Quick Verdict
The Oppo Enco Air 5 is a well-made pair of earbuds at ₹2,999-3,199. Solid 52dB ANC, 54-hour total battery, comfortable fit, and a clean HeyMelody app experience. But here’s the honest truth I tested for a week — this earbud has no LHDC or LDAC support, and two earbuds that cost ₹500 less (CMF Buds 2 Plus and Realme Buds T500 Pro) give you Hi-Res audio and match almost every other spec. And if you can stretch your budget by ₹500 more, the Realme Buds Air 8 (₹3,599-3,699) is the actual value king in this segment.
Rating: 7.5/10
Buy the Enco Air 5 if: You use an Oppo or OnePlus phone and want ecosystem features (Google Gemini tap, Spotify Tap, AI Translate). Skip it if: You care about sound quality, codec support, or maximum value for money.
What You Get for ₹3,299
Let me get the basics out of the way first. This is what the Enco Air 5 packs:
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Driver | 12mm titanium-coated dynamic |
| ANC | 52dB adaptive (5,000Hz frequency range) |
| Codecs | AAC, SBC (no LHDC, no LDAC) |
| Bluetooth | 6.1 with dual-device connectivity |
| Battery (buds) | 13 hours ANC off / 6-7 hours ANC on |
| Battery (with case) | 54 hours total |
| Fast charge | 10 min = 11 hours playback |
| Mics | 6 total (3 per bud) with AI ENC |
| IP rating | IP55 (buds only, case not rated) |
| Weight | 4.3g per bud |
| App | HeyMelody (Android + iOS) |
| Colors | Lavender Purple, Midnight Black |
Design and Comfort: Nailed It
I got the Lavender Purple variant, and I’ll admit — this colour looks cleaner in person than in the marketing shots. Slight chalky matte finish, mildly pastel, and it stands out from the black-and-white sea that this segment usually swims in.
The case is oval-shaped, one-hand openable, closes with a satisfying click. Nothing groundbreaking, but the small stuff feels right. I dropped it once (on tile, from waist height) and it picked up a tiny scuff but no real damage. Fine for daily abuse.
Each bud weighs 4.3g. That’s the exact same design language Oppo uses on the Enco Air 5 Pro and OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro, so the comfort is a known quantity — it’s genuinely one of the most wearable shapes I’ve used in this price bracket. I wore them for a 3-hour work session without noticing them, took a call, went for a walk, and the fit stayed put through all of it.
IP55 rating on the buds means sweat and light rain are non-issues. Gym-safe, monsoon-safe, cycling-safe. The case doesn’t have an IP rating, which is standard for this price.
Sound Quality: Fun, Not Reference
I ran the Enco Air 5 through my usual test playlist across Bollywood, Punjabi, EDM, classical, and podcasts. Here’s what I heard.
Bass: Punchy, present, with a slight lift in the upper bass that gives most tracks a satisfying thump. Not as gut-punchy as the Realme Buds Air 8, but enough to make Arijit’s newer tracks and mainstream EDM feel alive. Bass Boost preset in the app pushes this even further if you want it.
Vocals: Clear, sit slightly forward in the mix. Sonu Nigam and Arijit come through with warmth. But — and this is where the Enco Air 5 shows its price bracket — the mids lose some texture when the bass gets busy. In “Kesariya,” you can hear it: the vocal detail thins slightly during the drop-heavy sections.
Treble: Smooth, not harsh, not sparkly. Cymbal work in acoustic tracks doesn’t quite shimmer the way it does on the Air 8 or CMF Buds 2 Plus. But it also never fatigues your ears in long sessions, which matters more for daily use than reviewers admit.
Soundstage: Narrower than the old Enco Air 3 Pro (a personal favourite of mine). This is a common trend — most brands have moved toward closed, bass-forward tunings and away from the open, airy signature Oppo used to nail. The Enco Air 5 sits with the crowd, not above it.
The HeyMelody app gives you three presets — Ultimate Sound (default), Pure Vocals, and Thundering Bass — plus a 10-band custom EQ. Pure Vocals mode is genuinely useful if you listen to a lot of podcasts or dialogue-heavy content. It flattens the bass and pushes the mids forward. I ended up using it more than I expected.
The big miss: No LHDC, no LDAC. This is normal AAC and SBC only. If you have a phone that supports Hi-Res codecs (most current mid-range and flagship Androids do), you’re leaving audio quality on the table. And two earbuds at a lower price fix this exact problem — I’ll get to them.
