OnePlus is best know for its smartphones, but it also makes some solid Bluetooth earphones.
At $99, the new OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 cost $30 more than last year's model, and get you three drivers in each instead of one, faster charging, and some other small improvements.
Audio performance is solid, if bass-heavy.
But given the company's cutting-edge approach to phones, the neckband style feels a little dated in the age of true wireless earbuds, and there's been no update in the design department to make the earphones more gym-friendly.
Design
Available in black with red highlights, the Bullets Wireless 2 have a matte rubber finish on the band and a glossy metallic sheen on the earpieces.
Once you get the right silicone eartips in (three pairs in small, medium, and large are included), the fit is secure and stable.
The earpieces snap together and power down automatically when not in use—when you snap them apart, they power up and automatically re-pair with your Bluetooth device.
There's an inline remote control and microphone compartment on the left side of the cabling, at roughly chin leve.
And there's an uncovered USB-C port on the neckband for the included charging cable.
There's no IP rating, which means you shouldn't get the earphones wet, and for that reason we can't recommend them for use at the gym.
The remote is of the three-button variety, with a central multifunction button that handles playback, call management, and track navigation, while the plus/minus buttons control volume.
A "shortcut" button on the collarband allows for quick re-pairing with the device last used, or, when held, turns on pairing mode.
A long press of the multifunction button summons your phone's voice assistant.
In addition to the charging cable and eartips, the earphones ship with a magnetic snap-shut storage pouch.
OnePlus estimates battery life to be roughly 14 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels.
Performance
Internally, each earpiece has two Knowles balanced armature drivers and a single 10mm dynamic driver—yes, there are three drivers in each ear.
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," Bullets Wireless 2 deliver solid bass depth, and at top, unwise listening levels, there's no distortion.
At more moderate levels, the bass depth is still powerful, and there's a decent amount of high-mid and high frequency presence to keep things balanced.
Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the general sound signature.
The drums on this track get some added body and depth—there's some clear bass boosting here, but it doesn't send things into unnatural territory.
Callahan's baritone vocals also get some added low-mid richness, while the higher register percussive hits sound particularly bright.
In other words, this is a scooped sound signature—plenty of bass, along with bright highs, but the middle sounds a bit dialed back.
The high-mids could also be a little crisper.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence to retain some of it punchiness, but again, we hear more bright highs—the vinyl crackle and hiss are pushed forward from their background status in the mix.
The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat, and the sustain of the drum itself, get some added low frequency push—this is a very bass-forward mix, with some glistening highs to match.
What's missing is the crisp high-mid presence that can lend vocals definition.
Things don't sound muddy, however.
For orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the higher register brass, strings, and vocals get enough high-mid and high frequency presence to retain their prominent spot in the mix, but again, they lack the treble edge they often have.
The lower register instrumentation is fuller, bigger, and more boosted than normal, but it doesn't sound awful—it's just not a sound signature for purists.
The mic offers average intelligibility.
Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could understand every word we recorded without issue, though there were typical Bluetooth fuzzy audio artifacts keeping the signal from being completely clear.
Conclusions
Like the original model, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 deliver a bass-forward listening experience.
There's some solid high frequency presence, and the result is a scooped sound signature—the high-mids aren't completely missing, but they are somewhat dialed back.
In the $100 range, we are seeing fewer and fewer neckband-style Bluetooth in-ears—the true wireless revolution is in full effect.
If the cable is still something you're looking for, the JBL UA Sport Wireless Pivot and Beyerdynamic Soul Byrd are both solid options.
If cable-free in-ears intrigue you, they tend to cost a bit more, but the Tivoli Audio Fonico and EOZ Audio Air are solid values for the price.
At $100, there's nothing wrong with the Bullets 2 Wireless, but they don't really bring much of an edge to the table.
OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2
The Bottom Line
It's hard to make a case for or against the innocuous OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 earphones—they deliver solid, bass-forward audio, but there are more compelling options.
