OnePlus Bullets Wireless Review: Looks Neat And Sounds Great

Bullets Wireless

OnePlus is well known for making stuff that performs great and does not burn a hole in your wallet, they follow this to the T in everything they do. This is true even for the accessories and other devices they make. They launched the Bullets Wireless Bluetooth headset along with the OnePlus 6. I spent a considerable amount of time with the headset and here is my review

The OnePlus Bullets Wireless are  very cleverly and thoughtfully designed neckband earphones. A flexible and extremely soft rubber and plastic band hangs around your neck, and also houses the electronics any Bluetooth pair needs to function. In my experience when the neck band is added, you always tend to get better value, better sound quality and noticeably longer battery life, than with the true wireless type headsets. Very clearly, design is one of the strong suits of the OnePlus team and the OnePlus Bullets Wireless is also no exception to this. When I say design, I am not talking just about the looks, there are a lot of thoughtful and practical design elements that are part of the headset.

Bullets Wireless Design

OnePlus have worked hard to deliver the best possible sound quality across a large frequency range. aptX ensures high-quality audio across a Bluetooth connection, and Bullets Wireless combines a large driver unit with Energy Tubes to deliver a superior listening experience.

With the Energy Tubes, the headset is able to minimize the reverberation of frequencies. Energy tubes are structures  that exist within Bullets Wireless to stabilize sounds as they pass through, ensuring the earphones produce a clear output at all times. Composed of a non-metallic mineral and a silica gel, Energy Tubes improve the audio experience by reducing frequency diffraction and noise generation, resulting in  clearer and richer sound. The headset comes with interchangeable fins and tips that are customizable to various ear sizes according to your comfort. They are made with long usage and comfort in mind, especially if you are into long walks, running or working out. They are sweat and waterproof and do not slip or dislodge when you are active. Like I said earlier, thoughtful and very practical.

Let us now get to one of the neatest features of the Bullets Wireless – the magnetic rear end of the earplugs. When you interlock both the earplugs magnetically, the music pauses and when you pull them out again, it resumes from where you left off. I also saw that the headset stops using it’s battery when the magnetic ends are joined. This means that you can get a long run from these too. This idea is neat, useful and quite a conversation starter at gatherings when you pull them out. They certainly turned a lot of heads with my friends.

Remote Control

Here are the details of the Buttons and Functions on the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Headset 

In-line Controls

  1. Increase volume key
  2. Short press to turn up the volume Long press to continuously turn up the volume

Middle key

  1. Click to Play/Pause music
  2. Long press to start Google Assistant Double-click for the next song
  3. Click to answer an incoming call Short press to end the call

Decrease volume key

  1. Short press to turn down the volume
  2. Long press to continuously turn down the volume

Neck Band

  1. Button for power and pairing Input for Dash Charge

Neck Band

Sound Quality

This headset has very pronounced and good physical dynamic impact (kick factor/slam). With that very smooth signature you also get a longing for more depth to the response itself over time and I could see that this one delivers brilliant depth to the response.

I’ve found that this one remains relatively smooth up to +4dB. And that is a good thing if you want your smoothness factor.I was unable to detect any bleed into the mids and no serious problems at all when boosted. You can get a smidgen more, but not much, when EQ’ed. What that means is bass and mids are clearly differentiated and delivered. And for you, it’s like rediscovering your music library again.

If mellow is the genre of sound or music that you enjoy, well, look no further. This is a fantastic headset for kicking back and relaxing with some old school vocals, Big Band genre types and  some good old Sinatra if you get what I mean. Quality is sublime for the price and it amazes me how  OnePlus has managed this in such a compact package. Fidelity is great and impressive for this headset in the mid-range, clean and crisp. This headset very definitely gets a massive thumbs up for offering a nicely subdued, calming effect when listening to mid-centered music

Bullets_Wireless

When it comes to kicking back and relaxing, I generally prefer  a lilting and gentle brightness factor with some sparkle. Those are terms I use to describe sets I consider highly musical on the top end and that is what I am hearing on this headset. OnePlus seems to ensure that you get the tune with style and class, and the subtle flare is also impressive. With this headset, the dynamic slam is low, which then leads to the set feeling  getting more relaxed. And that is a good thing. The quality factor for the price is just impressive to say it in one word. Absolutely no complains at all. Very nearly perfect.

Battery Life

Headset Charging

OnePlus claims up to eight hours of battery life with the Bullets Wireless,  in my experience – I got around 7 hours on very heavy usage. But most people I know never need anything beyond six hours on a single charge, which tends to be sufficient for most usage scenarios. Point to note here is the fact that the charging point is USB Type-C and supports Dash charging. With half an hour of charging, I was able to get around 5.5 hours of usage time. Pretty nifty and useful on the run.

Verdict

At a price of INR 3990/- this headset is very practical, delivers great quality sound and is designed with a lot of practical consideration. This is a must buy.  This is not for people who want discrete headphones, this is more for the outdoorsy and active people. In summary, looks neat and sounds great. This is a surprise hit from OnePlus this year.

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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