Realme has refreshed its number series TWS lineup for 2025 with the launch of Realme Buds Air 7. Coming with an overhauled design, the new earphones go big on active noise cancellation, battery life, and upper-end codec support. But how does it fare in real-world usage? After using the TWS for around two weeks, here’s my Realme Buds Air 7 review, which breaks down the earphones’ sound quality, app features, ANC quality, and more.
Table of Contents
Unboxing and design
Let’s kick off the review with unboxing. Right after you pull out the tray from the box, you’re greeted with the Realme Buds Air 7’s charging case in plastic wrapping. This case houses the pair of earbuds with the default eartips attached and a reset button. Digging further into the box, you’ll find additional ear tips of different sizes along with the user guide manual and warranty card.
Surprisingly, Realme no longer bundles a charging cable which was not the case with Realme Buds Air 6, which came with a white coloured USB Type-A to Type-C cable.
Design
Coming to the design, the Realme Buds Air 7’s case has a plastic construction with matte finishing throughout. The buds firmly sit in the case using powerful magnets to the point you may require some force to pull them out. We received the Ivory Gold variant of the Realme Buds Air 7 as the review unit, which features an opaque lid, unlike the Lavender Purple and Moss Green variants. The other colours have a semi-transparent plastic lid, which could incur more scratches over time.
Realme has deviated from the pebble-like case design found on previous generations in favour of a jewellery box design. The earbuds, which are in-ear style have also received a redesign as they feature an almost flat matte stem on the outer area and a glossy plastic on the inside.
The charging case has an LED indicator up front which turns green when the lid is opened and glows red when its battery is below 20 percent. At the back, there’s a Type-C port along with “Hi-Res Audio” branding. It’s worth pointing out that there’s no indent below the lid, which made opening the case extremely difficult with one hand. This also has to do with the flat design which isn’t as grippable as pebble-like cases.
Comfortability, fit and touch controls
The earbuds of Realme Buds Air 7 are compact and lightweight and do not stick out much when worn. Even with usage for long durations, such as two to three hours, the earbuds didn’t cause pain or discomfort. The tapping controls were reliable and worked every time I double-tapped or triple-tapped the top of the earbuds’ stem to play/pause music or switch to the next/previous track, respectively.
Specs, features and app
The key specifications of the Realme Buds Air 7 include a 12.4mm dynamic bass driver, Smart Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) of up to 52dB using six mics, 45ms super-low latency (using Game mode), Google Fast Pair, 360-degree Spatial Audio, tap controls, Bluetooth version 5.4, LHDC 5.0, SBC and AAC codes, and IP55 dust and water resistance for the earbuds.
To access the vast variety of features the TWS offers, users will have to download the Realme Link app, available on Play Store and App Store and sign up using a Realme account. Realme phones can access all the functionality and controls within the Bluetooth settings. You can view the battery percentage and enable ANC or Transparency modes right after opening the app.
I have covered the core sound-related features in the ‘Sound’ section; meanwhile, here are the other functionalities the app offers and my experience using them:
- High-definition sound: Enable this to listen to music using the LHDC 5.0 codec.
- Volume enhancer: Although the Realme Buds Air 7 delivers extremely high sound at maximum volume level, this feature further boosts the sound. I didn’t find myself using the feature often during my usage as the default volume was more than sufficient.
- Spatial Audio: This option creates an immersive sound environment in which you’ll be able to hear tunes, vocals, and instruments from all directions. In my experience, enabling Spatial Audio distorted the music and hampered the essence of the songs.
- Dolby Atmos: This option opens the Dolby Atmos settings if your phone supports it.
- Dual-device connection: You can connect two devices to the TWS and switch between them by pausing the audio on either one. This feature worked flawlessly between my phone and laptop.
- Game mode: Enabling this reduces the latency so that the visuals and sound are synced together in games.
- Earbud fit test: The Realme Buds Air 7 can be altered to produce the best sound quality based on your ear canals.
- In-ear detection: The audio is paused when removing the buds from your ears.
- Button settings: Both earbuds can be customised to perform an action for a double tap, triple tap, and touch and hold to play/pause audio, go to the next track, enable/disable ANC mode, and enable/disable Game mode.
Sound and ANC
The Realme Link app offers frequency sliders to granuly adjust the low, medium, and high frequency levels. To get more control over sound, the “EQ mode” features predefined sound effects such as Serenade, Original, Pure Bass, and Deep Bass. Then there’s also the custom equalizer, which is ideal if your phone doesn’t have an in-built equalizer.
Sound quality
The Realme Buds Air 7 offers a balanced sound profile emphasising the lows and mids with almost perfect highs. In the Original sound preset, the bass is thumpy and doesn’t bleed into the vocals and treble. I said the highs are almost perfect because in songs like Dancing In The Flames by The Weeknd, the treble was not as emphasised as it should be. This was more or less true for other songs such as The Emptiness Machine from Linkin Park, where the vocals were clear, but the highs felt ever so slightly lacking.
Fortunately, increasing the high frequencies from Realme Link’s equaliser made the sound profile perfect for my liking. For bass lovers, this TWS gets the job done surprisingly well, as it’s punchy, hits hard and feels satisfying. The sound experience was better than the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro, whose price hovers around Rs 3,000. This TWS prominently focuses on bass while recessing the mids and highs. The Realme Buds Air 7, on the other hand, felt more refined with a good emphasis on vocals, bass, and treble (with tuning).
ANC
One of the major highlights of the Realme Buds Air 7 is the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) of up to 52dB. I tested the ANC capabilities by setting it to the maximum settings. As for its performance, the ANC did a great job in cutting down the whirring sound of a ceiling fan and the loud chatter in public places like Metro and road traffic. However, the noise does not completely shut out, and you can still hear muffled, high-pitched sounds at close distances, such as people talking or cars honking or passing by.
Charging and battery
The charging case of Realme Buds Air 7 is equipped with a 480mAh battery, while each earbud features a 62mAh battery. During my usage, the case was able to last for around five days on a single charge when frequently using the TWS for watching OTT content, YouTube videos and listening to songs with ANC routinely enabled and disabled.
When both earbuds were fully charged, the charging case took an hour to charge from 10 to 90 percent. On the other hand, Realme claims the earbuds and charging case, when completely drained, can take 120 minutes to juice up.
Verdict
Coming at a price of Rs 3,299 (without offers), the Realme Buds Air 7 is loaded with features and functionalities that come in handy for day-to-day usage, such as dual device connection, customisable controls, and in-ear detection, which I found myself often using. The sound quality offered is crystal clear and balanced with a premium-level bass. The ANC works as intended and shuts down the external sound to a great extent. If you’re in the market for a TWS under Rs 3,500, you can go ahead with the Realme Buds Air 7.
Editor’s rating: 8/10
Pros:
- Crystal clear and balanced sound with a premium-level bass
- Loaded with useful features
- Great battery life
- Comfortable fit
Cons:
- Realme Link requires sign up
- Spatial audio could be better
- Difficult to remove earbuds from case
