Realme Buds Air7 Pro Review: Premium Design and Great Sound at a Mini Price

Realme continues its rise in the mobile audio market. After surprising us with the already very affordable Buds Air6 Pro, the Chinese brand is back with a new generation that maintains an effective formula at a sweet price point. The Realme Buds Air7 Pro, priced at £69.99, rely on a now well-established recipe: refined finishes and design, punchy sound, and active noise cancellation. Is this just a cosmetic refresh or a real progression? Answer in this test, where we spent several days wearing them.

This is undoubtedly the point that immediately strikes: the care taken with the Realme Buds Air7 Pro case is exceptional for this price range. Rare at under £100, the case here is made entirely of aluminum, with a particularly elegant "racing green" finish—although other colors, such as "metallic grey," "bright beige," or "ardent red," are also available. The assembly is impeccable, with no play or creaking, and the lid closes with a firm click that exudes quality.

The earbuds themselves are made of glossy plastic, with stems whose exterior displays a metallic appearance. Here again, Realme manages to avoid the cheap effect often associated with this type of material. The result is visually convincing, even if the glossy coating proves a bit slippery to handle, particularly when placing them in your ears or the case.

Solid Comfort with Minor Ergonomic Issues

In terms of comfort, we find a well-mastered semi-in-ear shape that holds firmly in place without ever causing discomfort. Three sizes of ear tips are provided, but we would have appreciated a fourth, slightly larger pair to guarantee perfect fit for all ear shapes. Also worth noting is the IP55 certification, always welcome for sports use. Be careful though: the earbuds tend to move slightly during sudden movements, such as running.

Touch controls are located on the stems and their operation is relatively intuitive. Two taps start or pause playback, three taps on the left move to the next track, and three on the right return to the previous one. A long press allows you to switch between active noise reduction and transparency mode.

It's effective, but not perfect. On one hand, the glossy coating tends to make gestures slippery, which affects precision. On the other hand, volume adjustment is done by sliding your finger on the stem—an interesting idea on paper, but again impractical in use due to the lack of grip. A physical button or matte coating would likely have provided a better experience.

Compatible with the Realme Link app (on Android and iOS), the Buds Air7 Pro can be extensively customized. You can choose the intensity of the ANC, customize controls, activate spatial audio, or even select ambient sounds to improve concentration during work.

The app also offers a fairly simple but effective manual equalizer, which notably allows you to correct a slight imbalance in the treble (we'll come back to this). There are also practical functions like earbud location or firmware updates.

On the connectivity side, Realme doesn't do things by halves: Bluetooth 5.4 multipoint, Microsoft Swift Pair, and Google Fast Pair compatibility are all included. In daily use, switching from one device to another is smooth, with no delay or untimely disconnection.

Realme proudly announces active noise reduction reaching 53 dB. In reality, we're far from it. In an open office, the Buds Air7 Pro manage to effectively attenuate ambient noise—conversations, fans, or keyboard clicks. But on the street or in public transport, performance collapses against more irregular sounds or bass frequencies.

This is better than on the Buds Air6 Pro, which tended to let in quite a bit of ambient noise, but we're still far from the level of market leaders, even in this price range. We still appreciate the presence of a "wind resistance" mode, designed to limit the breath captured by the microphones. It works... but at the cost of a reduction in overall ANC efficiency.

The transparency mode clearly lacks naturalness. It gives an artificial impression, with somewhat robotic voices, which limits its use to short interactions.

Excellent Call Quality

As a hands-free kit, the results are very positive. In a quiet environment, the voice is clear, without audible compression. As soon as noise increases around you, the earbuds activate filters that effectively attenuate background noise. It works, despite artifacts on the voice, which then seems a bit compressed or choppy. But the call remains intelligible.

On the sound side, Realme plays continuity with the Buds Air6 Pro. We find the same duo of transducers: an 11mm dynamic speaker for bass and a 6mm microplanar tweeter for treble. The big difference is that this configuration seems much better mastered this time.

The bass is rich, deep, and dynamic, with very satisfying impact. Fans of pop, electronic, or hip-hop music will be delighted. The midrange is warm, with beautiful vocal rendering, well forward without being intrusive. The treble lacks some brilliance by default, but this can be corrected via the app's equalizer.

Wide Soundstage with Good Separation

The soundstage is quite airy, with good instrument separation for earbuds of this size. It's not hi-fi, but you can feel a real improvement over the previous generation. Spatial audio mode is still offered, but as often, it lacks subtlety. More than an immersive effect, it mainly gives the impression of having activated a somewhat forced "loudness" mode, which over-accentuates bass and treble without finesse. Better to stick with classic listening.

In summary, the sound of the Buds Air7 Pro is flattering and very pleasant for the majority of modern musical genres. These aren't earbuds for audiophiles, nor for fans of jazz or classical music, but they perfectly fulfill their role in daily use. A word on the LDHC lossless codec, which is more of a marketing argument here given material quality that struggles to take advantage of it.

With 6 hours and 15 minutes of continuous listening with ANC activated, the Realme Buds Air7 Pro fall into the good market average. Each earbud has a 62 mAh battery, supplemented by a 530 mAh case that allows for approximately 26 hours of total use.

This is very decent, without being exceptional. We especially appreciate that the earbuds charge quickly once in the case, with about 10 minutes to regain 2 hours of listening. No wireless charging support is offered, but at this price, it remains logical.