Realme Buds Q2 review: Noise canceling on the cheap

There is no shortage of affordable true wireless earbuds on the market. Xiaomi, Realme, and Oppo are just a few of the players competing for a piece of the pie, and that’s great for customers. It’s started a price war, and you can find earbuds at any price point that focus on value, feature, and often a mix of both.

• Realme Buds Q2: Rs. 2,499 (~ $ 34)

The Realme Buds Q2 are the Shenzhen-based company’s most affordable true wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC). The earphones are available in two colors: black or gray.

The Realme Buds Q2 will cost Rs. 2,499 and will be available for purchase on June 30th via Realme.com, Amazon or Flipkart. These earbuds are different from the Realme Buds Q2 sold in Europe. These earbuds are a renamed version of the Realme Buds Q sold in India.

The primary improvement over the Realme Buds Q is the added active noise cancellation, and it’s pretty effective too. The company specifies a sound attenuation of 25 decibels. While I don’t have a way to test this, I could certainly tell the difference in turning noise cancellation on and off, as long as I had the correct size earbuds selected.

In their second generation, the Realme Buds Q2 are now also focusing on refinement – and there are plenty of examples of this across the board. The most obvious is the switch to USB-C charging. It’s a small change that makes a huge difference in terms of everyday comfort.

The battery life is also increased. The BBK sub-brand claims five hours of use on a single charge, and I got close to that number – with Active Noise Cancellation turned on. In addition, the total battery life is increased to up to 28 hours, including the charging case. This is a significant improvement over the 20 hours that the Realme Buds Q offer.

It also helps that the Realme Buds Q2 sound pretty good for the casual listening. The emphasis on bass makes these true wireless earbuds ideal for hip-hop or electronic music. The vocals aren’t particularly pronounced in the mix, but what’s here is good, and the low end doesn’t often cover up vocal tracks. I wasn’t a huge fan of the amplified highs, and the exaggeration is most evident when listening to jazz music. Overall, they sound good for the money and are competitive with other budget true wireless headphones.

What’s not so good?

Despite the focus on refinement, the Realme Buds Q2’s build quality remains pretty shabby. Realme isn’t the only one cutting down on price points, but the plastics here are particularly poor quality. It doesn’t help that the earphones are a dust and fingerprint magnet. It takes a tremendous effort to keep them clean.

The case is also of considerable size. While you can slip the Realme Buds Q2 in your pocket, I didn’t find the unsightly bulge in my skinny jeans ideal.

Realme Buds Q2 Review: Should I Buy Them?

Overall, the Realme Buds Q2s offer a lot of kit for the money, but there are alternatives. If you are looking for a pair of affordable true wireless headphones in the market, you should also check out the Redmi Earbuds S. The Redmi Earbuds S have a more compact design with sufficiently good audio quality. Meanwhile, the Oppo Enco W11 earbuds deliver slightly better audio quality, albeit with less battery life. However, none of the options include ANC.

If you’re looking for headphones that are comfortable for hours of listening and that block out ambient noise while you work or run, the Realme Buds Q2s are for you. These aren’t intended for the discerning audiophile, and they’re definitely not a premium product, but those are small concessions when you consider the budget price.