| Category | Specification |
| Driver | 12mm Titanium-Coated Dynamic Drivers |
| Noise Cancellation | Up to 52dB Active Noise Cancellation |
| Battery | 530mAh |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 6.1 with Dual Device Pairing |
| Durability | IP55 Dust & Water Resistance |
How often do you see a budget earbud actually live up to its hype? The affordable wireless audio market moves at a crazy pace, but the Nord lineup usually keeps OnePlus a step ahead in India. Now, they are trying to tighten their grip on that top spot with the new OnePlus Nord Buds 4.
Priced at ₹3,099, the spec sheet looks seriously impressive on paper. We are talking about a segment-leading 52 dB active noise cancellation, punchy 12mm titanium drivers, and a massive 54-hour total battery life. OnePlus also completely refreshed the design for this generation and threw in an AI standby suite.
I spent a full week running the Astral Teal version as my main daily driver. After taking them through chaotic morning commutes and long typing marathons at my desk, here is how they actually handle the real world.
Anyone familiar with older Nord Buds is going to find the new look a bit jarring. OnePlus completely ditched the smooth, rounded pebble shape of the Buds 3 case, choosing a much sharper, boxier aesthetic instead. Even with the total redesign, you still get a clear hint of the usual family resemblance when looking at the actual earpieces.
The charging case gets a clean, matte texture that feels way more premium than its price suggests. The best part? It completely fought off fingerprint smudges and oily marks during my whole testing phase. I spent my time with the Astral Teal version. It looks incredibly sleek, offering a fresh, modern vibe without screaming for attention. If colorful audio gear isn't your thing, there is always the standard Stellar Black option.
As a whole package, the case is feather-light and slips easily into a coin pocket. Flip it over, and you will find the Type-C port right next to a flush physical pairing button on the bottom rim. The earbuds themselves feature a subtle, glittering marble finish on the stems, which feels like a direct nod to the pricier OnePlus Buds 3 Pro.
The absolute highlight, though, is the sheer comfort. Weighing just 4.3 grams per side, these are practically lighter than anything else I have reviewed lately. OnePlus apparently scanned over a thousand different ears to map out this specific shape, and honestly, the research paid off. I noticed zero weird pressure points. In fact, I wore them straight through a grueling four-hour writing and editing session and entirely forgot they were plugged in. They hold up just as well for workouts, locking tightly in place through heavy sweat and outdoor runs. Plus, the IP55 rating means they easily survive sudden rain storms or gym grime without an issue.
The internal hardware is where the Nord Buds 4 actually show their true potential. Most cheap wireless earbuds try to fool you by just pumping up a muddy, artificial bass boost that completely ruins the rest of the track. It makes it incredibly hard to catch quiet details, like a faint guitar riff or subtle backing harmonies. OnePlus completely avoids that trap, delivering a much cleaner balance thanks to its 12mm titanium-coated dynamic drivers.
To really put them to the test, I ran the buds through a diverse playlist covering quite a few genres. When playing bass-heavy hip-hop and electronic tracks like Boomshakalaka, Mercy, Mirchi, or Not Like Us, the drivers kicked out a punchy, deep low-end that added plenty of energy without drowning out the rest of the mix. That said, the sub-bass can feel a bit loose sometimes, meaning tiny instrumental details occasionally get lost in complex, chaotic songs.
On the flip side, the mid-range genuinely shines on vocal-forward acoustic tracks and simpler melodies like Raabta, Photograph, Say You Won’t Let Go, or Love Yourself. Vocals sound crisp, upfront, and full-bodied rather than thin or distant. The instrument separation is also quite impressive for the price, preventing strings and percussion from blending into a messy blur.
For entertainment and gaming, OnePlus includes 3D Spatial Audio along with a specialized Game Sound Spatial Audio engine to improve directional awareness. This makes it a lot simpler to pinpoint footsteps and environmental cues while playing.
More importantly, the earbuds tackle audio delay exceptionally well. OnePlus claims a low latency of 47ms. While I cannot measure that exact figure in a lab setting, my real-world gaming tests showed that the on-screen action and corresponding sound effects stayed completely in sync. If you want to tweak the sound further, you can use the Master Tuning options and fully adjustable EQ profiles inside the companion HeyMelody app to match your personal listening preferences.
