OPPO Enco Air3 Pro Review - Value for money earphones with LDAC and ANC!
We take a deeper look into one of the most affordable true wireless earphones with active noise cancellation from OPPO.
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| OPPO Enco Air3 Pro |
At a glance
Pros - Unique, lightweight, eye-catching design, effective active noise cancellation, wide sound stage, instruments shine when playing music
Cons - The best experience is locked to OPPO or OnePlus phones only, mids and vocals get drowned out by other sounds when ANC is turned on
Unboxing/Accessories
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| OPPO Enco Air3 Pro |
The Enco Air 3 Pro comes in a bright white box with OPPO branding, product features, product render and regulatory information.
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| OPPO Enco Air3 Pro box inclusions |
Inside the box are the charging case, L and R earbuds, documentation, charging cable, and extra ear cups.
Build Quality/Design
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| Enco Air3 Pro case front |
The case is made of a polycarbonate shell with a glossy and reflective surface. The front features the opening hatch, the OPPO logo, and the LED battery indicator.
Out of the box, the case with the earbuds is noticeably compact and lightweight while being solid feeling.
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| Inside the case |
Inside the case are the inserts for each earbud. At the bottom of the silos are the CPU contacts that connect the case to the earbuds and charge them.
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| Case's hinge |
At the back part of the charging case is the hinge that connects the upper part and the bottom part.
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| USB-C port |
At the bottom is the USB-C port.
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| Earbuds front and back |
The earbud's form factor is nearly the same as the previous generation. The earbuds come attached medium-sized ear cups. Users must select the best fit for each ear.
Comfort/Isolation
The medium-sized earcups fit my ears comfortably while being somewhat secure. However, rigorous and violent head movements can detach the earbuds from the ear.
They each weigh 4.3 grams which allows them to be worn comfortably even after 4 hours of continuous wear while listening to music, taking voice calls, or working on the laptop.
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| OPPO Enco Air3 Pro earbuds with medium-sized earcups |
The same medium-sized earbuds fit my ears well and they formed a seal that aids in its active noise cancellation.
The Enco Air3 Pro's Active noise cancellation is better than similarly priced earbuds but somewhat falls below the Bose Quiet Comfort IIs and the Sony WF-1000XM4s. Given that the Bose is priced at PHP 13,999, the OPPO Enco Air3 Pro's performance is more than enough for most situations.
When paired with a recent OPPO phone, users have granular controls for volume and active noise cancellation. This means that users can customize the amount of noise cancellation on-demand to their liking in different situations.
Battery
The earbuds' working time is about 6 to 7 hours standalone, while the charging case can juice up the earbuds up to a total of 30 hours before needing to charge them.
Also, both the TWS earbuds and the charging case can be fully charged in one and a half hours each.
Features
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| OPPO Enco Air3 Pro's Dual connectivity features |
Pairing the device is easy. It connects with Bluetooth 5.3. It operates with ultra-low latency while consuming less power and offering more bandwidth. Its Dual Connection feature can allow the earbuds to be paired to two separate devices and be connected to both simultaneously.
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| OPPO Enco Air3 Pro's LDAC and Hi-Res modes |
This enables the earbuds to support the LDAC, AAC, and SBS Bluetooth codecs. SBS and AAC are both basic codecs that produce decent sound quality. LDAC offers the highest quality so far through Bluetooth.
The Enco Air3 Pro shines when playing high-quality LDAC files or when streaming Apple music in hi-res lossless mode. It supports LDAC, AAC, and SBC. It is one of the few earbuds that support LDAC at this price range.
In our experience, the earphones connect as soon as you wear the earphones. The connection to our phone, tablet, and laptop is stable with almost no lag especially when consuming video.
When it comes to pairing and switching between devices, it switched faster after initial pairing. But because of the OPPO quick pair pop-up, it is slightly more convenient when switching between recent OPPO devices.
Aside from the granular controls when paired with an OPPO phone, users also have access to the battery percentage and other information.
Audio
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| OPPO Enco Air3 Pro in ear |
To get the best sound quality, users must activate the LDAC mode in the earphone's settings. Once activated, the earbuds will restart. Users must also use lossless music files.
LDAC for less!
It competently reproduces the music with outstanding clarity and distinct separation of the instruments. The sound stage size is wide while the sound signature is bright which makes it pleasing and neutral. This means that it barely colors the sound and you will hear what the musician or audio mixer intended you to hear.
Our main gripe is that the mids and vocals tended to be drowned out by the other sounds especially when the Active Noise Cancellation is turned on. When ANC is turned off, the mids and vocals are heard more but may be lacking.
Discerning customers will find its sound quality one of the better performing for its price range. However, we hope OPPO will be able to tweak the tuning to allow the mids and vocals to shine more especially when the ANC is turned on. The current version tends to make the vocals and mids come from behind the ear and the instruments.
OPPO Enco Air3 Pro Specs
Driver: 12.4mm Innovative Bamboo-Fiber Diaphragm Dynamic Unit
Frequency Response: 20~40KHz
Microphone sensitivity: -38dBV/Pa
Battery: 440mAh (charging case), 43mAh Lithium Battery (per earpiece)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 (LDAC, AAC, SBC)
Others: IP55 water and dust resistance rated, Colors: White, Green
Dimensions: 33 x 20.3 x 23.15 mm (per earbud), 65.84 x 50.45 x 24.81 mm (charging case)
Weight: 4.3 g (per earbud), 47.3 g (charging case)
Price: PHP 5,499
Verdict
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| OPPO Enco Air 3 Pro in White |
The OPPO Enco Air3 Pro features a unique and eye-catching design while offering innovative and good-sounding drivers, Active Noise Cancellation, and Bluetooth 5.3 with LDAC codec support for under PHP 6K.
I love the sound quality it offers especially when listening to lossless media. The sound signature is neutral while the clarity and large sound stage are great. However, we recommend listening to music with Active Noise Cancellation turned off as it somehow drowns the mids and vocals with other sounds. The result of this is that the vocals tend to be heard behind the instruments and the user's ears.
I also love the earbuds' lightweight while offering under 6 hours of continuous playback that can be extended with the large 440mAh battery inside the charging case.
Hopefully, OPPO will update the firmware of the Enco Air3 Pro to address the suppressed mids and vocals as we like the sound signature of the earbuds.
Comfort/Isolation - 4.25
Battery Life - 4.25
Features - 4.25
Sound - 4.5
Average - 4.25/5
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