realme today launched the realme Buds Air8 Pro, the company’s latest TWS earbuds in the Buds Air series in India as the successor to last year’s Buds Air7 Pro.
This retains dual DAC drivers from the predecessor but gets better ANC, a VPU for better call quality, and improved battery life and also comes in a new design. So, are these the best true wireless earbuds with ANC in the sub-Rs. 7000 range? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box contents
- realme Buds Air8 Pro in Master Black 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.
Co-designed by realme and famed designer Naoto Fukasawa, the earbuds feature a unique mirror design and a plateau-style lid. Since the top of the case is glossy, it attracts fingerprints and is prone to scratches easily. The side and bottom part of the case has a matte finish even though it is still plastic.
There is a function key on the inside. The case measures 60×48.x24.2mm.
The USB Type-C port is on the back. The case weighs 53 grams.
Coming to the earbuds, the headset has a plastic finish that is shiny, so it is prone to fingerprints. The earbuds have a light-weight design and weigh 4.8 grams.
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. There is an optical sensor for wear detection so that it can automatically pause the audio when you remove it from your ears and play when you put it back. There is 1 feedforward and 1 feedback microphone and a talk mic for call noise cancellation.
On the back, there is a touch-sensitive area on the outer surface with the same glossy finish to control play/pause, open Google Assistant, and attend to or disconnect calls. Overall, the headset and the case have good design and build quality for the price, except for the glossy look, which might not be everyone’s choice, but these definitely look premium.
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 they can withstand light rain and sweat in everyday use scenarios, but you can’t immerse them in water.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
The realme Buds Air8 Pro supports Bluetooth 6.1 with LHDC 5.0 Hi-res audio codec in addition to SBC and AAC codecs. The pairing process is very easy. For realme and other ColorOS-based phones like OPPO and OnePlus, you can pair it by simply opening the case.
For others, simply press and hold the function button on the case for 3 seconds until the status light blinks; this means that the headset is now ready to be paired to a device. Now open the Bluetooth settings on the phone, and it shows up as realme Buds Air8 Pro, and you can connect to it. As soon as the connection is established, the blinking LED should go off. You can take the earbuds out of the case and start using.
Since it has the 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 16T, Google Pixel 10 and iQOO Z11x and never faced any pairing-related issue.
There is also a triple-device connection that lets you connect to three devices at the same time, and the switch happens seamlessly when I try 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 | |
| Volume control | Swipe to increase or decrease | |
| Switch between normal, ANC and Transparency Mode | Long press, one of the earbuds for 2s | |
The headset has smart wear detection that can sense when they’re in the ear and automatically pause the music when taken out and resume when you put them back in. Also, for a better wearing experience, when you take one earbud off, the other will automatically switch to transparency mode. This is useful.
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. You can slide to control the volume, which comes in handy.
The app also has Mindflow mode that plays white noise sounds. camera control that works with compatible realme and other ColorOS-based phones. There is also Find my earbuds feature in the app.
Audio Quality
The realme Buds Air8 Pro have dual drivers that include an 11 mm woofer for the lows and the 6 mm micro-planar tweeter that reproduces crisp, shimmering highs. It covers frequencies from 20Hz till 40kHz.
There are also dual DACs that do a good job offering improved signal-to-noise ratio, better audio separation, and enhanced dynamic range and detail.
The LHDC 5.0 HD transmission protocol with Hi-Res authority certification offers a transmission rate of up to 1 Mbps for 4 times better detail and transmits frequencies up to 24 bit/192 kHz. There is an option to enable it in the app, which worked without any issues. LHDC 5.0 worked with realme 16T and iQOO Z11x. The audio quality is crisp with clear vocals and a good amount of bass. Highs are good, and the mid-range is average.
While the overall sound is V-shaped, vocals and mids are generally well-represented with good clarity. Overall, this offers a familiar audio experience as the Buds Air7 Pro.
You can select different EQ modes—Clear Vocals, Nature Balance, Clear Bass, and Bass Boost. In addition to the 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.
Golden Sound lets you customize the audio based on the ear canal and hearing characteristics. The Earbuds fit test option plays music to ensure that your ear tips make a good seal with your ear canal for better noise-cancelling.
There is AI Translation that has support for 32 languages for live and face-to-face translation that can be accessed from the realme Link app.
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 great job. Compared to 53dB ANC in Buds Air6, this offers 55dB adaptive ANC, and it has a wide 5000Hz noise cancellation bandwidth.
There are Smart, Max, Moderate, and Mild modes. The Smart noise cancellation option works well in blocking the noise depending on the noise outside. The quality is good for the price. The Smart de-wind tech reduces the wind when you are on the move, such as running or cycling.
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. It can turn on the transparency mode automatically when you remove a single earbud. The low-latency is now as low as 45ms that is useful when gaming.
Coming to the call noise cancellation, it uses triple microphones and a new Bone Conduction VPU (Voice Processing Unit) for calls. This does a great job in cutting down wind and traffic noise. During my use outdoors, the voice was clear, and wind and traffic noises were completely cut out to the receiver. The company says that it can filter out up to 90dB of ambient environmental noise and can cancel up to 10m/s wind noise.
Battery Life
The earphones pack a 62mAh battery that promises about 12h (AAC without ANC) / 9h (LHDC without ANC) / 6h (AAC with ANC) / 5h (LHDC with ANC) standalone battery life. During my use with LHDC, I got about 5 and half hours with mixed use of with and without noise cancellation at about 60% volume, so it is decent. Talk time is about 4 and half hours if you enable ANC.
It also has fast charging support, which offers up to 11 hours of music playback (case and buds) on a 10-minute charge. This is better than the Buds Air7 Pro.
With the 590mAh charging case, slightly bigger than the 530mAh battery in the predecessor, it promises up to 50h (AAC without ANC) / 36h (LHDC without ANC) / 27h (AAC with ANC) / 20h (LHDC with ANC) battery life. The green light in the case indicates that the battery is full; orange is mid; and when it turns red, it is low.
You can also see the charge left in the case in the realme Link app when the earbuds are placed in the case. Charging the case fully takes about 2 hours, and charging the earbuds fully takes about an hour. The charging case doesn’t have wireless charging, which is fine considering the price.
Conclusion
Overall, the realme Buds Air8 Pro proves to be a highly competent successor to the Buds Air7 Pro, offering meaningful upgrades where they matter most. By retaining the excellent dual-driver setup and pairing it with advanced LHDC 5.0 support, realme has delivered a vibrant, detailed, and customizable sonic experience that audio enthusiasts in this segment will thoroughly appreciate.
The standout additions this year are the 55dB adaptive ANC and the inclusion of the bone-conduction VPU. Together, they dramatically elevate the real-world usability of these earbuds, making them just as reliable for chaotic outdoor commutes as they are for crystal-clear work calls. Coupled with a massively improved total battery life of up to 50 hours, handy slide volume controls, and a solid IP55 durability rating, the feature list is incredibly robust for the price.
The only real complaints lie in the design aesthetics. The heavy reliance on a glossy finish—both on the plateau-style lid and the earbuds themselves—means you’ll constantly be wiping away fingerprints and worrying about hairline scratches.
Priced at Rs. 6,999 (with a bank offer bringing it down to Rs. 6,699), the realme Buds Air8 Pro confidently answers the question we asked at the beginning. These are easily one of the most well-rounded, feature-packed, and top-performing TWS earbuds with ANC in the price range.
You can also consider the OnePlus Buds 4 as an alternative that offers dual-DAC drivers and up to 55 dB ANC.
It will be available from realme.com, Amazon.in, Flipkart, Myntra, realme.com and offline stores starting from June 3rd.
Pros
- Good audio quality with dual drivers, LHDC 5.0 support
- Good call quality with excellent call noise cancellation (VPU tech)
- Up to 55dB ANC is highly effective for the price
- Triple-device connection
- Slide volume control is incredibly useful
- Long battery life with fast charging
Cons
- Glossy finish on the top of the case and earbuds attracts fingerprints and scratches easily