Realme Buds Air 3S Bluetooth 5.3 True Wireless Earbuds
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Model: Realme Buds Air 3S
Price: Approx. £25 AliExpress
Website: Realme India
Review Reference: RC093
Manufacturer Specification:
1 x Pair Wireless Earbuds
1 x USB Type-C Charge Case
1 x Yellow USB Type-C Charge Cable
1 x User Manual: European Edition - seven different languages
3 x Pairs Eartips
YouTube Review:
Introduction
Welcome to the very long awaited @regancipher review of the Realme Buds Air 3S. I ordered these from AliExpress in August 2022, received them in late December, and due to a variety of circumstances have been unable to finish the review until now - but here we are, at least they have had plenty of time on the test bench!
Realme haven't been around long - just over 5 years, having been established in 2018 under the BBK Electronics Umbrella, focused predominantly on the Indian market, and as such, a number of their non-flagship products, like the Buds Air 3S, go under the radar despite some impressive specifications and very competitive pricing.
The headlines here - multipoint connectivity, impressive app support with custom buttons and EQ, and a powerful quick charge feature bringing 5 hours playtime from just 10 min of juice - coupled with an interesting design that will attract those that don't like stems on their earbuds - made the Buds Air 3S a model I simply couldn't ignore - enjoy the review and let me know your thoughts!
Unboxing - 7/10
The unboxing experience with Realme on non-flagships is, similar to the releases themselves, rather understated. You get a somewhat bland small-ish cardboard box with the buds and case design accurately depicted on the front, and a smattering of the key features on the side.
Once inside, you are greeted with a decidedly-yellow-themed array of accessories, with a tiny USB A-C charge cable, a user guide in seven European languages and a warranty card. There's also a QR code for the Realme Link app - more on that later.
The cable is of reasonably high quality - better than most - but the tips are fairly bog standard. The instruction manual is good enough, although it's quite difficult to read in small, faint fonts.
Case - 7/10
The charge case of the Buds Air 3S is a novel design, with a semi-transparent tinted cover on the top, and a matte black finish to the bottom. The image above shows the case on around week 4 - we are now in around week 12, and with only moderate usage it has already scuffed up pretty badly to look rather untidy. The lid has what feels like a screen protector over the top, and this adds to the rather cheap feeling to the case. There is a lip to the front of the hinged lid, but operating the case with one hand is going to be difficult due to the size.
Open the lid and you are greeted with the slogan 'DARE TO LEAP' in large, capital font, with the realme logo at the bottom. The buds slot into the middle of the cockpit, with openings for each in the shape of the bud and a magnet with decent holding force. It means that despite the space above the buds, there is no danger of them moving around and coming loose in your pockets.
In between the buds is a small LED. The LED has two configurations - when charging and when not. When charging, it's a solid green for 100%, a pulsing green between 20-100%, and a flickering red LED below 20%. When not charging, there seems to be a slightly different percentages alignment and it's just solid LED's, and although Realme don't really outline what these are in the manual, you can imagine that a red LED means charge these things ASAP!
On the subject of charging, there is a USB-C socket at the rear, and a full charge takes around 2 hours. The case DOES support warp charge or quick charge, whatever you want to call it, which gives you an impressive 5 hours of playtime from just ten minutes in the case. This really is top drawer from Realme, a very impressive and very convenient offering. Unfortunately, as you would expect at this price, there is no wireless charging.
The hinge goes slightly further than 90 degrees, but is reasonably stable, and features a friction hold. Here you can see what a finger print magnet the case is. There is also a button at the front - this is barely visible, and is almost embedded into the case, but that puts the buds into pairing mode, and triggers the LED to pulse white until you connect to a device. However, you may not need it, because the buds also support Google Fast Pair. On my Xiaomi 11T Pro, Pixel 6A and Sony Xperia IV, I got a notification telling me to connect, and the buds have connected seamlessly ever since. The case also supports hall switch mode, so there's no need to remove the buds from the case to initiate pairing and connection.
The dimensions of the case are a little odd - approximately 58mm x 53mm, so almost deceitfully rectangular, and 27mm in height, and with a weight of 47g, they are reasonably compact and portable, in a similar vein to something like the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are. Whilst you may struggle a little in skinny jeans pockets, I carried them around in my jacket throughout the seemingly never-ending UK winter months without any issues, and the case is much more portable than the similarly-sized Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro case, for example, due to it's slightly flimsy construction by comparison.
