Earfun Air Pro 3 Review
Affordable true wireless that can do a little bit of everything
Verdict
The Earfun Air Pro 3 can do a little bit of everything without draining the funds from your wallet. The noise-cancelling impresses, the wireless performance is strong, call quality is solid, and the audio performance is enjoyable. For less than £100 they’re a bargain find.
Pros
- Strong noise-cancellation
- Solid call quality
- Robust wireless connection
- Enjoyable audio
- Snug, comfortable fit
Cons
- Battery life doesn’t quite reach claimed levels
- Audio lacks dynamism, not the most detailed performance
Key Features
- Bluetooth multipointConnect to two devices simultaneously
- QuietSmart 2.0 Hybrid noise-cancellingClaims to get rid of noise up 43dB
- Charging45 hours battery with fast charging and wireless charging support
Introduction
There was a time when I thought noise-cancelling couldn’t be done well on an affordable true wireless pair, but recent years have provided evidence against that viewpoint. The latest to crush my notions is the Earfun Air Pro 3.
Earfun products tend to be good value, pack in plenty of features and put in a good performance. The Air Pro 3 are the brand’s most advanced model featuring long battery life, Bluetooth multipoint support, hybrid noise-cancellation – most true wireless twice the price would struggle to fit all this in.
So, are the Earfun Air Pro 3 up to the required standard?
Design
- Good touch controls
- Snug fit
- IPX5 water and sweat resistance
Our review of the Air Pro 2 described them as being on the bland side of things, but there’s more of a consideration to style with the Air Pro 3. The two-toned colour scheme: grey for the stem, and black for the main body, plus the glossy finish does at least make them stand apart from the usual black and cheap plastic offerings.
Made predominantly from plastic, the buds feel lightweight though Earfun doesn’t give a specific number for how much each bud weighs. Regardless, once they’re in the ear, you won’t really notice them too much – which is good. The glossy finish acts as a nice point of contact with the inner ear, avoiding that discomfort or oily sensation that some buds can conjure up.
Touch controls are the means of operation, and like a recent number of true wireless a single tap changes volume, while a double tap pauses/plays audio. I’d prefer it if the two were switched around, but that’s just me. At least you can customise the controls in the companion app.
A triple tap skips/goes back a track while a long press on the left cycles through noise-cancelling modes and voice assistance on the right. Responses to taps and holds are quick, which is exactly what you’d want.
With an IPX5 rating the Air Pro 3 are rated as resisting water and sweat. That’s a little stronger than the usual IPX4 rating that most true wireless earbuds receive, and really just amounts to giving them a rinse (a low-pressure jet of water) if you want to give them a clean.
The charging case is nice and pocketable but not rated as water- or sweatproof. There is wireless charging support if you boost your battery via those means, though there is of course the faster method of using the USB-C port.
Features
- Battery life not as high as claimed
- Impressive noise-cancelling
- Strong wireless performance
For a true wireless that costs less than £100, the Earfun Air Pro 3 are chock-a-block full of features. From noise-cancelling to long battery life, Bluetooth multipoint and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth; the feature list puts a great many more expensive true wireless to shame.
But of course, the performance has to back that up and with the Air Pro 3 the news is mostly positive. Earfun claims up to 7 hours per earbud (with ANC on) but streaming a Spotify playlist for just over an hour (with a phone call for good measure), saw the charge drop by 20%, and that figure was fairly consistent throughout my time with the buds. I would say you could get five hours per charge with the volume set at 50% rather than the figure Earfun puts forward.
Overall battery life is rated at 45 hours with the case, and there’s support for both wireless charging and fast charging, the latter provides two hours from a ten-minute charge.
Bluetooth support is the latest version in 5.3, and the Air Pro 3 supports Bluetooth multipoint so for keen multi-taskers out there, you could connect to two devices at once. Codec support equals SBC, AAC, and aptX Adaptive, the latter helps maintain a connection in busy signal hotspots. I found the connection to be very impressive, and despite a few slips in Waterloo and Victoria train stations, it came through packed places such as Piccadilly Circus and Soho with no problems at all.
For calls, the buds feature a 6-mic array with cVc 8.0 tech, and that tech speak aside, call quality is solid. The noise-cancelling worked well to keep traffic on a road I was walking by at bay, though it is susceptible to very loud noises, causing my voice to sound mumbled to the person on the other end. Voice pickup is decent, but apparently my voice sounded a little low, so there’s room for improvement.
Moving onto the noise-cancelling and I think these are one of the best noise-cancelling earphones I’ve come across at this price. The passive noise-isolating design works effectively to keep ambient sounds away, and the hybrid ANC on top thins out voices, traffic, and large crowds of people well. It’s not complete and not total silence – at least not without music – though it is effective at taking very noisy environments and nipping them in the bud.
