realme Buds T100 Hands-on

realme recently unveiled in the Philippines the realme Buds T100. It’s a pair of affordable TWS earbuds with a youthful design and AI ENC Noise Cancellation for calls. Is this a good partner for your realme smartphone? Read our hands-on below.

To get us started, the realme Buds T100 in the Philippines comes in two colors – Punk Black and Pop White. What we have is the latter.

The design of the case is nothing new. It’s made of high-quality plastic with the usual pebble design and a glossy finish. It has an LED indicator on the front and a USB-C port at the bottom for charging.

Open the case and you’ll see the pair of earbuds. It also has a glossy finish and a sleek contour with a smooth, flat exterior. This part also houses the touch controls for when playing music or when answering or ending a call.

The buds have IPX5 water resistance and use a soft, flexible high-polymer material for the eartips (comes with extra S, M, and L-sized tips). It has the right firmness and provides a proper seal in the ear without becoming uncomfortable. It’s light and has a good fit.

When you open the charging case, the realme Buds T100 becomes ready for pairing. It supports Google Fast Pair so a pop-up notification automatically appeared on my Android phone prompting me to connect. All I have to do is tap on the connect button and it will pair via Bluetooth right away. No need to go inside Bluetooth settings for that which is convenient. If you have the realme Link app installed on your phone, the realme Buds T100 is automatically listed on it, allowing you to tweak its settings or update the firmware, which is the first thing I did.

For the features, the realme Buds T100 has sound effects which include Bass Boost+, Balanced, and Bright. There’s Volume Enhancer to increase the volume, Game Mode for 88ms low latency when gaming, and the ability to customize the touch controls.

The audio quality is good for the price. It is equipped with 10mm dynamic bass drivers and PPEK+TPU titanium-plat composite dome diaphragms. When using the Balanced sound profile, the sweet spot is mostly in the mid-range and low-mids. It’s enough to make the vocals audible but not that lush and enough bass to deliver the thumps in bassy tracks but not boomy.

The Bass Boost+ effect seems to add more oomph but can still be a bit lacking, but considering the price, I’m probably just nitpicking. I think users who just want to casually use it to listen to some music, watch a movie, or play some games will still find this satisfying.

Battery life is one of the strengths of the realme Buds T100. The earbuds can provide up to 6 hours of playback on a single charge, which can be expanded up to 28 hours with the help of the charging case. Should it run empty, charging it for just 10 minutes can provide 2 hours of playback.

The realme Buds T100 has an SRP of PHP 1,299USD 22INR 1,877EUR 21CNY 161. It’s a good option for those who are looking for an affordable pair of earbuds that sounds good for the price.