Realme Buds Air 5 Review: Good TWS earbuds that may get lost in sibling rivalry

Pros:
– Good sound output after EQ tweaks
– Excellent ANC for the segment
– Sound and controls can be customised through app
– Lightweight, comfortable in-ear fit
– Wear detection, IPX5 splash resistance
– Good battery backup, fast charging
– Decent call quality

Cons:
– Default sound and presets are below par
– Average Transparency mode
– No dual-pairing support
– Battery backup with ANC on needs improvement

Price: Rs 3,699
Rating: 3.8/5

The Realme Buds Air series of TWS earphones has consistently earned our recommendations over the years. The Buds Air 2 and Buds Air 3 in particular impressed us with their features and performance. While the sound quality has been good for both, the former offered functional active noise cancellation (ANC) at close to Rs 3,000 back then, while the latter bragged of the best ANC in the sub-5K segment, which was hard to surpass till a few months ago.

Image Credit: Firstpost | Ameya Dalvi

So what changed a few months back? Well, Realme launched their Buds Air 5 series, but unlike in the past, there was more than one product in the series this time. We have already reviewed the Redmi Buds Air 5 Pro earbuds and rate it among the best in the sub-5K segment of TWS earphones in India. We now have the Buds Air 5 for review, which is the true successor to the Buds Air 3, and borrows a handful of features from the Pro model.

Two models still would have been fine, but soon after, Realme launched the Buds T300 at a ridiculously attractive price point. Stuck between the loaded Buds Air 5 Pro and the highly affordable T300, can the Realme Buds Air 5 justify its existence? How good is it as a standalone product? We answer all that and more in this detailed review.

Realme Buds Air 5: Design and Comfort (8/10)
The design language of the Realme Buds Air 5 has been borrowed from its predecessors. The shape of the buds is pretty much the same but the stems are a bit longer now. We got the Deep Sea Blue variant for review, which is more like very dark blue, but it looks good. You also get a white variant… sorry, Arctic White. The buds are glossy while the case has a matte finish. Realme has done a good job with the build quality and finish.

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The case is fairly compact, lightweight and just about pocketable. It hosts a 460 mAh battery and yet weighs well under 40 grams. You get a tiny charge indicator LED at the front and a USB-C charging port along with a Bluetooth pairing/reset button at the bottom. The earbuds are quite light too at less than 4.5 grams each and fitted with a 43 mAh battery. There is a small indentation at the back of the buds to mark the touch zones.

The touch sensitivity is generally good as long as you don’t tap too fast, especially for triple tap. The fit is snug and comfortable, and they don’t pop out of the ear during a workout or a jog. The right-sized silicon tips from the three bundled pairs offer decent passive noise isolation and help in enhancing ANC too. The buds are IPX5-rated splash-resistant. Strangely the more affordable Realme Buds T300 have dust resistance too with an IP55 rating.

Realme Buds Air 5: Features and Specifications (8/10)
Each earbud is fitted with a 12.4 mm dynamic driver and three microphones for calling and ANC. Just like its Pro variant, the Realme Buds Air 5 can suppress up to 50 decibels of ambient noise across a 4000 Hz wide band. The ANC number is as good as it gets for budget earbuds at the moment. You also get to choose between Mild, Moderate and Max noise cancellation, or simply set it to Smart and let the buds choose one depending on the quantum of ambient noise.

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You get wear detection sensors here to pause the audio when you remove a bud from the ear and resume when you put it back in. There is no dual-pairing support here though. These Bluetooth 5.3-compliant TWS buds support SBC and AAC codecs. Unlike the Buds Air 5 Pro, LDAC codec isn’t supported here. The Realme Link app lets you access and tweak a few features of these earphones. It comes pre-installed on Realme phones and needs to be installed on other devices. The app is available for Android and iOS both.

It lets you alter the sound profile, configure the controls, update the firmware and more. You can assign play/pause, previous/next track, voice assistant, volume control or nothing to double tap and triple tap gestures. Touch-and-hold lets you switch between the ANC profiles. While volume control is available here, you do not have enough gestures to assign all the functions to, and you will need to skip something else to accommodate it.

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Realme Buds Air 5: Performance (7.5/10)
These earphones are fairly loud around the 60 per cent volume level even when outdoors, and if you need them to be louder, you can turn on the Volume enhancer feature from the app. The wireless range is perfectly fine with the buds maintaining a stable connection at 10 metres with no obstruction between them and the source device. As I mentioned earlier, these earphones can suppress up to 50 db of ambient noise, and it works very well. In fact, the ANC is as good as we have come across under Rs 5,000.

