Realme Buds Air 5 launch with Pro-grade ANC at reduced price

The Realme Buds Air 5 series is finally complete in China today (August 28, 2023), thanks to the launch of its vanilla option to join the Pros that debuted "class-leading" 50dB ANC (touted as adaptive and "ultrawide-band") to boot earlier in the year.

The Buds Air 5 also generate a lot of their hype from edging the OPPO Enco Free3s out in this manner, and also to "Bring on the Bass" with "Mega Titanizing" drivers. At 12.4mm, they are in fact larger than those of the 5 Pros, although those flagship buds' secondary 6mm driver for the high end is nowhere to be found here.

Then again, each Bud Air 5 does boast a new "HTW wire coil" between its driver and "improved sensitivity" N52 magnet for potentially enhanced longevity and sound quality. On the other hand, they still (literally) lag behind with a rating for 49 milliseconds of latency compared to 40ms in the 5 Pros and up to 38 hours of battery life (with ANC off) rather than 40.

Most crucially, however, they support a basic selection of audio codices: SBC and AAC, compared to LDAC in the higher-end alternative. The vanilla Buds Air 5 do support Dolby Atmos and Google Fast Pair, at least.

On that note, the Buds Air 5 have been presented in nearly last-gen Artic White or Deep Sea Blue colorways, as opposed to the more mature Sunrise Beige or Astral Black of the 499 yuan (~US$68) 5 Pros. Accordingly, they are now priced at 299 yuan (~US$41) through Realme China, and are also now available in India for INR 3,499 (~US$42).

Meanwhile, the Buds Air 5 Pro are set to debut on Amazon India from tomorrow (August 29, 2023) at an RRP of INR 4,999 (~US$60).