Indian personal audio brand Noise is among the leading brands in its category, thanks in large part to its competitive pricing and ability to deliver features that you don’t typically see on budget products. It’s a smart approach that Noise has used to cement its hold in some of the most popular and fast moving categories in the gadgets space, including earphones and smartwatches. The latest product sticks to this formula for success, offering a feature that you typically see on more expensive products for under Rs. 2,000.
Priced at Rs. 1,899, the Noise Buds Venus true wireless earphones offer active noise cancellation, making the once high-end feature a lot more accessible through strong pricing. Among the most affordable true wireless earphones with ANC that you can buy right now, the Noise Buds Venus promises a lot for the price. Does this make the Venus the best true wireless headset at under Rs. 2,000 that you can buy right now? Find out in this review.
The Noise Buds Venus earpieces are IPX5 rated for water resistance
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Noise Buds Venus design, features, and specifications
While there tends to be a rather generic look to most true wireless earphones you can buy today, the Noise Buds Venus looks rather distinct and in tune with the brand’s aesthetic approach. The earpieces have an interesting combination of glossy and dull finishes, which matches how the charging case looks. This sets the earphones apart from most others in this price segment, which tend to look like their price would suggest.
The earpieces of the Noise Buds Venus themselves have touch-sensitive areas for the controls, and an in-canal fit that ensures proper noise isolation to aid the active noise cancellation. They are a bit large and stick out a bit, but they’re light at just 3.5g each, and don’t feel too unwieldy when worn. I found the fit comfortable even with the default medium-sized ear tips, but there are extra pairs in the box – three pairs in total – for a bit of customisability of the fit. The box also has a charging cable (USB Type-A to Type-C) and an instruction leaflet (which you’ll need to get a hang of the controls).
Interestingly, the Noise Buds Venus does have typically more premium features such as active noise cancellation and low-latency gaming mode, but there is strangely no companion app to back these up with. There is also environmental noise cancellation, with a quad-microphone system enabling ENC, ANC, and voice communications on the headset.
The controls of the Noise Buds Venus are fairly straightforward and can’t be changed given the lack of app support, but you can expectedly control all of these functions directly from the earpieces themselves – this is what you’ll need the instruction leaflet for. You’ll eventually get used to the controls; they’re easy enough to master, and rely on various combinations of taps to control everything, including playback, volume, ANC, and gaming mode.
The charging case of the Noise Buds Venus is neither too small nor too large, and has just a USB Type-C port for charging at the bottom and an indicator light just below the brand logo. It’ll fit easily in your pocket, supports fast charging, and is usefully large enough to offer a fair amount of additional charges to the earpieces – more on that later, though. The headset is available in four colour options – black, brown, green, and ivory – all of which look nice, in my opinion.
The charging case of the Noise Buds Venus has a USB Type-C port
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In terms of specifications, the Noise Buds Venus has 10mm dynamic drivers, and Bluetooth 5.3 for connectivity, with support for the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. The earpieces are IPX5 rated for water resistance, and will be able to handle light splashes of water and sweat without any trouble. There is also voice assistance support, which invokes the default voice assistant on your paired smartphone.
Noise Buds Venus performance and battery life
True wireless earphones with active noise cancellation for less than Rs. 2,000 is a fairly impressive statement on its own, but what makes it even better is that the Noise Buds Venus is actually a pretty good pair of earphones when it comes to performance. Some of it is backed by technically sound specifications such as support for the AAC Bluetooth codec and Bluetooth 5.3, but the earphones have also been tuned reasonably well for the price.
Considering that this is where most affordable wireless earphones tend to fall short, decent tuning actually is half the battle won for the Noise Buds Venus. I was surprised by how clean and straightforward the sound was, ensuring a good balance of getting the sonic signature right, and also allowing for a fair level of detail.
Listening to Paris (Aeroplane Remix) by Friendly Fires at moderate volumes, the sound had just the right level of low-end attack, with hints of high-end sparkle audible throughout the upbeat track. It was a pleasantly engaging listening experience that let me focus on the music without any jarring distractions in the sound itself. That’s really the point of budget wireless earphones, and the Noise Buds Venus gets it right without trying too hard.
Volume changes don’t affect the quality of the sound more that you’d expect, and there fortunately isn’t a ‘target zone’ for volume where the Noise Buds Venus performs at its best. This was useful in letting me moderate my listening according to my mood or depending on how quiet my surroundings were, although I would say that the 60 percent volume mark was usually enough for indoors listening, going up to around 70 percent for outdoor listening.
The Noise Buds Venus have active noise cancellation, but no app; this isn’t really a problem since all features can be controlled through the earpieces
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The Noise Buds Venus can get quite loud if needed, but I did notice some roughness in the sound beyond the 90 percent volume level. You’re unlikely to need to go that high in normal use, and the Noise Buds Venus largely keeps up with modern genres at even moderate volumes. Call quality is acceptable for most use cases, but the Noise Buds Venus struggled a bit in louder environments on voice calls.
Active noise cancellation on the Noise Buds Venus is expectedly basic given the price tag of the earphones, offering just a mild reduction to ambient sound without quite cancelling it out. Even simple indoor sounds such as the whirring of a ceiling fan could still be heard with ANC on, while outdoor sounds were even less affected.
That said, it’s helpful in making music a bit easier to listen to even at moderate volumes so it’s not entirely without utility. However, it doesn’t quite match up to the level of performance you get with even the relatively affordable Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro, so consider ANC on this a bonus rather than a USP of the Noise Buds Venus.
Battery life on the Noise Buds Venus is decent for the price. The earphones ran for around 5 hours per charge with ANC on and the volume at the 60 percent level, while the charging case added four additional charges to the earpieces. This made for around 25 hours of listening time per charge cycle, and even with mixed use you could definitely come close to the figure I got in testing. There is fast charging for the case, with a 10-minute charge promising to deliver around 2 hours of listening time.
Verdict
Active noise cancellation on budget true wireless headsets is usually very basic, and is especially so if you’re dealing with an entry-level product. That’s the case even with the Noise Buds Venus, which delivers a very basic ANC experience that only makes a small difference to the overall experience, but it’s nice to have nonetheless. The lack of an app might be bothersome to some, but in most other ways, the Venus is a pretty good pair of earphones for the price.
Sound quality and battery life are good, and the straightforward design leaves no reason to complain. This is perhaps the best that you can expect at under Rs. 2,000 in the category given the typically unusual addition of ANC, and is definitely worth a look if you’re shopping for new true wireless earphones at this price right now.
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