in love with the minimal branding on OnePlus Bullets Wireless. I appreciate it a lot more than some fancy branding.

Comfort and Convenience​

With the fins being gone, I was also worried about how comfortable these would be. But I’m glad to say that it wasn’t a problem for me – even with the medium-sized tips which were the only ones which came with the prototype. But for the retail package, it’ll come with different size of eartips so that you can select the ones which you’re comfortable with. Also, the material of the tips is changes and these new tips feel a lot better.

The pairing process for these earphones will be a breeze to go through especially if you have a OnePlus 5 or any later OnePlus device. A simple notification will pop up for you to pair the Bullets Wireless 2 with your device. Technically, that should happen, but it never happened for me – But I would say it’s only because this is a prototype unit.

You might have seen that I mentioned about the circular button having a special function. So, the special function of the button is to quickly switch between two devices. Let’s say I paired the Bullets Wireless 2 with my OnePlus 6T. And later, I paired them with the OnePlus 5. Now, if I want to switch back to the OnePlus 6T, all I must do is just double press that circular button and it’ll connect to the OnePlus 6T. Note that these are Bluetooth earphones. So, you must have the Bluetooth turned on for the other device to make it happen.



The Bullets Wireless 2 have Bluetooth 5.0, the best in the market right now. And along with that, they also support Qualcomm aptX HD which means higher quality sound can be transmitted to the Bullets Wireless 2. Overall, the range and stability of the connection with the earbuds has been great for me and I haven’t faced any issues with that yet.

Along with all these, the magnetic controls are still present here and they work – just as you expect them to. Take apart the two earbuds and they’ll turn on and will connect to the last connected device. And clip them together to turn them off and pause your music – that’s great use of the magnets there.

Coming the neckband, it’s still great and now I can tuck it under the collar without having to worry about the microphone getting blocked. The neckband is comfortable to wear even for longer period. And you’ll probably even forget that it’s there.

Sound Quality​

Just as a normal disclaimer, I do not consider myself as an audiophile here. So, your experience might say something different than what mine does.

The sound quality of the Bullets Wireless 2 is good. It’s good, but nothing exceptional. The vocals are crisp and clear, even at high volume levels. The bass, it’s there – just not enough to satisfy someone who likes to listen to bass heavy songs. For me, it’s absolutely fine. I don’t listen to much bass heavy songs and prefer a clean, balanced sound much more than having a ton of bass. And the Bullets Wireless 2 does that right.



The Bullets Wireless 2 can get pretty high at 100% volume. Most of the times, that is not even needed. When everything around me is silent, I can enjoy watching videos or listening to music even around 50% volume. But when the surrounding isn’t as quiet, then I would listen to the music at 60-80% volume. For videos, I would pump it up to 70-90% volume which would make for an immersive experience. Google Assistant can be heard when it’s activated but I wish it was a bit louder. It would be even better if the Google Assistant’s volume was also adjusted according to the current volume level of the earphones itself.

Overall, the sound quality is clean and rich. And you’ll enjoy listening to music and watching videos and movies with these earphones – if you’re not looking for too much bass.

Battery Life​

According to OnePlus, a simple 10 minutes of charge can give you 10 hours of playback. Also, a full charge can go up to 14 hours of playback. Well, I was more interested in checking the second claim, and I did that. You’ll find some of the results here.

During the first charge, I casually listened to them in batches of time without making a clear note about them. Also, the volume levels weren’t the same for every batch of time. But I did note that they lasted quite long. How long was still an unknown factor and so, I decided to do a proper test for the same.

After recharging them to 100%, I connected them to my OnePlus 6T and started playing music through Spotify. For the testing purpose, I kept the volume level at roughly 50% so that it can be a specific test. Also, for getting accurate time results, I started the timer on the OnePlus 6T when the music started playing and turned it off as soon as the music stopped – after the battery died. When the music stopped, the battery died and I stopped the timer, I was extremely happy to see 14 hours 03 minutes 53 seconds on the clock. There might be a slight difference in this time as I manually turned on the timer after starting the music and manually turned it off when it went off. But the difference wouldn’t be too much – surely not more than 03 minutes 53 seconds. So, my testing does back the claim of 14 hours on full charge.



