The OPPO Enco X3s headphones offer excellent battery life and good audio playback, though ANC could be a little stronger.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent Battery Life | Touch controls are super twitchy |
| Good audio presentation | ANC isn’t quite as strong as competitors at this kind of price |
| Physical pairing button on case | No wireless charging capability |
Score: 3/5
In this review
Specifications
Design
Performance
Battery
Verdict
Ethical disclaimer: The OPPO Enco X3s headphones used in this review were sent to me by OPPO Australia, and they’re not asking for them back. That’s quite common for headphones for health reasons, but I note this not due to human biology, but simply because I want to be transparent and ethical with my audience. Whether or not a product stays with me or goes back makes no difference to my reviews whatsoever, and while I’d never review a set of headphones that had been in someone else’s ears – eww – OPPO has no influence on this review at all.
For more on ART’s Ethics position, see here.
Design
The OPPO Enco X3s ship in an egg-shaped battery case that comes in just one colour, described by OPPO as “Nebula Silver”.
It is a silver egg. No bird or lizard within, however.
It’s certainly eye catching, but it’s also very obviously plastic even though it has a metallic sheen, and it’s a case that sits on the larger side for true wireless headphones.
Not to a huge-and-problematic level as I saw with the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC Headphones, but larger than some competitors in its price range.
One design feature I do appreciate on the OPPO Enco X3s is the presence of a physical pairing button, neatly recessed on the right hand side. I do prefer this kind of physical control because it makes pairing with new devices considerably simpler than pairs that rely on lengthy touch mechanisms on buds or cases.
Pop the case for the OPPO Enco X3s headphones open and you’re greeted with two small true wireless headphones that… well, let’s cut to the chase here and say that while I could call them “classically” designed, what I’d really mean there is that they look a fair amount like Apple AirPods Pro with white slender stalks that end in rubber tips.
The fit is comfortable (at least for me) with the default tips installed for running and medium-length wearing, though like any in-ear buds I did experience a little ear fatigue if I wore them for longer.
In terms of resistance, OPPO rates the Enco X3s as being IP55 rated, which essentially means that while dust and smaller debris may have a harder time getting in, they’re essentially rated for rain or sweat resistance. They’ve certainly survived a few 5km runs during my review period, so in that sense, so far, so good.
Performance
The OPPO Enco X3s headphones are Bluetooth 5.4 compatible, which means that you can pair them to just about any Bluetooth audio device you’d care to name the moment they come out of the packaging.
As is quite standard for headphones these days there is a companion app for iOS and Android smartphones, though it’s oddly not an OPPO branded app. Instead it’s the “Hey Melody” app used for firmware updates, noise cancellation settings and audio equalisation, as well as configuring the touch controls.
I’ll tackle the touch controls first, because they’re easily my least favourite aspect of the OPPO Enco X3s headphones.
I’m not a huge fan of touch controls most of the time, because they’re nearly always imprecise, but the OPPO Enco X3s are particularly poor in this respect, especially as the default for them – and this nearly drove me mad working it out – is to disable the otherwise-standard single tap to play/pause audio feature.
You can (and should) enable it through the Hey Melody app, but I have absolutely no idea why OPPO disabled it in the first place.
The bigger issue here with the touch controls on the OPPO Enco X3s is that they’re very sensitive to touch, which constantly leads to single taps being misconstrued as double taps, so I often tried to pause and instead skipped a track backwards or forwards because it interpreted it as a double or even triple tap.
I am not a fan as previously noted, but the OPPO Enco X3s really were a set where I gave up on the touch controls and just resigned myself to the fact that I would need to control them via a paired smartphone instead.
In terms of audio quality, the OPPO Enco X3s did perform well, with a nicely nuanced soundscape that can be tweaked to your personal preferences, including a “Golden Sound” setting that runs through a standard hearing test to create a personal sound profile. For what it’s worth, the Hey Melody app reckoned my own hearing could use some brightening up of audio, and the effect of running through the personalisation step was quite noticeable.
You can’t sell a set of true wireless buds at the OPPO Enco X3s’ $329 price point and not include active noise cancelling, and at this kind of price point I do expect a little more out of my ANC.
ANC testing on the train. Decent, but I’ve heard (or really, not heard) better.
Here I was left a little disappointed; while the ANC function did work to cut out some low frequencies, even with noise cancellation set to high I was still getting a lot more background noise cutting through than I get with similarly priced premium ANC pairs.
The OPPO Enco X3s’ transparency mode did a good job of amplifying exterior sound when needed, but that’s a bit more on the table stakes side of the equation.
Battery
OPPO’s claims around the OPPO Enco X3s’ battery life are quite bold, with the promise of up to 11 hours of playback, which is quite high for any set of wireless buds this light.
Of course, OPPO’s playing the exact same game that every headphone manufacturer does with battery life claims, first by qualifying that as an “up to” figure, but also limiting that to playback with ANC disabled.
While the OPPO Enco X3s’ ANC isn’t quite as strong as I’d personally like at this price, I can’t imagine why you’d buy ANC-enabled headphones and not use that functionality a whole lot of the time.
With ANC enabled, the battery life claim drops to 6 hours, which is still solid, but not quite that exceptional. Add the battery case into the mix and you’re talking up to 45 hours with ANC disabled (boo!) or 24 hours with it enabled, though you would also have to factor in recharging time into that equation.
I can’t be too cranky with OPPO over its battery life claims, because it’s just doing what every single other headphone maker does, but that’s also true because it really does live up to those battery life claims; while 6 hours of listening does rather strain my own inner ear canals in a comfort sense, it is achievable with the OPPO Enco X3s headphones, and perhaps more if your volume needs are moderate or you can live without ANC.
Recharging the OPPO Enco X3s headphones involves dropping them back into the battery case, which itself recharges via USB-C only. At this price it might have been nice to see Qi-compatible charging as well.
OPPO Enco X3s: Alex’s Verdict
The OPPO Enco X3s headphones stand out for living up to their battery life claims and for providing a nicely tweakable sound stage with decent representation of most audio genres as long as you’re happy to adjust a few settings. Comfort is reasonable for medium term wearing (at least according to the sample size of my ear canals).
However, these are true wireless buds sold at a price point that punches towards the more premium sets on the markets, and it’s clear that OPPO’s intent is to take on those sets in terms of overall quality.
I’m not quite seeing that due to the twitchy touch controls and less-than-premium ANC performance.
At their full price, the OPPO Enco X3s don’t quite hit the mark, but they’re definitely a pair worth considering if you want a long-life set of headphones if you can score a set on sale.
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OPPO Enco X3s: Pricing and availability
The OPPO Enco X3s retails in Australia for $329
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