If imitation is the most sincere kind of flattery, a look at Honors Earbuds 3 Pro, released in March, confirms that Honor had some very good things to say about Apple’s AirPods Pro when it developed them.
That said, the newer Honor earphones have taken advantage of the Curpertino giant’s AirPods Pro (which sits under the Honor Earbuds 3 Pro pictured above) in several ways and then improved them – for Android device owners and the rest of us.
Pull your Honor earphones (the update on the company’s Earbuds 2 Lite) close to your Android device, and open the lid of their pocket, even more pebble-like case – we use the new Honor Magic 4 Pro smartphone – and the current earphones themselves for fast pairing in a way that will feel very familiar to any AirPods owner. But now we download the Honor AI Space app (this is admittedly only available on Android at the moment) and add the earphones as a device.
This opens a comprehensive and intuitive menu in the app with options, including a battery check (for each earphone and case), noise control options (you can select a state of consciousness or turn noise reduction on or off – but here you can choose between ‘intelligent’, ‘cozy’ ‘,’ moderate ‘or’ ultra ‘noise reduction profiles) and the possibility of dual connection – we listen to music on Tidal on our iPhone, but control the buttons using the app on the Honor smartphone.
Opinion: Apple should be concerned about how well Honor’s Pro earphones sound
Honor Earbuds 3 Pro boasts some formidable specifications. Together with the world’s first coaxial dual driver design with 11 mm dynamic driver and piezoelectric ceramic tweeter (essentially, the individual driver units are built concentrically, tweeter inside the driver so that they emit sound from the same point – or axis) the buds include Bluetooth 5.2 connection and an alleged battery life of up to 24 hours combined with the charging case – which practically also offers two hours of playback from five minutes of fast charging.
Another thing you do not get by using AirPods 3 or AirPods Pro power trunks is that here you can easily adjust the volume by stroking the shaft of the Honor Earbuds 3 Pro.
Some flies in the ointment? Kind of – even though it’s still a feature you’ll not find on any AirPods, it’s hardly a brand compared to the Honor setting. Early reports claimed that the buds would boast a unique integrated temperature monitor, to help users keep track of their health. We were not able to access it during our early testing, and after contacting Honor for an update on this, we were told that Honor Earbuds 3 Pro will not have the temperature center in the UK and EU markets. .
All of this aside, the probably biggest difference is how Honor Earbuds 3 Pro sounds. We streamed music from Tidal and Apple Music from our iPhone and Honor Magic 4 Pro. The bass floor through the Stormzy and Dave tracks is deeper, snapper and more effective through the Honor earphones. The soundscape is easily just as extensive, but for us, the extra ounce of details – the cleaner fronts of notes, the emotionally charged quality of vocals – made Honor Earbuds 3 Pro the early winner. The coaxial dual driver design has certainly been integrated with surgical skills; in these early tests, the Honor Earbuds 3 Pro sound more engaging, more zealous, and more sparkling through the easy-to-handle tweeter than their AirPods counterparts.
This is not a ‘full-fat’ TechRadar review (for example, we have not tested the battery claims, so whether they actually achieve the AirPods Pro-comparable 24-hour endurance is still unknown), but in the first place, at least , AirPods -to-Android market has a new frontrunner.
In fact, Honor is so confident in its creation that it has even partnered with Billboard to create Global Buzz (opens in new tab) – a limited release playlist to show what Honor Earbuds 3 Pro can do.
Honor Earbuds 3 Pro is available in Apple-like white or a more distinctive gray in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Malaysia for € 199 (which is around $ 178 / £ 238 / AU $ 367), though we are unsure if they are pure actually becoming available in the US – which for all the reasons we’ve discussed, is actually a shame …