realme Buds Air6 and realme Buds Air6 Pro Review: I Fell in Love with These Wireless Earbuds

The wireless headphone market is developing by leaps and bounds. And while Apple is slowly re-releasing the same AirPods, other manufacturers are making more serious changes.

Realme recently released its new flagship headphones realme Buds Air6 and realme Buds Air6 Pro. And we have already got our hands on them.

This is a cheaper segment. New products are 2-3 times cheaper than their Apple counterparts. However, they have something to offer for their price to compete with the Cupertino giant (I’m not kidding).

Let’s figure out what’s special about these headphones. In the review, I’ll talk about both models at once.

Let’s get started. What’s in the kit

There is nothing special about each model. The kit is completely identical:

• the headphones themselves in the case
• documentation
• USB-C/USB-C cable
• spare pairs of ear pads

Overall, no frills. A standard Spartan kit without a power adapter.

Design and ergonomics. I like the inexpensive ones better

Let’s go in order here. I’ll start with the more open one. realme buds air6.

What I personally never liked about almost most compact headphones with a case is that case itself. Most often, it is made of glossy plastic, which almost instantly collects scratches on the body.

In the case of Air6 the situation is different. The case is made of matte plasticwhich does not collect scratches during daily use. Externally, it resembles the glass back panel of the latest iPhone. It does not care about physical impact at all (of course, if you do not try to spoil it intentionally).

Plus, thanks to this coating, the charging case itself cannot slip out of your hand. It is pleasant, slightly rough. It fits perfectly in the palm of your hand and is tactilely pleasant. This is what personally attracts me to such a case – it really differs from most analogues in different price categories.

What I don’t like about this is that the lid opens 90 degrees. That is, if you put the key on the table, it will close almost 100% immediately. In some situations, this can be a hindrance.

You still have in-ear headphones, because they require special ear pads. Their design standardso I won’t even focus on it.

The most important thing here is that the accessory fits perfectly in my ears already with standard ear pads. In the realme Link app you can check the fit to your ears, it scans quickly and quite accurately.

Let’s move on to Realme Buds Air6 Pro. Here the headphones themselves and the case are a little larger than in the “basic” version. And they are made of glossy plastic.

The case looks more solid this way. However, it collects scratches from the first minute of use. In a few days, it was covered with barely noticeable scratches, and this, alas, cannot be avoided in any headphones with such a case. Only if you immediately stuff them into the case.

The design of the charging case is also different. If the regular Air6 has the inscription on the front, then the Air6 Pro has a certain area under it in the upper transparent part. It looks unusual and cool. There is a slight 3D effect.

Compared to the last model in the line, the new product has become slightly larger in all respects: both in the case and in the headphones themselves.

And if you remove the separately protruding “tail”, then their design will come closer to AirPods. The head part is practically the same as the “Pro”.

Control and noise reduction

I’ll be honest right away. After AirPods, I had to get used to the controls in these headphones specifically. The controls here are not quite standard even for Android accessories, the gestures are slightly different.

Gestures here, as I said above, differ from some analogues. So, a double tap does not turn on the next track, but pauses the current one. To scroll through, you need a triple tap. And so on. Fortunately, You can reconfigure all of this in the app.

The headphones have proximity sensors. When you take them out of the case, the playing track is paused. The same thing happens when you take them out of your ear.

Now let’s focus on noise reduction. Let’s start with realme buds air6. They are active noise suppression up to 50 dB. Extraneous noise is filtered out quite well, from a distance of 5-10 meters from the noise source it will no longer be heard.

There is also a transparency mode, but I have questions about it. Personally, I hardly noticed any difference with this mode active and in normal mode. Voices and extraneous sounds become audible just a little more.

In realme Buds Air6 Pro, noise reduction works even better by feel, although it is also fixed at 50 dB. You put on headphones and can hardly hear even without music. But as soon as you turn it on, drowns out everything around. I felt comfortable even on the plane. The accessory does not create excessive pressure.

In transparency mode everything is also good. The surrounding noise is heard perfectly.

To switch noise-cancelling modes, simply press and hold the two touch panels on one of the headphones.

As for the touch control, both models have false alarms during rain. I have encountered this myself a couple of times. No nothing. Nothing critical.

What about the sound?

Let’s move on to the most important thing – high-quality sound.

Both models produce simply excellent sound. They have highs, balanced mids and pleasant bass.

I would like to point out separately that the realme Buds Air6 Pro there is much more bass. And not in all compositions this is beneficial for the headphones, since they can fall into the bass. Fortunately, the issue can be resolved in the proprietary application when setting up the equalizer.

Both models of Japanese high-quality audio codec LHDC. They have Hi-Res certification, and it seems so. For wireless headphones, the sound is really harmonious, which is not annoying even when listening to classical music.

It was especially pleasant when playing jazz humorous compositions. I was simply drowned in the music, it was simply space.

In realme Buds Air6, this was achieved thanks to 12.4 mm titanium drivers with N52 neodymium magnets and an HTW coil, and in the Air6 Pro – 6 and 11 mm. Impedance is 32 Ohms.

For gaming lovers there is a function ultra-low latency up to 45mswhich is activated in the application.

Overall, good specs for both models.

In all headphones in the realme app Link can be configured Golden Sound Profile — the system will automatically adjust the sound to your ears. And in the “pros” there is also multichannel audiolike in AirPods Pro.

And how long do they work?

IN Realme Buds Air6 Pro The case charges for 2 hours, and the headphones themselves for 1 hour. However, 10 minutes in the case give about an hour.

The headphones themselves work for a whopping 11 hours without recharging. After AirPods, it even became somehow sad that they only last 5-6 hours. Together with the case, the autonomy will increase up to 40 hoursThis is also very cool.

IN realme buds air6 battery life is lower. They work for about 5 hours with active noise cancellation and 7 hours without it. Together with the case – 38 hours.

The key charges in about 2 hours. The headphones themselves in an hour. And 10 minutes in the case give about an hour.

The models turned out to be really successful

Both realme Buds Air6 and realme Buds Air6 Pro turned out to be excellent. They can compete with industry mastodons in a more expensive price range, although in fact they are 6990 and 9990 rubles, respectively.

For this money you get good noise reduction, convenient control, stylish design, wearing comfort and, most importantly, great sound. They have their drawbacks, but they are easily offset by the advantages.

Overall, I recommend purchasing it.

📸 All photos in the article: