OnePlus Makes Its First Clip-On Earbuds, and You Can Wear Either Bud in Either Ear

The OnePlus Buds Clip use a nickel-titanium arc, Dynaudio-tuned dual drivers and up to 40 hours of battery life with the case. An authorized Australian store lists them at AU$249.

SHENZHEN, China - OnePlus has introduced the Buds Clip, its first open-ear earbuds, which hook onto the outside of the ear instead of sealing inside it. The company listed them on its global website without a launch event, and has not announced global pricing or availability, Android Authority reported.

The design follows a growing category of clip-style earbuds that let people hear traffic and conversation while listening, a space where the Sony LinkBuds Clip and Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds already compete. Each OnePlus bud weighs about 5.2 grams. A thin C-shaped arc made of nickel-titanium alloy joins the speaker to a rounded rest behind the ear. OnePlus says the alloy is lighter and more flexible than titanium wire, springs back to shape, and survived more than 30,000 bends in its lab. The fit has a TÜV Rheinland “Comfortable Fit” certification.

The Buds Clip in Pearl White and Pebble Gray. Image: OnePlus

There is no left or right bud. OnePlus says sensors detect which ear each one is in and route the stereo channels to match, and that a single bud still plays full stereo. The company notes that accuracy can depend on head movement and posture, and suggests dipping your head slightly after putting them on.

Inside each bud are two drivers, an 11mm woofer and a 9mm tweeter, each with its own DAC, tuned with the Danish audio company Dynaudio, a longtime OnePlus partner. The buds support LHDC 5.0 for high-resolution audio on Android, along with AAC and SBC. Hi-Res Audio is not supported on iOS, OnePlus says.

Each bud pairs an 11mm woofer with a 9mm tweeter. Image: OnePlus

Open earbuds tend to leak sound. To limit that, OnePlus uses what it calls dipole sound-field technology, which sends reverse waves out of a rear vent to cancel sound before it reaches people nearby. For calls, six microphones and a voice pickup unit that senses vibration through bone work with a 6-nanometer AI audio chip to separate a speaker’s voice from street noise.

The Buds Clip are designed for commutes and city streets. Image: OnePlus

OnePlus rates battery life at 9.5 hours for the buds and 40 hours with the case in AAC mode, or 8 and 36 hours using LHDC. The buds are rated IP55 for dust and water, connect over Bluetooth 6.1 to two devices at once, and support Google Fast Pair and Windows Swift Pair. Other features include swipe volume controls, an alert when a bud falls off, and AI Translate, which works with OnePlus phones.

The buds are rated IP55 for dust and water. Image: OnePlus

The Buds Clip come in Pearl White, Pebble Gray and Twilight Rose. OnePlus has pulled back from Europe and the United States, but it still sells in other regions, and its authorized store in Australia already lists the Buds Clip at AU$249.