There is no claim on how much time it’ll take for full recharge. But I tested it and the results are quite good. Note that I charged them with the Fast Charger and Cable – if you don’t know, that’s the one which is 20W. And in my testing, it took a total of 38 minutes 47 seconds to charge from dead battery to full. That’s much better than most other headphones or earphones in the market, especially in the price range.

Also, as you might’ve read earlier, the charging port is USB Type-C which future proofs them. And you’ll only have to carry a single charger and cable for your device and the earphones.

Price​

The OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 are priced at ₹5,990. That’s quite a bit higher than what I expected. Also, they are priced at US$99 which is the same as the Explorer Backpack but here, the converted price went up by ₹1,000. For that, I won’t blame OnePlus or anyone else as the current conversion rates would’ve priced it even higher but then again, it’s something to take a note of.

For this price, we have several options in the market. And here, we even have some truly wireless earphones which undercuts the price of the Bullets Wireless 2 by a huge margin. Are all the earphones same? No, definitely not. Every device has its own set of pros and cons. Yes, cons also exist for every device as no device is perfect. So, here I’m breaking it down so that you can make a better purchase decision.

Conclusion​

This is going to be divided in three parts – The Bad, The Good and The Hope.

The Bad​

Yeah, I’m talking about the bad part first. And first thing which I felt wasn’t good was the price. At US$99, it’s about $30 away from the Galaxy Buds, which is a truly wireless pair of earphones. If these were truly wireless pair of earphones as well and if they were priced at $99 or $109, it would have been a better deal. The upgrades made in the BW2 do not justify the increase in price – at least not for me.

I wouldn’t say the pricing is necessarily bad. But probably, I was just expecting it to be better. The Bullets Wireless 2 could’ve either be priced better or it should’ve been a better upgrade – so that the increase in price could’ve been easily justified. But none of those things happened, and so I wouldn’t consider this under good.

Other than price, I don’t think there’s anything else which I would consider under bad.

The Good​

I would be keeping this part short because if you’ve managed to read till now, you might be knowing what I’ll say here.

Overall, these are a solid pair of earphones. They are built well, especially the actual earbuds. The design is also one of the unique ones I’ve seen in a while. I’m not a fan of the design, but they do the job really well and so, I like it. Also, the sound quality is good, especially for the vocals. It has crisp, clear and balanced audio, which I appreciate a lot. Also, how can I forget that minimal branding on the earphones – just love that.



Other than all these, the convenience of having just a single cable to charge the device and the earphones is amazing. Also, the support for Qualcomm aptX HD and Bluetooth 5.0 is a cherry on the top. That allows for having lag-free audio while watching videos. On the top of all that, the battery life is also good and will last more than your single session of music or binge session ever would – unless you’re travelling from one part of world to the other.

The Hope​

It’s always good to have hope for something better. And I have that hope which I’ll share here.

Let’s begin with the volume level of the Google Assistant. It’s there and everything can be heard as of now, but it can be better if we can adjust it to be higher or lower depending upon the volume level of the earphones itself. Also, when I long press the button to activate Google Assistant, there’s no feedback when I should start speaking. The Google Assistant itself does have that feedback through a slight tone, but it’s not there on the Bullets Wireless 2. It would be better to have that as well. And I guess this can be easily fixed through an update.

There’s one more thing which can be done in a better way. When the device reaches lower volume, there’s only a small beep sound which can be easily missed when you are immersed into your binge/music session. So, instead of that beep sound, a small voice message can be said like “Charge your Bullets Wireless now or you’ll miss listening to the songs later”. This type of message won’t be missed by the user and can improve the overall experience. But note that any such message should only be said once as saying such messages multiple times can worsen the user experience.



Also, you might have noticed that I haven’t mentioned anything about the water resistance of the earphones. That’s because it isn’t mentioned on the official webpage as well. So, it would be better to have some sort of Ingress protection for the earphones especially considering that the price has already gone higher.

Finally, I hope that the next generation of Bullets Wireless will be completely free of wires. Also, the name of those earphones can be changed to OnePlus Bullets Free. This new name is just a suggestion, but even if the name isn’t changed, I’m surely hoping for a truly wireless earphones by OnePlus.

That's it from my side. Let me know if you have any more questions and I'll be glad to help you out.