Realme Buds Air 6 Pro Review: Dual-Driver Sound Meets 40dB ANC

Finding great wireless earbuds under $100 used to mean picking one trade-off or another — decent ANC with average sound, or great sound with weak noise blocking. After two weeks of daily use, my Realme Buds Air 6 Pro review landed on a different conclusion: this is the first sub-$100 pair I've tested that genuinely does both well, and one of the stronger picks in our best budget wireless earbuds guide. I wore them through commutes, back-to-back Zoom calls, and late-night listening sessions with LDAC switched on, and here's everything I found.

Before the deep dive, here's how the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro stacks up against its closest rivals at a glance. A full spec breakdown follows further down.

The best part of the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro is clearly the dual-driver setup. It pairs an 11mm dynamic driver for deep bass with a planar tweeter for clear, sharp highs. As a result, the sound is wide and detailed — something I simply didn't expect from earbuds under $100.

Instruments stay well separated. Vocals sit cleanly in the center, and bass hits hard without covering the mids. Of everything I tested during these two weeks, the sound is the biggest reason to buy these earbuds.

With LDAC turned on for Android, streaming high-quality tracks from Tidal or Spotify at maximum quality shows a real improvement. I noticed more detail, more air around vocals, and tighter bass. The difference compared to AAC is easy to hear on well-recorded tracks, according to the official LDAC technology overview from Sony, which transmits at up to roughly three times the data rate of standard Bluetooth codecs.

That said, LDAC has one trade-off: turning it on disables multipoint, the ability to connect to two devices at once. For most music fans, that's a small price for better sound.

Realme rates the ANC at up to 40dB of noise blocking. In practice, it works very well against low-frequency noise — bus engine hum, air conditioning, and office background chatter all nearly disappeared during testing.

The adaptive ANC mode uses the built-in microphones to check your surroundings and adjust in real time, which worked well on my daily commute. Overall, the ANC feels like it belongs on earbuds that cost 50% more. If ANC alone is your priority, our best ANC earbuds under $100 roundup has more options at this price.

Yes — transparency mode is one of the better implementations at this price. It lets you hear your surroundings without removing the earbuds, and it sounds natural rather than hollow or robotic, unlike some cheaper alternatives.

High-pitched sounds, like a colleague speaking directly to you, still come through even with ANC on. That's true for nearly every earbud in this price range, not just the Realme.

Call quality is good, but it isn't the Air 6 Pro's strongest point. In quiet rooms and on quiet streets, voices came through clearly. In busy or windy conditions, callers occasionally said my voice sounded a little processed.

For everyday calls, these work fine. But if you spend four or more hours daily on Zoom, Teams, or phone calls, the EarFun Air Pro 3 has a clear mic advantage — see our best budget earbuds for Zoom meetings guide for heavy-call picks. For music and ANC, the Realme wins by a wide margin. Our earbuds with the best mic quality for calls guide breaks this down further.

Real-world battery results closely matched Realme's claims. With ANC off and volume around 65%, I consistently got 7.5 to 8 hours per charge. With ANC on, that dropped to about 5 hours, which is normal for this class of earbud.

The case holds enough power for about 36 hours total, so most people can go 4 to 5 days between charges — a full work week for most users.

One of the best extra features here is wireless charging on the case, which is rare under $100. A quick 15-minute USB-C charge also gives you about 2 hours of playback for when you're in a hurry.

If battery life is your top concern, the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC offers up to 50 hours total, though it lacks LDAC and the dual-driver setup. See our wireless earbuds with the best battery life under $100 for more long-runtime options.

The Realme Buds Air 6 Pro has a clean in-ear design with a short stem and looks more expensive than its price suggests. The case has a firm magnetic close and a small LED to show battery status.

Build quality is solid — it feels similar to earbuds that cost twice as much. The dark color and angular shape give it a premium look that stands out from most budget earbuds.

Fit was secure for most of my testing during commuting and light workouts. The box includes four ear tip sizes (XS, S, M, L), so finding a good seal — key for ANC performance — is easy.

IPX5 water resistance, as defined by the IEC's ingress protection rating standard, means the earbuds handle sweat and light rain without issue. I wouldn't recommend swimming with them or leaving them in heavy rain, though.

Touch controls are easy to use and fully customizable in the Realme Link app. The default setup — tap to play or pause, double-tap to skip, triple-tap to go back, long-press to switch ANC — feels natural, and accidental touches were rare thanks to good touch-area placement.

In gaming mode, latency measured about 45ms — good enough for casual mobile games like PUBG Mobile or Free Fire, where audio-visual sync matters but split-second reaction isn't life-or-death. For competitive PC gaming, a wired headset is still the better choice. If low latency is your main requirement, check our best gaming earbuds under $50 guide for dedicated low-latency picks.

LDAC is Android-only, since it's a Sony-developed codec that Apple hasn't adopted. iPhone users aren't left out, though — the earbuds use AAC on iOS, which still sounds very good. For most casual listeners, the gap between AAC and LDAC is hard to notice on everyday tracks. Bluetooth 5.4, per the Bluetooth SIG's Core Specification 5.4 overview, also keeps connection stability solid across both platforms.

The default sound profile leans slightly V-shaped, with more bass and brighter highs. The Realme Link app gives you 8 EQ presets plus a custom EQ if you'd rather go flatter and more neutral.

Bluetooth 5.4 multipoint lets you pair with two devices at once — say, your laptop and your phone — and switch between them automatically. It works well here, as long as LDAC is off. If multipoint matters more to you than hi-res audio, our cheap earbuds with multipoint connection guide and best earbuds with multipoint Bluetooth roundup cover models that keep both features active at once.

Compared to the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, EarFun Air Pro 3, and CMF Buds Pro 2, the Realme Buds Air 6 Pro offers the best balance of ANC and sound quality under $100. Here's the full side-by-side breakdown, and our Realme Buds alternatives guide if you want to explore more options from other brands.