By Vivek Singh Chauhan
New Delhi, Jul 21 (IANS): With an aim to woo younger Indians looking for affordable earbuds, smartphone brand realme has brought Buds Q2 to the country that offers some decent listening experience with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC).
Priced at Rs 2,499, the USP of Buds Q2 is that the device supports ANC -- a function that's only seen in high-end flagship earbuds and headphones.
realme Buds Q2 offers two colour options -- active black and calm gray. We used the buds in black colour for a while and here's how it performed.
With a futuristic design on the buds, the company says it has used "Gleaming lamination technology" that reflects varying colours in different angles.
The earbud tips also include smart touch functionality that allows users to toggle earbud settings with just a light tap.
In addition, the Buds Q2 is as light as it looks. I found the device to be compact and easy to carry with a nice overall finish.
The buds are comfortable to wear, with a perfect ear canal fit that helps improve noise cancellation.
With active noise cancellation of up to 25dB, the realme Buds Q2 monitors external noise through a feed-forward microphone, allowing the earbuds to send out a reverse anti-noise sound to cancel it out.
It can filter out most low-frequency noises, including the rumble of the subway and other transportation tools.
It also cancels out the noise of home appliances so that you can immerse yourself in music or work without being disturbed.
The buds also have a Transparency Mode, which enables users to listen to the ambient sound with one click.
The dual microphones form a powerful noise reduction system supported by the ENC noise cancelling algorithm, which significantly reduces surrounding noise during a call and that allows the other person to hear more clearly.
The battery has also been boosted significantly on the realme Buds Q2 and can last around a day with ANC turned on the same length as most other buds on the market in normal operation.
With ANC turned off, the buds can last a little over a day, representing a 40 per cent increase from the 20 hours provided by the previous generation.
The good part is that the buds also support fast charging and with just 10 minutes of charging time, one can get 180 minutes of playback.
The ‘Intelligent Touch Controls' feature include Double-tap; Play/Pause music or Answer a call; Triple-tap: Go to next song; Press and hold one side: Reject call and Press and hold both sides: Switch between Noise Cancelling mode and Transparency mode.
One can also customise the touch controls in the realme Link App.
Conclusion: At Rs 2,499, a compact realme Buds Q2 offers a good sound quality. It surely gives a tough competition to other earbuds in the same price segment.