Ergonomics - 8/10
First impressions of the Buds Air 3S design and build are quite positive. The buds sport a 'mini stem'-style shape, which is conveniently sufficient for grasping when you want to remove them from your ears, without the overall stem aesthetic which puts so many users off earbuds. The outer edges feature a frosted black-silver finish which looks very nice - there's no garish colours and no overt branding, everything is delightfully rather subtle. The buds also feature a 'shark fin' removable wing tip, which is too short to offer any kind of support to the fit, but does at least work well with the contours of the average ear.
On the inside, you've got the charge connectors, which make direct contact with your skin, so if you have nickel allergies etc. you may want to look elsewhere. You also have a few openings - a pressure release cavity to improve comfort and acoustic performance, an ambient mic to work with the AI ENC to improve voice calls, and a voice pickup mic at the base to deliver your calls and voice notes.
The gradient to the shape of the buds, coupled with the thin oval nozzle, means the Buds Air 3S are neither as invasive as something like the Edifier NeoBuds Pro or Soundpeats Life Classic, but don't induce the pressure that something like the larger-nozzled Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 do. Even so, whilst they are fairly comfortable for short-term use, I found them to become a little tiresome longer than an hour or two. They aren't buds you will forget are in your ears, and may require occasional adjustment, especially if used for exercise, which their IPX5 water resistance rating does tempt.
The design makes for a quite stable fit and an unobtrusive look to the Buds Air 3S. From the front, they don't stick out at all, looking subtle and sleek. It is images like this one which remind the wearer that stems can look a little unwieldy by comparison.
From the side, the design seems to have very accurately tracked the shape of the ear.
The buds weigh 4.2g. Given their size, this is about what you would expect, although it is quite a bit heavier than something like the SoundPEATS Life Classic, for example, and as a result, it would be difficult to say they are more comfortable than that model.
The Buds Air 3S have very reasonable ergonomics, and a better-than-average construction that more than justifies the price tag.
Audio & Sound Signature - 8/10 (for the price paid), 7/10 (raw score)
The Buds Air 3S have the ability to be tuned to the users desired sound signature using the custom EQ within the app, or using one of the four presets - 'original', 'serenade', 'pure bass' and 'deep bass'. No prizes for guessing which the latter two are!
The default tuning of the Buds Air 3S (brown) is punchy and energetic, with particular emphasis on a heavy subbass and bright female vocals. It is tuned for the consumer in mind, not the audiophile, and will be fine for the average user listening to pop, house or techno. Basslines are fun and fast, but switch to the 'Deep Bass' and 'Pure Bass' settings and they become completely uncontrolled - if you like burying your head in a subwoofer, maybe you'll be able to tolerate these EQ's, but for me both are tinnitus waiting to happen.
Back to the default, the lower midrange is recessed to try to mitigate bleed, before a sharp rise between 1-2.5k, and this certainly helps female vocals sound very prominent, although male vocals can sound a little lost, especially on R&B tracks where you have heavier basslines. The peaks at 5.5k and 9k, with 3dB and 6dB dips respectively bring good texture to cymbals and crispiness to snares, and although the detail and definition lacks a little refinement, there is cohesion to the energy which makes the Buds Air 3S an enjoyable companion to most music styles that only really suffers a little clutter on more complex tracks.
The soundstage on the Buds Air 3S is reasonably wide, with moderate depth. For the most part, it lacks a little the sense of depth or perspective of more refined options, as you would expect with the hardware and software limitations. The Buds Air 3S use the AAC codec with a single 11mm dynamic driver, and the buds sell for around $30 - this is something you need to remember when dissecting the audio performance, which is more than in parity with the price tag. At this price point, the competition is something like the QCY HT05 Melobuds, which are smoother sounding with less rumble to the subbass. For me, the Buds Air 3S fall a little way short of the HT05, but they are still a good option if you're constrained by budget.
Call Quality - Indoors - 7/10, Outdoors - 7.5/10
I tested the AI ENC in a number of different scenarios, and it performed very well for the majority of the time, again more than justifying the price tag.
The Buds Air 3S feature in my indoor call quality test, where they were pitched against 36 other models to see how they perform in a coffee shop - they were one of the star performers:
Outdoors, you can hear how they fare here:
Indoors, your voice has good weight and tone, but you will need to speak with good authority because they can occasionally soften your voice a little. Indoors, introducing ambient environmental noise presents a challenge - a single source and the buds simply struggle to cope, so music playing for example, is something the buds don't deal with emphatically. With a multitude of sources with less volume, they perform a little better, elevating your voice well above the sounds around you. It isn't perfect, but most of the time you'll be clear enough, unless it gets very noisy around you.