The only thing that matches this level of noise cancellation in this price band is its Pro variant that sports a higher price tag. It not only cuts out low-frequency sounds like the hum of an AC or the whirr of a fan when indoors, but also tones down some midrange sounds like human voices, though it doesn’t eliminate them completely. When outdoors, it significantly reduces traffic noises and background chatter in public transport.

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The Transparency mode is usable but cannot beat the one on the OnePlus Buds Z2 in this segment. It tends to amplify all noises instead of just voices and that results in a constant buzz in this mode. The ‘Smart de-wind’ and ‘Voice enhancement’ options present in the app do not make things any better; best to leave them both off. While you need to strain your ears a bit to have a conversation in Transparency mode, it certainly helps you be aware of your surroundings when outdoors or to catch an announcement.

Moving on to the sound quality, the default sound signature of the Realme Buds Air 5 is bass-heavy and masks the midrange frequencies quite a bit. You get four sound presets in the Realme Link app – Clear Vocals, Nature Balance, Clear Bass and Bass Boost. Nature Balance is usable but the rest are not, and it’s best to create your own using the 6-band equaliser present in the app. It lets you tweak the audio to your liking and create custom presets. Feel free to play around with it till you find the output that suits your taste.

Lowering the upper bass and pushing the mids up helps in achieving a better balance. After doing so, the Buds Air 5 produces a lively sound output with better sound clarity. There is still enough thump in the bass, just a little tighter, which is good. The vocals sound clean and the highs are sharp without sounding sibilant. The soundstage is not too broad but par for the segment. The latency is low enough with no noticeable lag between the video and audio when streaming videos from OTT platforms. It can supposedly drop further to 45 ms in Game Mode.

Realme Buds Air 5: Call quality (7/10)
The call quality is perfectly fine indoors, with people on the line clearly audible to each other. When in noisy areas outdoors, you are still audible with decent clarity but a notch or two lower than when in quieter areas. The environmental noise cancellation circuitry does a fair job of keeping the ambient noise in check, though it cannot filter it out completely. Long story short, though not the best around, these earbuds are still pretty good for calling.

Realme Buds Air 5: Battery life (7.5/10)
The overall battery backup of the Realme Buds Air 5 is quite good, especially when not using ANC. The company claims 4.5 and 7 hours of audio playback for the buds with ANC on and off respectively, and 22 and 38 hours overall with the charging case in similar conditions at 50 per cent volume. With the loudness mostly around 60 per cent during the course of testing, the earbuds lasted about 4 hours with ANC on and just over 6 hours without ANC. The case can recharge them four more times.

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That translates into an overall battery backup in the range of 20 to 30 hours for the buds and case combined depending on your use of ANC. These are good figures but I am not too impressed with just 4 hours for the buds with ANC, especially on AAC codecs. Should have been upwards of 5 hours at least. On the bright side, it supports fast charging. A 10-minute charge promises close to 7 hours of playtime without ANC, which is very good. The buds can be charged fully in an hour, while the case takes two hours.

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Realme Buds Air 5: Price and verdict
The Realme Buds Air 5 is priced at Rs 3,699 with a one-year warranty and can often be spotted for a couple of hundreds lower. For that price, there is nothing glaringly wrong with the product and it would have been a runaway success, but for the presence of two products, ironically from the same brand. In isolation, the Buds Air 5 offers excellent value for money courtesy of its customisable sound output, competent battery backup and segment-leading ANC.

Now let’s get its two siblings into the mix, starting with the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro that retails between Rs 4,499 to Rs 4,999. For that price difference, you get a noticeably sharper and more detailed sound output courtesy of the dual drivers and superior LDAC codec, along with better battery backup and call quality, thus justifying the premium. The bigger threat lies on the other end of the spectrum in the form of the Realme Buds T300.

The T300 sells for as low as 2K to Rs 2,299 and sounds almost identical to the Buds Air 5. It also offers superior battery backup and ingress protection. Yes, the Buds Air 5 has noticeably better ANC and wear detection sensors that are missing on the T300, but does that justify the price difference? Well, if you are looking for the best ANC earbuds in the segment at the lowest price, then yes, go for the Realme Buds Air 5. All other use cases would be better served by either the Buds Air 5 Pro or the Buds T300.

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