The headline upgrade this time around is the jump to 52dB Active Noise Cancellation. OnePlus claims this offers a massive 200% improvement over what the older Nord Buds 3 could manage, and honestly, you can feel that difference immediately in daily use. When you step into a chaotic marketplace or a busy office workspace and toggle the ANC on, the ambient noise just fades into the background. The tech does a stellar job of cutting out low-frequency rumbles from engines and the constant hum of office conversations.
However, don't expect absolute, dead silence from these. Sharp, sudden spikes in sound, like a high-pitched metallic clang or a loud table slam, will still cut through the barrier, even if they end up sounding quite muffled. It works beautifully for locking in and focusing during a long writing session, though I did notice that familiar cabin pressure sensation after keeping it pinned to the maximum setting for a couple of hours. Because of that, you will definitely want to give your ears a quick break every now and then.
When it comes to voice calls, the earbuds rely on a three-microphone array per side, working alongside an AI algorithm designed to suppress wind noise up to speeds of 25 km/h.
I tested the microphone setup by hopping on a call with a friend who always gives me completely blunt feedback. When I was sitting in a perfectly quiet room, he said everything sounded fine. But the overall call quality drops off significantly the moment you step out into a noisy environment. I tried handling a conversation during my evening metro commute with loud commuters around me and the train tracks rattling away. While the ANC kept things quiet on my end so I could hear him perfectly, the experience was pretty unpleasant for the person on the other end. My voice made it through the line, but the microphones simply couldn't filter out the heavy, chaotic background roar of the train ride.
On the wireless side, these earbuds run on Bluetooth 6.1, and the connection stayed completely solid without a single dropout during my testing phase. If you use them with a compatible OnePlus phone, there is a Smart Bluetooth feature that stretches the outdoor range up to 250 meters. Setting them up is incredibly fast right out of the box because you get both Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair support.
The dual-device pairing feature was a lifesaver for my daily workflow, allowing me to switch between two sources instantly. If you are watching a video on your laptop and a phone call rings through, the audio automatically routes to your phone. It saves you from ever having to dig into your Bluetooth menus to swap devices manually. Managing the finer details is straightforward too, as the companion HeyMelody app gives you all the essential tweaks and custom settings you need.
The touch sensors on the earbud stems respond quickly to inputs, but the smarter software tools are what actually caught my attention. OnePlus included an AI on Standby suite that adds some genuinely practical features. The AI Translate tool gives you real-time translation, which is super useful when navigating places where you do not speak the local language, even if the translation accuracy is not totally flawless just yet.
You can also pull up your phone's digital assistant, whether you use Google Gemini, standard Google Assistant, or Siri, with a quick touch shortcut to check the weather, set alarms, or look up trivia on the fly. As for audio formats, things stay pretty basic here, with the earbuds sticking to the standard AAC and SBC codecs.
The battery life on these things is honestly fantastic. You get a 62 mAh battery tucked into each earbud, plus a 530 mAh reservoir inside the charging case. If you just leave the active noise cancellation switched off, you can squeeze a massive 54 hours of total playback out of the package.
Using the main features will obviously change those numbers. Keep ANC off, and the standalone buds run for about 13 hours straight. If you turn the noise cancellation on full blast, that single-charge runtime drops to roughly 6.5 hours, giving you around 27 hours total when you count the case refills. OnePlus also got a TÜV Rheinland certification for the battery, which bodes well for longevity since it promises healthy performance even after 1,000 charge cycles.
The fast charging completely killed off any battery anxiety for me. Leaving them on a Type-C cable for just ten minutes gives you a whopping 11 hours of playback. I didn't even bother timing how long a full zero-to-hundred percent charge takes because they just never died during my week of heavy testing. I would simply plug the case in for fifteen minutes while grabbing a morning coffee or showering, and that quick top-up easily handled my entire workday and a two-hour commute. When you are constantly on the move, that kind of reliability means everything.
If you have three grand to spend on wireless earbuds, save yourself some time and just grab the OnePlus Nord Buds 4. At ₹3,099, the sheer value you are getting here is honestly wild. The sound coming out of those 12mm drivers is incredibly crisp and punchy, and the noise cancellation actually holds its own against stuff that costs twice as much.
It is not perfect, of course. The microphones will definitely choke if you try to take a call from a loud, rattling metro car. But honestly, who cares when the rest of the package is this good? The fit is so light that you can leave them in all afternoon without any ear ache. Plus, gaming mode keeps the audio perfectly tight with zero lag, and that absurd 54-hour total battery life means you can basically lose your charging cable for a week. If you want solid silence and massive battery life on a strict budget, picking these up is an absolute no-brainer.