Outside the ENC seems to cope better. Outside a train station, the train noise was removed altogether. Around traffic, it was a similar story - in my usual place, a busy intersection, my voice call came through clearly with no issues at all. As soon as I got mobile though, there would be occasions where my words would get lost, I assume the AI ENC performing too aggressively. Even so, it is hard to grumble - the lion's share of the time your voice calls will complete with no issues, which is essentially mission accomplished.
Connectivity and Other Features - 9/10
Connectivity is very solid at around 10m. The buds support Bluetooth 5.3, and I experienced no dropouts at all. Range does suffer a little when using multipoint, but I suffered no issues even in relatively crowded places.
The Buds Air 3S have loads of features, but the highlight is the support from the Realme Link app, which is superb, at least as earbud apps go. Granted, you need to register (I used my heytaphealth log in from my Oppo watch), but once you do, the app offers a good user experience and some major benefits.
Tap the Buds Air 3S under 'my devices' and you'll see a 'Sound Effects' menu, where you have your 4 presets and custom equaliser. The custom EQ is only 6 bars, but it does allow you to save multiple custom presets. It also allows you to toggle 'volume enhancer', although the buds were loud enough for me without this.
Below that, you've got the option to toggle gaming mode, and also Multipoint, or 'Dual-device connection' as Realme call it. This works seamlessly and flawlessly - very impressive at this price. This is as much customisation as you get with Multipoint - you can't choose or see the names of your devices like you can with OnePlus Buds Pro 2, Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 or Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro, but nevertheless it works, interrupting your laptop when calls come in.
Gaming mode is a nice bonus. Latency is very good for videos anyway, with close to lip-synchronisation, and gaming mode improves this further on games. Realme claim 69ms, which of course only factors in one leg of the journey, but you can expect a good return on most games outside your first person shooters.
Finally, you have the ability to customise controls. You can tailor double, triple tap and touch and hold to whatever you prefer, and you can also modify 'touch and hold' left and right together to gaming mode. This worked best for me, with double tap configured to play/pause, triple tap as track backwards/forwards and touch and hold as reduce and increase volume respectively. This level of granularity over the controls is excellent, and that they save to the bud so will continue to be the case regardless of your source is an added bonus.
The buds are also IPX5 water resistant, and support Dolby Atmos. This is a bit of a misnomer, as the buds don't really need to do anything to support this - it is something you get with your mobile phone. I can't see anything within the technology stack to suggest the Buds Air 3S support Dolby Atmos any more than buds which don't claim to do in this respect.
Battery Life - 8/10
Battery life on the Buds Air 3S is more than respectable - 7 hours advertised is more like around 6 in reality, and that may drop further with lots of voice calls. Even so, ten minutes in the case will soon have the battery life restored - I have been testing them for a few months now, and other than the occasional 2 hour charge to restore the case, I've never been left short with the buds. Again, it is very impressive for the price.
The case and buds give a total of around 26 hours fully charged, which will be more than enough for the average user.
Summary
With the price of earbuds edging their way up again of late, it is great to see low-cost options like the Buds Air 3S giving you so much for your money. The case is a little rudimentary, but the buds have a nice design and fit with very decent build quality. The battery life is very good with a handy and convenient quick charge feature, and with gaming mode, multipoint and custom EQ and controls which save to the buds, there are a lot of features usually reserved for more premium offerings that Realme have managed to squeeze into this release. Their app is also far nicer and easier to use than most of the budget vendor offerings - so a lot to like about this model, especially at that super competitive price.
The sound isn't the most refined, and whilst voice calls are for the most part very good, the AI ENC can occasionally dip in and out, but these are minor quibbles over a release that is up there with the QCY HT05 Melobuds as one of the best choices for those with a tight budget.
