OPPO and its offshoot Realme are marking their entry into the truly wireless earphone segment with the launch and unveiling of their respective products. Realme has taken center stage in India for its Realme X2 launch today, and the independent company is also taking this opportunity to announce the Realme Buds Air in the country. Meanwhile, at the APAC Strategy Launch in Malaysia, OPPO took the opportunity to reveal more details about the OPPO Enco Free.
Realme Buds Air
After establishing itself as a noteworthy smartphone company, Realme wants to evolve into a tech lifestyle brand. Today, along with the Realme X2, it launched a pair of truly wireless stereo earbuds. The Realme Buds Air have a striking resemblance to the first-gen Apple Airpods and come with features like touch controls and wireless charging. The Buds Air come with 12mm drivers, largest in the Realme Buds lineup, and a dynamic bass boost sound optimization specially tuned for Bollywood and Indian indie music.
The Buds Air come with smart pause and play which works with the help of optical proximity sensors on each of the earbuds. There's touch control that works independently on each earpod, with support for play/pause, and forward. The Realme Buds Air come with a low-latency Gaming mode which can be activated by holding down on each of the earbuds. Additionally, the environmental noise-canceling microphones should provide for a clear sound during calls.
Each of the earbuds weighs only 4.2 grams and comes with a claimed battery life of 17 hours. That includes three hours of playback through the earbuds and an additional 14 hours of charge from the case.
Realme Buds Air available in three colors – white, black, and Realme's iconic yellow. The Realme Buds Air will be priced at ₹3,999 (~$56) and you will also be able to buy a single earbud or the case separately if you lose them. They will be available starting December 23rd via Flipkart.
Buy the Realme Buds Air from Flipkart
OPPO Enco Free
OPPO recently held the OPPO Inno Day event in China, where the company announced some of its key products coming along in early 2020. These include a new smartwatch, AR glasses, and a 5G CPE Hub. OPPO also mentioned "smart wireless headphones", but declined to give further information on the same. At the APAC Strategy Launch in Malaysia, OPPO has provided more details, including the name of the product and what it looks like.
The OPPO Enco Free are truly wireless earphones that will use low-latency dual-pass Bluetooth technology for connection and are armed with "ultra-dynamic" speakers. The devices also boast of functions like AI voice noise reduction and sliding touch control.
It isn't immediately clear if the OPPO Enco Free are identical to the Realme Buds Air, but they do possess similarities. OPPO plans to launch the Enco Free headphones in the APAC region in January 2020 at a price of RM 499 (approximately US $120). The prices in other regions will be announced at a later date. Even comparing from a purely pricing perspective, the Enco Free are about double the converted pricing of the Realme Buds Air, which gives us reason to believe that the Enco Free is likely to come with additional technologies that justify the higher pricing.