It works well on the London Underground too, the noise of the Tube as it goes through the tunnels is reduced significantly. I did find that at certain points on the Victoria line that the wind noise can overwhelm, but upping the volume helps in instances such as this.
The transparency mode included is fine. It adds a greater sense of awareness, which is what you want, but you can find more expensive models with better clarity and detail. It’s fine for the price, and certainly on similar footing to the likes of the Creative Outlier Pro and OneSonic MXS-HD1.
Just to add to the wealth of features this earphone comes with, there’s a companion app too. It allows for updates, checking battery life, EQ, and control customization, a game mode toggle, plus sliding through the various noise-cancelling modes. It’s simply laid out, accessible to use and firmware updates are applied fairly quickly – I can’t think of much to complain about here.
Sound Quality
- Lacks energy and dynamism
- Good bass depth
- Smooth performance across the frequency range
On the spectrum of wireless earbuds, the Earfun Air Pro 3 registers as one with a bassy inflection. It’s not overpowering but it certainly is noticeable, and while I wouldn’t describe the Air Pro 3 as a true wireless with an overly rich tone, there’s certainly a weight to its sound.
What exactly do I mean by weight? I suppose the best way of describing it is there’s a thickness across the frequency range these describe. It’s not the sharpest, nor the clearest or the deftest listen you’ll find at this price point. But there is a smoothness to its sound that’s pleasing – the Earfun Air Pro 3 seems to be going for a sound that’s easy on the ears, and irons out whatever possible kinks there might be.
And that approach has positives and negatives. For one the Earfun are consistent – once you’ve listened to them for a while, you know what you’re going to get: rounded bass, a midrange that’s not the most defined but the smoothness avoids any sibilance with vocals, and singers’ voices all inhabit a pocket of space that gives them ample space to strut their stuff.
And while treble is not the brightest, the Earfun extract enough detail and sharpness to draw those high frequencies out and make them notes distinct from the rest of the frequency range in tracks like Shugie Otis’ Strawberry Letter 23 or Gogo Penguin’s Atomised.
The soundstage it describes is one with plenty of width – unlike some other true wireless these don’t feel cramped. And while I’ve said they’re not the most defined, they can call upon enough detail to describe the bass guitar, drums, and guitars in Dire Straits’ Sultan of Swing mixed with some rich, textured tonality for good measure.
I would say that the Lypertek Z3, one of my favourites around this price, furnishes tracks with a little more detail and definition. It also offers more energy and dynamism. The Earfun is consistent, but it describes songs in the same way regardless of genre. A song like Edith by The Hot Melts doesn’t have that sense of fluidity and energy that the Z3 can give it, sounding rather flat and anaemic on the Earfun.
So as I said, positives and negatives, but the former outweighs the latter. A good but not great listen, but one that’s enjoyable all the same, especially for the asking price.
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Should you buy it?
If you’re looking for value and performance: Strong noise-cancelling, entertaining sound, a robust wireless performance, and solid call quality. Plus, you get Bluetooth multi-point just to add to the Earfun’s talents.
If audio is the priority: Entertaining though the Earfun’s sound is, there are a few others in this price bracket that offer a better performance, such as those from Lypertek and Creative.
Final Thoughts
The best wireless earbuds that Earfun has come up with so far? I’d say the Air Pro 3 merits that title. The audio is enjoyable and should appeal to those who enjoy a buttery smooth performance with bass.
The noise-cancelling impresses, as does the overall wireless performance, and call quality is solid too. Battery life isn’t as long as quoted but still better than true wireless which costs several times the price such as Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 and Final ZE3000. With all that in mind, you are getting something of a bargain with these earbuds.
How we test
We test every pair of headphones we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested over two months
Tested with real world use
Battery drain performed
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FAQs
The Air Pro 3 works with both Android and iOS platforms, with app support on iOS. The Air Pro 3 also supports AAC Bluetooth, which is currently the highest quality streaming audio available on iOS.
Full specs
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As part of this mission, whenever we review a product we send the company a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the device has on the environment.
We currently haven’t received answers to the questions on this product, but will update this page the moment we do. You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability page.
Jargon buster
ANC
ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) uses an array of microphones in a headphone to detect the frequency of the sound coming at the listener, with the ANC chip creating an inverse wave (i.e. opposing sound) to suppress any unwanted external noises.Bluetooth multipoint
Bluetooth multipoint is a device's ability to connect to two or more devices simultaneously over a Bluetooth connection
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
