realme Buds Air 2 Review – Quiet the Noise of Everyday Life

April 16, 2021

Tech

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The realme Buds Air 2 will be on DISCOUNTED with FREE SHIPPING from April 16-18! Don’t miss it!

See discount details below. Yep, that’s P1,000 OFF the regular price 🙂

realme Buds Air 2 Review

I’ve had my realme Buds Air 2 for a few days and it has already changed my mind about wireless earbuds!

Some key observations about them:

don’t fall off
no wrong press
good sound quality
drowns out noise like aircon hum
have not even recharged it yet!

I previously had a cheap pair of earbuds and I never used them because they kept falling off even if I was just sitting down! I also hated it because it would always get loose, and then when I tried to push it back in my ears, I would always end up pressing it wrong, so the music would stop and skip and do all sorts of things I didn’t mean it to. So it stayed on my shelf, gathering dust. Instead, I used a clunky wireless headphone (the one that looks like a hairband) just to make sure that the headphones don’t fall off while I did chores and stuff.

So when I switched to the realme Buds Air 2, I was so happy to notice that all the things I thought I hated about using earbuds were not present!

Easy Setup

Setup is easy – just follow the instructions in the User’s Guide. I only had to press the button for Pairing mode once, and then I didn’t have to anymore next time – the Buds Air 2 were on Pairing Mode as soon as I took them out of the case.

It also uses a Type-C charger, same as my realme 7i, yay!

realme Link app

I also connected my realme Buds Air 2 to my realme Link app so I can customize the settings. You need to connect via your phone’s Bluetooth first, and then open the Link app. realme also provides software updates 🙂

Comfortable fit and doesn’t fall off

At first, I used the realme Buds Air 2 as is – this means the medium-sized ear tips. After I used it a few times, I realized that they seem to be a bit big for my ears. It’s a good thing that the realme Buds Air 2 come with 2 other sizes of ear tips – total of 3 sets – small, medium and large. So I changed to the smallest ear tips and they fit just right!

After I changed the ear tips to the correct size for my ears, they became very comfortable to use. The Buds Air 2 are light, but don’t fall off even after vacuuming, working in the kitchen, playing games or eating.

Been using it when I’m baking:

They don’t hurt my ears even after a few hours of use.

Of course, I still adjust them sometimes, and so far, I have never encountered a “wrong press”! I didn’t feel like I had to hold them a special way when putting them in my ears to avoid making unintentional presses.

Active Noise Cancellation

After setting it up and using it for the first time, what I noticed right away was how it blocked noise!

The little annoying sounds of everyday life – gone! Aircon hum? Gone! Electric fan noise? Almost gone (not totally gone, but almost). Annoying sounds from neighbor’s house construction? Gone. Vacuuming sound? Greatly reduced. Other people’s online meetings on loudspeaker or watching videos/TV disturbing your flow? Gone. Even people talking to me – can’t hear them for the most part (great for when you are being nagged or sermoned ? ).

There are times when you don’t want noise cancellation though – times when not being able to hear things can be dangerous, such as when walking outside – so it’s great that you can easily change from Noise Cancellation Mode to Transparency Mode (no noise cancellation so you can hear the outside world). You can even customize how to switch modes thru the settings in the realme Link app (see screenshot above). When you need to talk to people, you don’t have to take off your ear buds! Just switch to Transparency Mode.

Connectivity

Pairing is easy! Any gadget I try to connect with the realme Buds Air 2 seem to find it very easily. Pops up right way – doesn’t take a long time to scan. Take note that the ear buds need to be taken out of the case to be connected.

The Buds Air 2 know when they have been worn, when they have been taken off, and they automatically start or stop the audio.

Range is typical at about 10 meters.

I easily connected it to my bedroom TV:

Sound Quality

The sound quality is pretty good. Do not expect super premium sound quality for music, but for this price range, it’s really good. When listening to music, I feel like the audio is cleaner when Volume Enhancer is turned off.

I tested using the following songs / albums on Spotify:

Fearless (Taylor’s version) – of course! #Swiftie
Bohemian Rhapsody (Remastered) by Queen
Enter Sandman by Metallica
Stairway to Heaven (Remastered) by Led Zeppelin
Mozart: Die Zauberflote, K.620, Act 2: Queen of the Night Aria (Damrau)

Of course, use the Sound Effect you like most – Bass Boost+, Dynamic or Bright, as applicable. I mostly prefer the Bright effect.

Sounds are full, clear and smooth.

I also like using my realme Buds Air 2 to listen to YouTube videos and for watching TV, especially at night, winding down before sleep, when I don’t want my loud TV to disturb others. I prefer my audio to be loud so that I can feel immersed in whatever I am watching, but I often have to compromise and keep the sound low so as not to disturb others. Well, NOT ANYMORE! 😀

Here I am watching The Way of the Househusband on Netflix, with a midnight snack of baked macaroni and water. The anime is about a John Wick type Yakuza and he retired and dedicated himself to home hobbies like cooking and winning at supermarket sales. Relate very much to the scenes but the animation can be better.

Even after laughing, eating, drinking and getting into comfortable positions to watch, the realme Buds Air 2 have not fallen off 😀

I also have the Volume Enhancer setting set to ON, and I am surprised that I only have to set my volume so much lower than I used to, but still have everything LOUD 🙂

Whatever I am watching sounds clear and distinct – no muffled sounds! With noise cancellation turned on, the whole experience becomes even more immersive, and I can even hear the sounds coming from different sides of my Buds Air 2.

For calls

I also use my realme Buds Air 2 for Zoom calls and they work very well. As usual, sounds are very clear. Microphone is great! I compared it to a family member’s Korean brand ear buds (around 7k value one year ago) and the realme Buds Air 2 actually captures the person’s voice better. The Korean brand’s sounds very far away because its mic is just too far away from the talker’s mouth, whereas realme’s for some reason can capture my voice LOUD and CLEAR, even if the buds are in my ear. We tried switching phones and ear buds, etc… just to test.

Game Mode

Okay, so I only played Candy Crush 😀 But it was so much more fun with the realme Buds Air 2! The sounds are clear, I can hear all the game sounds distinctly, and I didn’t notice any latency (delayed sound).

You can turn on Game Mode on or off in the realme Link app (see screenshot above).

Battery Life

I have used this for about 5 days and I still have not encountered any low battery situation! I charged the case when I first opened it, and that’s it. Every time I put the buds back into the case, they charge again.

The total battery life is supposed to be 25 hours.

SUMMARY

The realme Buds Air 2 are good earbuds for this price range 🙂

Battery life lasts about 4-5 hours per use, but it recharges every time you put them back in the case, for about 25 hours of use. It also has Active Noise Cancellation – great for blocking out unwanted noise from everyday life.

What I really like about the realme Buds Air 2 though is the usability — I don’t make wrong presses, they don’t fall off my ears, and the microphone capture for calls is pretty good!

They are also cute, the shape of the ear buds remind me of the peashooters from Plants vs. Zombies 🙂

Sound quality is good for the price, and it is LOUD. There’s even a volume enhance option! This is good if you are trying to listen to sounds that are soft – for example, YouTube videos with poor audio quality (only recorded with on board microphone).