realme today launched the realme Buds T200, the company’s latest budget TWS earbuds in the Buds T series, in India. This gets 32dB ANC, 12.4mm Dynamic Bass driver, LDAC support and promises up to 50h total playback on a single charge. So, are these the best true wireless earbuds with ANC in the Rs. 2000 range? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box contents
- realme Buds T200 in Neon Green colour
- Ear tips in Small and Large sizes (Medium pre-installed)
- User guide
Design and Build
Starting with the design, the headset comes in a rectangular charging case that fits in your pocket. Since the case the is made of plastic is shiny, it attracts fingerprints and is prone to scratches easily.
Opening the case, you can see the slots for Left and Right earbuds with the markings. It has strong magnets to secure the buds in its place.
The case doesn’t have a function key. USB Type-C port is on the bottom. The case measures 63.5×44.5×24.73 mm.
Coming to the earbuds, the headset has a plastic finish that is shiny, so it is prone to fingerprints. The earbuds have a 4.4g light-weight design and measure 31.73×20.14×23.83mm.
These feature an in-ear design and also come with medium-sized ear tips pre-installed. You can change to bundled Large or Small sized ear tips if you wish. This doesn’t feature an Optical Sensor for Wear Detection, so you will have to rely on the touch control for the play / pause function. There is 1 feedforward microphone, and a talk mic for call noise cancellation.
On the back, there is a touch-sensitive area on the outer surface with a matte finish, to control play/pause, open Google Assistant and attend or disconnect calls. Overall, the headset and the case have good design and a decent build quality for the price.
The earbuds fit your ears perfectly so that they don’t fall off your ears easily, even when running or cycling. The earphones also have IP55 ratings for dust and water resistance, so it can withstand light rain, and sweat in everyday use scenarios, but you can’t immerse in water.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
The realme Buds T200 supports Bluetooth 5.4 with LDAC Hi-res audio codec in addition to SBC and AAC codecs. The pairing process is very easy. Remove the earbuds from the case, press and hold the touch area on both earbuds for a few seconds to enter pairing mode. Now open the Bluetooth settings on the phone, and it shows up as realme Buds T200, and you can connect to it.
Since it has Google Fast Pair option that supports compatible phones, it automatically pairs to the phone when you bring the case with the headset close to the phone with Bluetooth turned on. We tested it on the realme 15 Pro and iQOO Z10R, and never faced any pairing related issue. Since the phone pairs with the case and not the headset, you will need the case if you want to reconnect it.
There is also dual-device connection that lets you connect to two devices at the same time, and the switch happens seamlessly when I tried it on a laptop and the phone. When you get a call on the phone, it automatically switches to it, and when you play audio on the laptop after the call, it switches to it. This is a useful feature, but you have to enable this feature in the app.
The touch controls are easy to access.
| Function | Left earphone (L) | Right earphone (R) |
| Play / Pause audio, Answer call / Hang calls | Double tap | |
| Reject calls | Long press 2s during calls | |
| Next or previous track | Triple tap | |
| Switch between normal, ANC and Transparency Mode | Long press, one of the earbuds for 2s | |
You can customize the controls from the settings in the realme Link app on Android and iPhone. You can change actions for the double tap, triple tap, and touch and hold. This also lets you control volume. The app also has Mindflow mode that plays white noise sounds. Camera control that works with compatible realme and other ColorOS-based phones.
Audio Quality
The realme Buds T200 packs a 12.4mm dynamic driver covering an ultra-wide frequency range of 20-40KHz. The bass driver offer clear audio output mainly tuned for bass with clear vocals, but you can use custom equalizer in the settings. Highs are good, but the mid-range is average.
The LDAC HD transmission protocol with Hi-Res authority certification, offers a transmission rate of up to 990 kbps for 4 times better detail, and transmitting frequencies up to 32 bits/96 kHz. There is an option to enable it in the Bluetooth settings. This is a widely supported codec, so it works even in latest budget phones.
You can select different EQ modes – Clear Vocals, Nature Balance, Pure Bass and Bass boost. In addition to custom EQ option, there is also dynamic audio to adjust low, medium and high frequency audio. If the sound is not enough, there is a volume enhancer option as well.
There is Spatial Audio feature in the earbuds. This works with multi-channel audio formats on YouTube, Google TV or simple dual-channel audio.
Noise Cancellation and Call Performance
Regarding the Noise cancellation, the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) blocks the ambient sound that helps in most cases. You can feel the difference when you are listening outdoors. For the price, it does a decent job. This offers 32dB ANC, which is decent. However, you lose personalized ANC and hybrid noise cancellation modes are not available, which is fine considering the price.
This also has Transparency mode that allows you to listen to ambient sound so that you can recognize the surrounding situation and any potential risks. The low-latency is now as low as 45ms, which is useful when gaming.
Coming to the call noise cancellation, it uses dual microphones for calls. This does a decent job in cutting down wind and traffic noise. During my use outdoors, the voice was clear, and wind noise was cut out to the receiver, but the traffic noise was faintly audible.
Battery Life
The earphones pack 58mAh battery that promises about 10h (AAC + ANC OFF) / 8h (AAC + ANC ON) / 4.5h (LDAC + ANC ON) standalone battery life. During my use with LDAC, I got about 6 hours with mixed use of with and without noise cancellation in about 60% volume, so it is decent. Talk time is about 4.5h if you enable ANC.
It also has fast charging support, which offers up to 5 hours of music playback (Case and Buds) on a 10-minute charge. It takes 2 hours to charge the case and the earbuds, and the earbuds alone takes about an hour fully.
Conclusion
Overall, the realme Buds T200 is a good addition to the realme Buds series with features such as LDAC support, good battery life, and ANC in a compact design. The Buds T310 at a slightly higher price offers better ANC, and slightly better call quality if you can compromise on LDAC.
Priced at Rs. 1,999, the realme Buds T200 will be available from realme.com, Flipkart.com, and local stores starting from August 1st at 12 PM. With the bank offer, the effective price is Rs. 1,699 which is a good deal for the features it offers.
Pros
- Good audio quality with LDAC support
- Dual-device connectivity
- Good call quality
- 32dB ANC is decent
- IP55 ratings
- Good battery life with fast charging
Cons
- No in-ear detection
- Glossy Case is prone to scratches