Price Weighted Score: 86%
Raw Score: 80%
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Socials: Biolink
Model: Realme Buds Air 3S
Price: Approx. £25 AliExpress
Website: Realme India
Review Reference: RC093
Manufacturer Specification:
- Brand: Realme
- Model: Buds Air 3S RMA2117
- Driver: 11mm Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver
- Chipset: Not known
- Mic: 4 mics with AI ENC
- ANC: No
- Codecs: AAC, SBC
- App Support: Yes
- Volume Control: Yes (customisable via app)
- Gaming Mode: Yes
- Multipoint Connectivity: Yes
- Earbud Weight: 4.2g
- Earbud Dimensions: 27mm 'mini stem' length including wing tip, depth approx. 22.8mm
- Gross Case & Buds Weight: 47.45g
- Case Dimensions: 58.4mm (width) x 27.4mm (height) x 52.8mm (depth)
- Quick Charge: Yes - 5 hours from 10min
- Total Charge Time: 2 hours
- Wireless Charging: No
- Single Use Playtime: Up to 7 hours
- Playtime with Charge Case: Up to 30 hours
- Bluetooth Range: 10m advertised
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.3
- Bluetooth Protocols: HFP 1.7 / A2DP 1.3 / AVRCP 1.5
- Water Resistance: IPX5
1 x Pair Wireless Earbuds
1 x USB Type-C Charge Case
1 x Yellow USB Type-C Charge Cable
1 x User Manual: European Edition - seven different languages
3 x Pairs Eartips
YouTube Review:
Introduction
Welcome to the very long awaited @regancipher review of the Realme Buds Air 3S. I ordered these from AliExpress in August 2022, received them in late December, and due to a variety of circumstances have been unable to finish the review until now - but here we are, at least they have had plenty of time on the test bench!
Realme haven't been around long - just over 5 years, having been established in 2018 under the BBK Electronics Umbrella, focused predominantly on the Indian market, and as such, a number of their non-flagship products, like the Buds Air 3S, go under the radar despite some impressive specifications and very competitive pricing.
The headlines here - multipoint connectivity, impressive app support with custom buttons and EQ, and a powerful quick charge feature bringing 5 hours playtime from just 10 min of juice - coupled with an interesting design that will attract those that don't like stems on their earbuds - made the Buds Air 3S a model I simply couldn't ignore - enjoy the review and let me know your thoughts!
Unboxing - 7/10
The unboxing experience with Realme on non-flagships is, similar to the releases themselves, rather understated. You get a somewhat bland small-ish cardboard box with the buds and case design accurately depicted on the front, and a smattering of the key features on the side.
Once inside, you are greeted with a decidedly-yellow-themed array of accessories, with a tiny USB A-C charge cable, a user guide in seven European languages and a warranty card. There's also a QR code for the Realme Link app - more on that later.
The cable is of reasonably high quality - better than most - but the tips are fairly bog standard. The instruction manual is good enough, although it's quite difficult to read in small, faint fonts.
Case - 7/10
The charge case of the Buds Air 3S is a novel design, with a semi-transparent tinted cover on the top, and a matte black finish to the bottom. The image above shows the case on around week 4 - we are now in around week 12, and with only moderate usage it has already scuffed up pretty badly to look rather untidy. The lid has what feels like a screen protector over the top, and this adds to the rather cheap feeling to the case. There is a lip to the front of the hinged lid, but operating the case with one hand is going to be difficult due to the size.
Open the lid and you are greeted with the slogan 'DARE TO LEAP' in large, capital font, with the realme logo at the bottom. The buds slot into the middle of the cockpit, with openings for each in the shape of the bud and a magnet with decent holding force. It means that despite the space above the buds, there is no danger of them moving around and coming loose in your pockets.
In between the buds is a small LED. The LED has two configurations - when charging and when not. When charging, it's a solid green for 100%, a pulsing green between 20-100%, and a flickering red LED below 20%. When not charging, there seems to be a slightly different percentages alignment and it's just solid LED's, and although Realme don't really outline what these are in the manual, you can imagine that a red LED means charge these things ASAP!
On the subject of charging, there is a USB-C socket at the rear, and a full charge takes around 2 hours. The case DOES support warp charge or quick charge, whatever you want to call it, which gives you an impressive 5 hours of playtime from just ten minutes in the case. This really is top drawer from Realme, a very impressive and very convenient offering. Unfortunately, as you would expect at this price, there is no wireless charging.
The hinge goes slightly further than 90 degrees, but is reasonably stable, and features a friction hold. Here you can see what a finger print magnet the case is. There is also a button at the front - this is barely visible, and is almost embedded into the case, but that puts the buds into pairing mode, and triggers the LED to pulse white until you connect to a device. However, you may not need it, because the buds also support Google Fast Pair. On my Xiaomi 11T Pro, Pixel 6A and Sony Xperia IV, I got a notification telling me to connect, and the buds have connected seamlessly ever since. The case also supports hall switch mode, so there's no need to remove the buds from the case to initiate pairing and connection.
