OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC review: Where practicality meets good sound

At a time when the TWS earbuds market is flourishing in India, OnePlus has kept neckbands alive by introducing new devices year-on-year. Keeping up with this trend, the company introduced the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband this year as the successor to last year’s OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 neckband. In its Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband, the company has followed a simple approach – ‘don’t fix what’s not broken and add what makes this neckband worth the upgrade’. This means that while you do get a design that is similar to the Bullets Wireless Z2, you also get ANC (active noise cancellation) feature at a slightly higher price. 

The question is whether the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband is worth the upgrade or worth investing in? We will try to answer that and more in the detailed review below. But before that, take a quick look at the specifications.

OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband: Specifications

Drivers: 1.24mm dynamic drivers

Frequency response: 20Hz – 20,000Hz

Battery: 220mAh

Charging: USB Type-C

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2, Google Fast Pair

Noise cancellation: Active Noise Cancellation

Colours: Grand Green, Booming Black

Price: Rs 2,099

Image: Shweta Ganjoo/Techlusive

OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband review: Design

The OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband has a design that we all have seen and gotten used to over the years. It has a silicon body that has a large battery on one side and controls, which includes volume rockers and a USB Type-C port, on the other side. These controls also include an additional button that can be used for turning ANC on or off or playing or pausing tracks. These two ends of the silicon band are connected to the magnetic earplugs via wires.

Aside from the classic design, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband is quite comfortable to use. That said, it certainly takes some time to get used to wearing a rubbery band around your neck. But when you do get used to it, it can be quite reassuring to know that you don’t need to worry about the neckband falling off your neck or you losing it while taking a stroll in the market. It certainly helps that it has magnetic heads that help in securing this neckband around your neck all the time. It’s also light in weight and comfortable in the ears in day-to-day usage. 

OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband review: Software

Like all OnePlus audio products, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband connects to smartphones via the HeyMelody app, which provides access to basic controls such as ANC, Transparency Mode, the Equaliser settings and basic earbuds settings, which essentially lets you customise the actions that you can perform on using the multifunction button that is placed between the volume control buttons. 

That said, you can use this neckband without downloading the HeyMelody app. However, that will leave you with limited audio controls and ANC settings.

Image: Shweta Ganjoo/Techlusive

OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband review: Performance and Battery

Now comes the most important aspect of this review – sound and performance.

The OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband has a bass-heavy sound that is characteristic of the house of OnePlus. You can feel the beats loud and clear even in the default Balanced preset, which is not very different from the Bold preset. On the other hand, the Bass preset makes the booming sound a tad bit more pronounced. You can feel this difference, or lack thereof, in EDM numbers such as Titanium by David Guetta and pop classics such as Blank Space by Taylor Swift. 

Overall, this neckband offers a distinct bass heavy sound with slightly muffled mids, and crisp and pleasant vocals, especially when the sound is not being masked by a mix of mids and booming background sound. This means that you get less than clear vocals with a background humm that is particularly noticeable in songs such as A Thousand Years by Christina Perri and Bolna by Arijit Singh.

Music aside, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband performs well during voice calls. The sound is clear with the night degree of isolation from the outside noise. In my experience, this neckband is not only good for focusing on the call or a song that you are listening to but also for disconnecting from your surroundings, especially when you want to focus on the task at hand. While it does support a separate Transparency mode, in my experience, the grey area between ANC and Transparency mode, that is, when you have tapped the Off button in the Noise Control settings is where all the magic happens. Or in other words, it gives you the right balance between no sound to some sound.

Lastly, the battery. OnePlus claims that the the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband offers up to 28 hours of battery life with ANC turned off and up to 20 hours with the feature turned on. During my time with this neckband, I found these timelines to be mostly true. I got a battery backup of around 27 hours with ANC turned off and around two days of runtime with mixed usage.

Should you buy the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband or not?

The answer to this question is rather simple: Yes.

At a time when TWS earbuds are gaining popularity, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband’s ‘back-to-the-basics’ approach is both refreshing and practical. This neckband offers an audio experience that is similar, and in most cases even better than, its TWS earbuds counterparts. It’s also fuss-free in terms of maintenance and offers a considerably longer battery life than TWS earbuds. At a budget of around Rs 2,000, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 ANC neckband is the wireless device that you need to buy for your day-to-day needs.