Realme Buds T200 is the latest in the company’s entry-level True Wireless Earbuds. Only at the price of INR 1,999 (~ $ 23), the Buds T200 is aimed at a tight budget, but still wants to experience more premium features such as active noise cancellation, dual-device connectivity and LDAC.
design
Realme Buds T200 has a fairly simple design for the case that looks like a boxer version of AirPods Pro Case. The case has a position in front of the case and a USB-C charging port below. Unfortunately, there is no pairing button on the case, which means that you have to get the earbuds out of the case and use the press on both and to gesture to make a pair on both.
Like the case, earbuds also have a fairly simple design with colorful ear tips. There are very few indentation to show you on the stalk where you need to tap to execute touch gestures. The earbuds do not have any optical or capacitive sensor on the inside, so you do not get auto poses when you remove them.
An annoyance with earbuds – and it is more how they sit inside the case – it is difficult to get out of the case. They sink very deep inside the case when sitting, when they are left to grab a very low surface area while pulling out. The surface that is exposed is very round and is often covered by skin from the skin, causing this entire process to be cartoon.
In terms of comfort, the Buds T200 are great. Earbuds are light and despite lower price are luxurious ear tips. There are not a single tap gestures, so you do not have to worry about doing something every time you raise earbuds.
The overall construction quality is fine. Both earbuds and the case are excluded from plastic, as you will expect at this price. The lid of the case had a side-to-side movement and the bright finish was very easily scratched. The earbuds have been rated for the IP55, however, you do not have to worry about dust or water.
Buds T200 come in four colors. The neon green here is severely vibrant in a person painted, but has a simple black interior. Swapnil is matching the purple interior in purple. Mistic Black has a blue interior, while icy white settles for a plain gray interior.
Software and features
Realme Buds T200 supports Realme link app. Unlike other brands, those who have apps dedicated to their audio devices, The Realme links is one of the common-purpose app for all its goods, including smart home devices and fitness bands.
This is the place where things become annoying. It is quite bad that companies often force you to create an account whenever you want to use one of these apps to use your smart home device or fitness products, but for some reason Realme also does with its audio devices. This means, you cannot use the Buds T200 with this app until you signed in the realme account in the first app.
It is a very annoying situation to put on your users and while using only a temporary email ID to create an account is relatively easy, many people will simply finish to give their personal email id or phone number to create an account. There is no use in doing this and wastage of the invasion of time and privacy by the company.
Realme link app
In addition, this process is also necessary if you use a Realme phone. If you have a OnePlus or Oppo phone, you do not need to use the Hemelodi app to reach the features of OnePlus or Oppo branded audio products as all features only appear within Bluetooth settings. The Hemelodi app is only for use with non-canopy/Oppo products. ,
Once you achieve this unnecessary barrier, the experience of using the app is what you find in the hemelodi used by OnePlus and Oppo products. You have a bunch of audio options at your disposal, including a six-band custom EQ and four pricets, spatial audio (without head tracking), and a togle to enable the ‘high-quality sound’, which only enables LDAC. It is closed by default, so if you feel that you will not use only Realme link app to avoid logging problems, know that you will be limited to SBC and AAC.
audio settings
The app has anything called dynamic audio, which enables just one and three-band EQ. It is not clear what it adds to the already available six-band EQ and what is really dynamic about it. Less bands also make changes that are very widespread, so you can probably try this option until you are not a person who is frightened by a six-band EQ.
Other features in the app include ANC mode togle, a game mode that reduces delays, gesture settings, double-device connection menu, and something called Mindflow Mode, which is a group of sample tunes to help you relax.
Other settings
I have not much to complain about functionality within the app itself. Even it does small things as if you have shown the exact color of earbuds added to the phone. This is just that there is no need to force the user to create an account and ideally Realme should only use a Hemelodi app such as OnePlus and Oppo.
Display
audio quality
Realme Buds T200 standard 12.4 mm dynamic drivers. They connect using Bluetooth 5.4 and support SBC, AAC and LDAC up to 32-bit/96 KHz.
Using the original sound preset, the Buds T200 is surprisingly a good-looking pair of earbuds. Realme’s tuning is really impressive here and leaves very little space to complain.
Starting with low frequencies, the Buds T200 employs a very reserved bass-boost that provides just the right amount of tamping and rumble without overwhelming the listener and without disrupting the middle frequencies. The mids, in turn, are very clear with the magnificent body and timber that survives tone and equipment in the mixture. Treble is brilliant clarity and strong with wind, which also helps in creating a stunning imaging experience with great object placements and relatively broad soundstages.
If I had to do nightpick, I would say that there was not just a small and appearance in the upper mids. In addition, the traables can be slightly sharp at times and if you listen to bright music mainly you may find it a bit annoying. However, it is very easily fixed by EQ with a very minor adjustment, so it is not just a matter of concern.
Overall, I was really shocked by how well Realme tune these earbuds. I tried to find more and more music to see myself continuously to see how good it would be on the earbuds and after a while I was just enjoying myself.
This is far from other products in this segment, where I am often mentally examining myself after a few minutes and will essentially force myself to listen to a review. This is not the most wide sound that I have heard, even from wireless earbuds, and I think we are reaching the limits of drivers here. But the sound is so well touched that you want to get more information about your library, I rarely feel, even with products that cost twenty times more.
Microphone
Realme Buds T200 has fine microphone performance. Voices look fine when tested in a cool room with only a few volume war. In the noisier environment, the voices become calm and soft, but at the other end people will still be able to understand you and the noise of the background is relatively well controlled for this segment.
noise cancellation
Realme Buds T200 has active noise cancellation. Earbuds use two microphones in each, both are outwards. There is no reaction microphone inside the earbuds to hear the sound inside the ear canal, which is why you do not get the facility to check if the ear tips make a proper seal.
Active noise canceled performance is not good. For the first time when I kept the earbuds, I felt as if this feature was not only active, even though it was. You always know about your surroundings because earbuds do very little about noise in middle and high frequencies. The ANC performance on the offer here falls in the category ‘not better’ and you should definitely spend more if this feature really means to you.
In a similar vein, transparency mode performance is also not great. The sound is muffled and often better to remove earbuds to listen to its surroundings.
Delay
Realme Buds T200 claims 45ms delayed performance with game mode competent. Even with disabling this mode, delaying performance on these earbuds is not very bad, as there are chances that there are not many audio processing. Enabling the game mode, things are tightened and whatever minor delays also become negligible.
Connectivity
Realme Buds T200 had good connectivity performance. There were no connection issues and dropouts during the test. Multi-device pairing also acted innocent.
battery life
The 4.5 -hour battery promises life using Realme LDAC and ANC. In my test, I got 4 hours and 40 minutes, which is slightly higher than the claimed figure. This, however, was set on the highest 990kbps bitrate with LDAC.
When set on 660kbps, I get 5 hours and 19 minutes, which has no audio difference in sound, which is a good bit. If you leave it in the auto, as most people do, it will be the lowest bitrate default as usually does and you also get a battery life.
conclusion
As mentioned at the beginning of the review, the Realme Buds T200 costs only INR 1,999. There are times where it is clear, whether it is in plastic build quality, active noise cancellation, and some basic features are disappearing. Then there are things for forced login to use the app, which should not be one thing at any price point.
But then you listen to them and suddenly the price has no meaning. Realme’s tuning here is so insulting that I have half the brain to see some old reviews again and start a docking point to look so bad despite being much more expensive than the T200. For an audiofile on a budget, it is not better than this.
So I want you to get your priorities in order. If you want good ANC over something else, you should see elsewhere. But if you want good audio quality while spending as low as possible, then you just got your next purchase.
