Surprisingly, the Tecno Buds 3 earbuds are good.
Right after the end of the launch of the Tecno Camon 30 series, Tecno announced its new products in the market including laptops, Tecno Watch Pro 2, and the True 1 & Buds 3 earbuds. Earbuds in particular, Tecno is phasing out the standard 3.5mm earphone jack to go wireless and this is evident on the Camon 30 series which comes with the TWS earbuds.
Earbuds are now the new norm. Smartphone manufacturers including Tecno Mobile are doing away with the earphone jack getting rid of the wired earphones for cordless earphones that receive audio through a wireless technology, Bluetooth.
The Tecno Buds 3, is the third generation of the Tecno Buds family and comes with sound and battery improvement. In an advertisement, the company said, “The Bud 3 not only delivers extremely deep, refined, natural-sounding bass and lets you feel the music in the vibrant definition, but provides you up to 37 hours long-lasting battery life.”
The Tecno Buds 3 comes in two color options, black and white. The buds come with a battery capacity of 37mAh each while the battery capacity of the charging case is 500mAh. The charging case is charged with a Type-C cable and takes approximately 2 hours to charge fully. The earbuds on the other hand take approximately 1 and a half hours to charge fully. The transmission range is 10 meters and beyond that you lose connection. The buds support up to 2 days of playing time on a single charge.
In summary;
- Earphone Battery Capacity: 37mAh (each bud).
- Charging Box Battery Capacity: 500mAh.
- Charging Cable: USB Type-C
- Charging Voltage: 5V/1A , 5V/0.12A.
- Music playing time: 7H+28H.
- Standby Time: Approx 70H.
- Transmission Range: 10m.
- Time for fully charging the earbuds: 1 and a half hours.
- Time for fully charging the case: Approximately 2 hours.
Unboxing the Tecno Buds 3
The buds come in a thin blue and grey rectangular box. Inside the box, you have a color of your choice for the Buds (black or white). The package comes with a pair of Tecno Buds 3, a charging case, a USB Type-C charging cable, different size ear tips (small, medium, and large), and a user manual.
The charging case and earbuds by default come with some battery. We advise that you fully charge the two before using them. Once fully charged, you can then pair them with a smart device that supports Bluetooth technology. This can be any smartphone, laptop & PC, tablet, or TV. To connect them to a smart device of your choice;
- On your smart device eg. a smartphone, turn on the Bluetooth mode.
- Open the charging case, the earbuds will enter into a TWS pairing mode. The earbuds will connect automatically and then enter into pairing mode.
- On your smartphone, from your Bluetooth list, search and connect/pair with the Tecno Buds 3.
- The lights on the buds will go off upon successful pairing.
- You can now use your buds. The buds can be used to listen to music, watch movies, gaming, and answer calls.
Design and Comfort
Not so different from other charging cases —you get the same soap-shaped charging case with a smooth-gradient finish and a two-tone color, white on the outside and bright turquoise on the inside. The bottom of the case has a pairing button and a USB-C connector for charging. The charging case is well-designed with an attractive look and a good finish. The build quality is decent although, unlike the earbuds, there is no ingress protection (IP) on the case.
As for the earbuds, they have a standard shape with stalks that hang outside your ears. Unlike other stalks that have an interesting tear-drop shape that gets wider as you go further down, on the Tecno Buds 3 the stalks are slim. The back of the stalks features a touch-sensitive area for adjusting media (when listening to music) and answering calls.
The inner side of the earbuds has a capacitive area that activates when in contact with skin and is used for wear detection. The earbuds have L and R symbols carved onto them to easily tell which ear they go to. There seems to be a grille on the inside so stuff like earwax won’t just fall in. And yes, the earbuds are IPX5 dust and water-resistant.
The earbuds are very lightweight and compact. The soft silicone ear tips (I’ve been using the default size M silicone ear tips) are a great fit in the ears and you can wear them for hours without discomfort or accidental falls.
Tecno continually refined the design to strike a balance between aesthetics, comfort, and functionality, ensuring that users can enjoy their music without discomfort or fatigue.
Features, and Functionality
The Tecno Buds 3 pairs with Android and iOS devices as all functionality is built directly into the Bluetooth settings. Utilizing the latest v.5.3 Bluetooth, the Buds 3 provides you with a stable transmission and a long-distance connection range of up to 66ft.
The Buds 3 is equipped with features designed to enhance usability and versatility. Touch controls, and voice assistants allow for effortless navigation. The touch options available are long press and tap. The single tap option is assigned to play/pause, answer/end calls, go to a previous/next song, and enable voice assistant while on the other hand, the long press option rejects calls, and enables/disables noise cancellation. To increase and decrease the volume you have to swipe up and down (respectively).
The left earbud is used to go to the previous song and to decrease the volume while the right earbud is used to go to the next song and increase the volume. Both buds can be used to play/pause media.
Unfortunately, the Tecno Buds 3 doesn’t support in-ear detection, which pauses media as soon as you remove either of the two earbuds from your ears and resumes playback when reinserted.
The downside here is that the response is lagging/slow. We were having a hard time with every action so the best solution for this is to use the controls on your smart device.
The Bud 3 also features noise cancellation which was incredible. With an omnidirectional mic system made your voice clearer and reduced environment noise allowing you to have clear calls and always be heard with perfect clarity.
Performance and Sound Quality
The Tecno Buds 3 offers a lively sound with a bright treble and strong bass. The buds surprisingly delivered spacious sound with enough detail and great separation between the different sound frequencies. These buds get plenty loud too. As for the microphone, well, the performance was decent. The background noise cancellation works well and it’s hard to hear anything unless when it’s really loud.
Battery Life
The buds can go upto 2-days on a single charge which is impressive since they have been omptimzed for low power consumption. A full recharge for the buds and the USB-C charging case takes around two hours.
Verdict: The Tecno Buds 3 are an affordably priced pair of earbuds and for the price, you get a comfortable design, impressive noise cancellation, decent sound quality, and good battery life. They may not be the greatest value at the moment, but we already see rebates here and there so we can definitely recommend them for those looking for a pair of earbuds with a premium design, rich feature set, and decent battery endurance.