The dimensions of the case are a little odd - approximately 58mm x 53mm, so almost deceitfully rectangular, and 27mm in height, and with a weight of 47g, they are reasonably compact and portable, in a similar vein to something like the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are. Whilst you may struggle a little in skinny jeans pockets, I carried them around in my jacket throughout the seemingly never-ending UK winter months without any issues, and the case is much more portable than the similarly-sized Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro case, for example, due to it's slightly flimsy construction by comparison.
Ergonomics - 8/10
First impressions of the Buds Air 3S design and build are quite positive. The buds sport a 'mini stem'-style shape, which is conveniently sufficient for grasping when you want to remove them from your ears, without the overall stem aesthetic which puts so many users off earbuds. The outer edges feature a frosted black-silver finish which looks very nice - there's no garish colours and no overt branding, everything is delightfully rather subtle. The buds also feature a 'shark fin' removable wing tip, which is too short to offer any kind of support to the fit, but does at least work well with the contours of the average ear.
On the inside, you've got the charge connectors, which make direct contact with your skin, so if you have nickel allergies etc. you may want to look elsewhere. You also have a few openings - a pressure release cavity to improve comfort and acoustic performance, an ambient mic to work with the AI ENC to improve voice calls, and a voice pickup mic at the base to deliver your calls and voice notes.
The gradient to the shape of the buds, coupled with the thin oval nozzle, means the Buds Air 3S are neither as invasive as something like the Edifier NeoBuds Pro or Soundpeats Life Classic, but don't induce the pressure that something like the larger-nozzled Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 do. Even so, whilst they are fairly comfortable for short-term use, I found them to become a little tiresome longer than an hour or two. They aren't buds you will forget are in your ears, and may require occasional adjustment, especially if used for exercise, which their IPX5 water resistance rating does tempt.
The design makes for a quite stable fit and an unobtrusive look to the Buds Air 3S. From the front, they don't stick out at all, looking subtle and sleek. It is images like this one which remind the wearer that stems can look a little unwieldy by comparison.
From the side, the design seems to have very accurately tracked the shape of the ear.
The buds weigh 4.2g. Given their size, this is about what you would expect, although it is quite a bit heavier than something like the SoundPEATS Life Classic, for example, and as a result, it would be difficult to say they are more comfortable than that model.
The Buds Air 3S have very reasonable ergonomics, and a better-than-average construction that more than justifies the price tag.
Audio & Sound Signature - 8/10 (for the price paid), 7/10 (raw score)
The Buds Air 3S have the ability to be tuned to the users desired sound signature using the custom EQ within the app, or using one of the four presets - 'original', 'serenade', 'pure bass' and 'deep bass'. No prizes for guessing which the latter two are!
The default tuning of the Buds Air 3S (brown) is punchy and energetic, with particular emphasis on a heavy subbass and bright female vocals. It is tuned for the consumer in mind, not the audiophile, and will be fine for the average user listening to pop, house or techno. Basslines are fun and fast, but switch to the 'Deep Bass' and 'Pure Bass' settings and they become completely uncontrolled - if you like burying your head in a subwoofer, maybe you'll be able to tolerate these EQ's, but for me both are tinnitus waiting to happen.
Back to the default, the lower midrange is recessed to try to mitigate bleed, before a sharp rise between 1-2.5k, and this certainly helps female vocals sound very prominent, although male vocals can sound a little lost, especially on R&B tracks where you have heavier basslines. The peaks at 5.5k and 9k, with 3dB and 6dB dips respectively bring good texture to cymbals and crispiness to snares, and although the detail and definition lacks a little refinement, there is cohesion to the energy which makes the Buds Air 3S an enjoyable companion to most music styles that only really suffers a little clutter on more complex tracks.
The soundstage on the Buds Air 3S is reasonably wide, with moderate depth. For the most part, it lacks a little the sense of depth or perspective of more refined options, as you would expect with the hardware and software limitations. The Buds Air 3S use the AAC codec with a single 11mm dynamic driver, and the buds sell for around $30 - this is something you need to remember when dissecting the audio performance, which is more than in parity with the price tag. At this price point, the competition is something like the QCY HT05 Melobuds, which are smoother sounding with less rumble to the subbass. For me, the Buds Air 3S fall a little way short of the HT05, but they are still a good option if you're constrained by budget.
Call Quality - Indoors - 7/10, Outdoors - 7.5/10
I tested the AI ENC in a number of different scenarios, and it performed very well for the majority of the time, again more than justifying the price tag.