ANC: Decent, Not Class-Leading
Oppo claims 52dB, and I don’t have lab equipment to verify that, but real-world performance lands around what you’d expect for the price. Ceiling fan, AC hum, general office chatter — cut down by roughly 70%. Traffic drone on a two-wheeler ride — noticeably softened. Metro engine noise — took the edge off but didn’t kill it.
Sudden loud sounds — horn blasts, station announcements, someone slamming a door — those still leak through. This is normal at every price point under ₹5,000. Anyone claiming otherwise is lying to you.
Four ANC levels including an Auto mode that adjusts based on your environment. The Auto mode is genuinely better than last year’s implementations across the industry — it actually reads the room and doesn’t just cycle randomly.
Transparency mode works but sounds slightly compressed. You can hear people, but voices lack the natural quality that the Nothing X-based CMF Buds get closer to.
Call Quality: Where It Punches Up
This is where the Enco Air 5 actually surprised me. Six mics (three per bud) with AI noise reduction, and Oppo claims wind noise handling up to 20 km/h.
Indoor calls — clean, warm, natural voice pickup. My friends on the other end said I sounded like I was on a phone, not on earbuds. That’s the benchmark.
Outdoor calls — the buds hold up well up to moderate wind and traffic. Push into a busy road with lots of horns, and my voice would occasionally clip or sound distant. This is the same behaviour I’ve seen on the Nord Buds 4 and Realme Buds Air 8, so it’s a category limit, not an Oppo-specific flaw.
For work calls, video meetings, and general phone use, these are among the better options under ₹3,500.
Battery: Reliable
Real-world numbers from my week of use:
- ANC off, 50-60% volume: 8 hours per charge, easily
- ANC on, 50-60% volume: 6-7 hours per charge
- Case + buds combined: I went 5-6 days between case charges with mixed use
Oppo’s 54-hour total claim assumes you’re barely using ANC at low volumes. Real usage sits at 40-45 hours combined. Still plenty. Fast charging is legitimate — 10 minutes on the case gave me around 11 hours of playback, which matches the claim.
USB-C only. No wireless charging on the case (expected at this price).
Gaming and Latency: BGMI-Ready
Enco Air 5 has a low-latency gaming mode that Oppo doesn’t publish exact ms numbers for, but real-world testing on BGMI showed no perceivable audio-video mismatch during shooting or footstep detection. Casual mobile gaming works fine.
There’s no Game Sound Spatial Audio feature here — that’s a Nord Buds 4 exclusive at this price, and Oppo saved the 3D directional audio for the Enco Air 5 Pro. If competitive FPS gaming matters to you, the Nord Buds 4 gets a small edge here.
The Nord Buds 4 Question: Are They the Same Product?
Short answer: 95% yes. Longer answer: also yes.
Both Oppo and OnePlus are owned by BBK Electronics. Both launched their new budget earbuds within one week of each other. Both are priced at ₹2,999-3,299. Both use a 12mm titanium driver, 52dB ANC, 54-hour battery, Bluetooth 6.1, IP55, six mics, and the same HeyMelody app.
The two real differences:
- Case shape. Enco Air 5 has an oval case. Nord Buds 4 has a squarish one.
- Default sound tuning. Enco Air 5 is slightly more balanced by default. Nord Buds 4 is slightly more bass-heavy by default.
That’s it. Both use HeyMelody, so you can EQ your way to matching the other’s sound signature in five minutes.
Pick whichever colour you like or whichever brand your phone is from. There’s no wrong answer, and there’s no meaningful reason to spend time comparing them beyond that. This is genuinely two versions of the same product with different branding.
The Actual Competition: What You Should Buy Instead
Here’s where the honest reviewer part of my job kicks in. The Enco Air 5 has two real problems, and both are named products at a lower price.
CMF Buds 2 Plus (₹2,599-2,899)
Nothing’s budget sub-brand. LDAC codec, Hi-Res audio certification, 12mm LCP driver, 50dB hybrid ANC, and 61.5 hours of total battery — the longest in this price range. The Nothing X app is cleaner and better designed than HeyMelody. ChatGPT tap integration. Personal Sound hearing profile setup.
The only two knocks against it are the cheap ear tips (you’ll want to swap them) and the Bluetooth 5.4 (vs 6.1 on the Enco Air 5, but real-world you won’t feel it).
Verdict: Better sound, longer battery, LDAC codec, better app, cheaper. If sound quality matters, this beats the Enco Air 5.
