The IP55 rating for the headphones means you don’t have to worry about sweat or water damage with the OnePlus Buds Pro. Coupled with the lightweight and durable plastic construction, these headphones make a good workout companion. The case also features an IPX4 rating, which is rare and seen with few earphones. The OnePlus Buds Pro use Bluetooth 5.2 with support for SBC, AAC and LHDC codecs. While SBC and AAC are standard on most true wireless headphones, LHDC is much newer. The problem? LHDC is only supported on a limited number of devices – even OnePlus phones don’t support LHDC. You can toggle “Pro Gaming mode” to reduce latency by up to 94 milliseconds, though this feature is only available on OnePlus devices with OxygenOS 11 and above. Dolby Atmos support is also limited to the OnePlus 7 series and above. The active noise cancellation (ANC) feature is relatively weak on the OnePlus Buds Pro. The smart noise cancellation mode isn’t very useful, and most listeners will probably settle for the default “maximum noise cancellation” setting at all times. With the maximum setting on, you’ll notice a slight reduction in ambient sounds from a train car or air conditioning unit. The passive isolation provided by the silicone tips isn’t quite up to par with competing headphones. Even though you get a good fit, only certain high-frequency sounds are blocked. These aren’t the headphones to choose if you’re a frequent flyer and want to drown out cabin noise, for example. Any level of isolation and CNA is always better than no isolation, because it prevents auditory masking of ambient noise. Not only does reducing auditory masking improve sound quality, but it also makes you less likely to turn up the volume to block out those noises, protecting you from noise-induced hearing loss. Nevertheless, the OnePlus Buds Pro are outdone by most competitors when it comes to noise cancellation.