The Buds Air 3S feature in my indoor call quality test, where they were pitched against 36 other models to see how they perform in a coffee shop - they were one of the star performers:
Outdoors, you can hear how they fare here:
Indoors, your voice has good weight and tone, but you will need to speak with good authority because they can occasionally soften your voice a little. Indoors, introducing ambient environmental noise presents a challenge - a single source and the buds simply struggle to cope, so music playing for example, is something the buds don't deal with emphatically. With a multitude of sources with less volume, they perform a little better, elevating your voice well above the sounds around you. It isn't perfect, but most of the time you'll be clear enough, unless it gets very noisy around you.
Outside the ENC seems to cope better. Outside a train station, the train noise was removed altogether. Around traffic, it was a similar story - in my usual place, a busy intersection, my voice call came through clearly with no issues at all. As soon as I got mobile though, there would be occasions where my words would get lost, I assume the AI ENC performing too aggressively. Even so, it is hard to grumble - the lion's share of the time your voice calls will complete with no issues, which is essentially mission accomplished.
Connectivity and Other Features - 9/10
Connectivity is very solid at around 10m. The buds support Bluetooth 5.3, and I experienced no dropouts at all. Range does suffer a little when using multipoint, but I suffered no issues even in relatively crowded places.
The Buds Air 3S have loads of features, but the highlight is the support from the Realme Link app, which is superb, at least as earbud apps go. Granted, you need to register (I used my heytaphealth log in from my Oppo watch), but once you do, the app offers a good user experience and some major benefits.
Tap the Buds Air 3S under 'my devices' and you'll see a 'Sound Effects' menu, where you have your 4 presets and custom equaliser. The custom EQ is only 6 bars, but it does allow you to save multiple custom presets. It also allows you to toggle 'volume enhancer', although the buds were loud enough for me without this.
Below that, you've got the option to toggle gaming mode, and also Multipoint, or 'Dual-device connection' as Realme call it. This works seamlessly and flawlessly - very impressive at this price. This is as much customisation as you get with Multipoint - you can't choose or see the names of your devices like you can with OnePlus Buds Pro 2, Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 or Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro, but nevertheless it works, interrupting your laptop when calls come in.
Gaming mode is a nice bonus. Latency is very good for videos anyway, with close to lip-synchronisation, and gaming mode improves this further on games. Realme claim 69ms, which of course only factors in one leg of the journey, but you can expect a good return on most games outside your first person shooters.
Finally, you have the ability to customise controls. You can tailor double, triple tap and touch and hold to whatever you prefer, and you can also modify 'touch and hold' left and right together to gaming mode. This worked best for me, with double tap configured to play/pause, triple tap as track backwards/forwards and touch and hold as reduce and increase volume respectively. This level of granularity over the controls is excellent, and that they save to the bud so will continue to be the case regardless of your source is an added bonus.
The buds are also IPX5 water resistant, and support Dolby Atmos. This is a bit of a misnomer, as the buds don't really need to do anything to support this - it is something you get with your mobile phone. I can't see anything within the technology stack to suggest the Buds Air 3S support Dolby Atmos any more than buds which don't claim to do in this respect.
Battery Life - 8/10
Battery life on the Buds Air 3S is more than respectable - 7 hours advertised is more like around 6 in reality, and that may drop further with lots of voice calls. Even so, ten minutes in the case will soon have the battery life restored - I have been testing them for a few months now, and other than the occasional 2 hour charge to restore the case, I've never been left short with the buds. Again, it is very impressive for the price.
The case and buds give a total of around 26 hours fully charged, which will be more than enough for the average user.
Summary
With the price of earbuds edging their way up again of late, it is great to see low-cost options like the Buds Air 3S giving you so much for your money. The case is a little rudimentary, but the buds have a nice design and fit with very decent build quality. The battery life is very good with a handy and convenient quick charge feature, and with gaming mode, multipoint and custom EQ and controls which save to the buds, there are a lot of features usually reserved for more premium offerings that Realme have managed to squeeze into this release. Their app is also far nicer and easier to use than most of the budget vendor offerings - so a lot to like about this model, especially at that super competitive price.
The sound isn't the most refined, and whilst voice calls are for the most part very good, the AI ENC can occasionally dip in and out, but these are minor quibbles over a release that is up there with the QCY HT05 Melobuds as one of the best choices for those with a tight budget.
Price Weighted Score: 86%
Raw Score: 80%