Realme Buds T500 Pro (₹2,599-2,799)
LHDC 5.0 codec, Hi-Res Audio certified, 12.4mm titanium driver, 50dB ANC, 56-hour total battery, and triple-device connectivity (Enco Air 5 only does dual). Bluetooth 6.1, 45ms latency mode, and Realme’s AI Translator handles 30+ languages regardless of which phone you use.
Verdict: LHDC support alone is worth the ₹500 you save. Same feature checklist otherwise.
Realme Buds Air 8 (₹3,599-3,799) — The One You Should Actually Buy
If you can spend ₹500 more than the Enco Air 5, this is the earbud to get. I gave it 8.5/10 in my review earlier this year, and my opinion hasn’t shifted.
The Air 8 is the only earbud in this price bracket with:
- Dual driver setup: 11mm woofer + 6mm micro-planar tweeter
- Dual DAC processing
- 55dB ANC (highest in this segment)
- Both LHDC 5.0 and LDAC codecs (no other earbud here has both)
- 58-hour total battery
- Triple-device connectivity
- 30+ language AI translator
At ₹3,599 (with sale prices dropping to ₹3,299 sometimes), this beats the Enco Air 5, both Nord Buds 4 variants, and even the Enco Air 5 Pro on pure specs and sound quality. It’s my clear recommendation for anyone with a ₹3,500-4,000 budget.
Should You Upgrade to the Pro Variants?
Short answer: probably not — get the Realme Buds Air 8 instead.
Longer answer:
Oppo Enco Air 5 Pro (₹4,999)
Adds 55dB ANC, LHDC 5.0 codec, Hi-Res audio, Bluetooth 6.0, volume swipe control on the stem, and a slightly refined tuning. All genuine upgrades. But at ₹5,000, you’re now in Realme Buds Air 8 Pro territory (₹6,999) and comfortably above the standard Buds Air 8 (₹3,599). The Air 8 gives you dual drivers, dual DAC, both LDAC and LHDC, and 58-hour battery for ₹1,400 less than the Enco Air 5 Pro. The math doesn’t work in Oppo’s favour.
OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro (₹3,680-3,999)
OnePlus Nord Buds 4 Pro Review
Better positioned than the Enco Air 5 Pro. 55dB TÜV Rheinland certified ANC, LHDC 5.0, volume swipe control, and a subtly better bass response. If you’re specifically a OnePlus phone user and want the tightest OxygenOS integration plus better sound than the base Nord Buds 4, this is a defensible ₹700 upgrade.
But even here — the Realme Buds Air 8 costs ₹100 less and beats it on codec support, driver setup, battery, and multipoint. The only reason to pick the Nord Buds 4 Pro over the Air 8 is the OnePlus ecosystem (250m Bluetooth range on OnePlus phones, direct Bluetooth settings integration).
Who Should Actually Buy the Enco Air 5
I’ve been critical of the value proposition here, but the Enco Air 5 isn’t a bad earbud. It just faces stiff competition. There are three types of buyers for whom this makes sense:
- You use an Oppo, OnePlus, or Realme phone. The HeyMelody integration, Spotify Tap, Google Gemini access, and AI Translate work smoothly in the BBK ecosystem. If you’re deep into ColorOS or OxygenOS, the small quality-of-life features add up.
- You want a balanced sound signature over bass-heavy. The Nord Buds 4 goes bass-first, the Enco Air 5 stays neutral. Podcast listeners, vocal-focused music fans, and audiobook users benefit from this tuning.
- You want the specific Lavender Purple colour. Sounds silly, but design matters. This colour is genuinely unique in a segment full of black and white options, and I’ve had multiple people ask about it in real life.
If none of those apply to you, the CMF Buds 2 Plus, Realme Buds T500 Pro, or Realme Buds Air 8 make more sense.
The Bottom Line
The Oppo Enco Air 5 is a well-executed pair of budget earbuds. Comfortable fit, decent ANC, reliable battery, clean app experience, and one of the better-looking cases in this range. Nothing about it is bad.
But value in 2026 isn’t about being decent — it’s about being the best decent option at your price. And at ₹3,199, the Enco Air 5 has to compete with two earbuds ₹500 cheaper that offer Hi-Res audio, and one earbud ₹500 more expensive that outclasses it on nearly every meaningful spec.
Buy it if you’re in the BBK ecosystem and want the smoothest integration. For everyone else — CMF Buds 2 Plus if you care about sound, Realme Buds Air 8 if you can stretch the budget. Both are better places to put your money.
