 Tell me that's what I think it is. Tell me that's what I- Uh, new butt suit is? Come on. The next day. Let's just play a quick game. Okay, which one of these earbuds cost $20? Which one cost $80? Which one cost $160? The $80 ones are the OnePlus Buds, and the point is, OnePlus made an AirPod alternative that looks just like every other AirPod alternative on the market. And like, of course they did. I mean, this stem design has proven to be hella functional. The mic is close to your mouth, the fit fits most people, and the amount of ambient sound they let through is just enough to still feel a part of the world around you, but also be able to hear your music. Okay, so the question for the OnePlus Buds is not about fit and form, but instead it's did OnePlus make an AirPod alternative for half of the price that is as reliable and as functional as AirPod's. Let's get into that. So, the OnePlus Buds. They come in a pretty plasticky oval case that is a bit wider than the case of the Google Pixel Buds, and thicker than the AirPod's case. On the bottom there's a USB-C port, on the back a pairing button, on the inside, magnets hold the buds snug in the case. They come in black, white, and this kinda crazy teal color that I think is a little bit too much of a pop of color, but I have a bud, Andre, who like is totally gonna dig these. On a full charge, the buds get you around 7 hours of continuous music playback, and the case holds 30 hours of music playback, which is around 4 full charges. It takes around 80 minutes to charge the case from 0 to 100, and I have had zero issues with battery life while using these, and I am a Buds power user, but I'm also a wireless charging superfan, and there's no wireless charging in these. OnePlus claims that these buds, hold on, I wanna quote this, I wanna get this right, these buds have unique noise reduction algorithm and three microphones on each bud to improve clarity. That sounds like a hell of a claim, and it also sounds like we need to do a mic test. And we're doing kitchen again, because I really think that this is a hell of a background noise to try to get rid of. First up, we have these headphones from Let's Calm. They were $20 on Amazon. I bought these because they were the cheapest I could find that looks like AirPods and also had pretty decent reviews. And for $80, we have the OnePlus Buds. These have three microphones on each bud, so it should really be picking up my voice. And I mean, of course these long stems absolutely help. And for $160, these are the AirPods, and we say this every time we do a mic test, this is the gold standard, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But usually it is pretty good. Run the water! Can you hear me now? We have the sink running, maybe you're washing your hands, washing the dishes. Life cannot stop because you gotta wash your hands. We're gonna be at this for a long time, folks. And here are the AirPods standing next to the small waterfall that is my kitchen sink. Can you hear me over this small waterfall? Wow, never so clearly have I been able to hear a price difference. These AirPods blow these other two pairs out of the water, and yikes, these OnePlus Buds do not sound much better than this $20 pair. But let me know what you think down below. Okay, I understand that my quality is very important to me and maybe not as important to you, so let's talk audio quality. Buds, these sound pretty good. Like, I sat on my couch for a very long time trying to differentiate these from the AirPod Pros, the first gens, and I could not. There's a song by Johnny called Anything You Want, it has like this subtle shaker in the back of its chorus, and I was really trying to like see who could differentiate that sound better, and I couldn't find a difference. I mean, you're not gonna get a crazy amount of bass with this open-ear design, but there are 13.4mm drivers in here that can actually kick, and compared to these like $20 ones I got off Amazon, I mean, the audio quality on the OnePlus Buds is much better than the $20 version and very comparable to the $160 AirPod. Yeah, these $20 buds, they sound like $20 buds. The words I would use to describe their audio quality is tinny, very small, $20. End of story. The OnePlus Buds are IPX4 water and sweat resistant. These buds will be good in the rain and definitely protected from sweat. A big downfall to these buds though is that you cannot use one bud independently, and as soon as you take one out, your music will pause, and when you put it back in, your music will resume. There's also no app for these buds, and the tap controls out of the box are limited. Double tap a bud to skip to the next song or hold down on a bud for three seconds to switch between synced devices, and that's it. OnePlus claims that when these buds start shipping in late July, OnePlus phones will be pushed a software update allowing them to choose their preferred action for double tapping. Including pausing music, jumping to the previous track, or activating the Google Assistant. But that's only for OnePlus devices, and dudes, our $20 favs off of Amazon have more touch controls than the OnePlus do at this moment in time. On the $20 buds, tap once to pause, double tap to skip a track, and triple tap to go back to the previous track. Which I think are great controls and should just be standard amongst all buds, but, you know, to each their own. So are the OnePlus buds a half-priced AirPod alternative that are reliable and functional? Yes. Yes they are. And if you're a OnePlus user, you're gonna have full control over these. But for everybody else, there is a massive market of AirPod alternatives out there that range from $20 to $160 and beyond. And there are other options that maybe have a little bit more functionality than these do. If you allow me to be in my feelings for just like two seconds more, from a company whose slogan is never settle, I was just like, hoping, yeah like really really hoping, for a little bit more innovation.