The OnePlus Nord 2V was announced earlier today and it hogged the spotlight, but the company also unveiled a new pair of TWS buds – the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Lite. These are currently on pre-order in China at CNY 750 and will go up to CNY 800 when regular sales begin on March 13 at 10:00am local time. That’s slightly cheaper than the original Buds Pro 2, which launched at CNY 900 this January.
So, what’s “lite” about these buds? Not
the design, they look exactly the same as the original Pro. That said, the
white color option is new, the green one isn’t available - you can have the
Lite only in white or black. The buds are rated IP55, so they will survive rain
and sweat. The buds have active noise cancellation and can tune out 48dB worth
of outside noise – same as the regular Pros. There are three mics on each bud
and they can be used for noise cancellation during calls too.
The Buds Pro 2 Lite are rated for Hi-Res
Audio Wireless streaming and feature audio tuning by Dynaudio and the legendary
Hans Zimmer. For gaming, the buds have a special 54ms low-latency mode. Even
battery life is the same – the 60mAh inside each bud is enough for 9 hours of
continuous playback, the 520mAh inside the carrying case brings the total
listening time to 39 hours. Note that these numbers are with ANC disabled, if
you want noise cancellation, continuous listening time drops to 6 hours and the
total to 25 hours.
The connectivity is basically the same as
on the originals – the Lite buds launch with support for LHDC 5.0, which can
deliver bandwidth of up to 1Mbps. The original Pro are scheduled to get LHDC
5.0 as an update (they launched with v4.0). The only things missing are support
for Qi wireless charging and head tracking (Spatial audio is still supported,
though).
If you’re wondering whether the OnePlus
Buds 2 Pro will be available globally, we’re wondering the same thing (no word
on that yet, however). Do note that the original Pros have fallen in price
since launch so the CNY 100 difference is closer to zero.