Indian personal audio brand Noise is among the leading brands in its category, largely thanks to its competitive pricing and ability to deliver features not normally seen in budget products. It’s a smart approach that Noise has used to strengthen its position in some of the hottest and fastest-moving categories in gadgets, including earphones and smartwatches. The latest product sticks to this formula for success and offers a feature normally seen on pricier products for less than Rs. 2,000.
Priced at Rs. 1,899, the Noise Buds Venus True Wireless earphones offer active noise cancellation, making the once premium feature a lot more accessible given the strong pricing. One of the most affordable true wireless earphones with ANC that you can buy right now, the Noise Buds Venus promises a lot for the price. Does this make the Venus the best true wireless headset for under Rs. 2,000 that you can buy now? Find out in this review.
The Noise Buds Venus earphones have an IPX5 rating for water resistance
Noise Buds Venus design, features and specifications
While most true wireless earphones you can buy today look quite generic, the Noise Buds Venus look quite distinct and fit the brand’s aesthetic approach. The earbuds have an interesting combination of glossy and dull finishes, which matches how the charging case looks. This sets the earphones apart from most others in this price segment, which usually look as their price suggests.
The Noise Buds Venus earphones themselves have touch-sensitive areas for the controls and an in-canal fit that provides good noise isolation to support the active noise cancellation. They’re a bit big and stick out a bit, but they’re light (only 3.5g each) and don’t feel too bulky when worn. I found the fit comfortable, even with the standard medium-sized eartips, but there are extra pairs in the box – three pairs in total – for a bit of fit customizability. The box also includes a charging cable (USB Type-A to Type-C) and an instruction leaflet (which you’ll need to get the hang of the controls).
Interestingly, the Noise Buds Venus tend to have more premium features like active noise cancellation and a low-latency gaming mode, but there’s strangely no companion app to support these. There’s also ambient noise cancellation, with a quad-microphone system allowing ENC, ANC and voice communications on the headset.
Controls for the Noise Buds Venus are fairly simple and cannot be changed given the lack of app support, but you can expect to be able to control all these functions directly from the earbuds themselves – you’ll need the instruction leaflet for this. Eventually you’ll get used to the controls; they’re easy enough to master, relying on different combinations of taps to control everything, including playback, volume, ANC and game mode.
The Noise Buds Venus charging case is neither too small nor too big, and only has a USB Type-C port for charging at the bottom and an indicator light just below the brand logo. It fits easily in your pocket, supports fast charging, and is conveniently large enough to give the earbuds quite a bit of extra charge – more on that later. The headset comes in four color options: black, brown, green and ivory, all of which look nice in my opinion.
The charging case of the Noise Buds Venus has a USB Type-C port
In terms of specs, the Noise Buds Venus has 10mm dynamic drivers and Bluetooth 5.3 for connectivity, with support for the SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. The earbuds have an IPX5 rating for water resistance and can handle light splashes of water and sweat without any problems. There’s also support for voice assistance, which calls up the default voice assistant on your paired smartphone.
Noise Buds Venus performance and battery life
True wireless earphones with active noise cancellation for less than Rs. 2,000 is a pretty impressive statement on its own, but what makes it even better is that the Noise Buds Venus are actually a pretty good pair of earphones when it comes to performance. Some of it is backed by technically sound specs like support for the AAC Bluetooth codec and Bluetooth 5.3, but the earphones are also quite well-tuned for the price.
Considering this is where most affordable wireless earphones fall short, decent tuning is actually half the battle won for the Noise Buds Venus. I was surprised by how clean and uncomplicated the sound was, striking a good balance between getting the right sonic signature and a decent level of detail.
When listening to Friendly Fires’ Paris (Aeroplane Remix) at moderate volumes, the sound had just the right level of low-end attack, with hints of high-end sparkle audible in the upbeat track. It was a pleasantly engaging listening experience that allowed me to focus on the music without any jarring distractions in the sound itself. That’s really the point of cheap wireless earphones, and the Noise Buds Venus do it well without trying too hard.
Volume changes don’t affect sound quality any more than you’d expect, and thankfully there’s no volume ‘target zone’ where the Noise Buds Venus performs at its best. This was useful as I could tailor my listening to my mood or depending on how quiet my environment was, although I’d say the 60 percent volume level was usually sufficient for indoor listening, rising to around 70 percent for outdoor listening.
The Noise Buds Venus have active noise cancellation, but no app; this isn’t really a problem as all functions can be controlled via the earbuds
The Noise Buds Venus can get quite loud when necessary, but I did notice some harshness in the sound above the 90 percent volume level. In normal use it’s unlikely you’ll need to go that high, and the Noise Buds Venus largely keeps up with modern genres, even at moderate volumes. Call quality is acceptable for most use cases, but the Noise Buds Venus struggled a bit in louder environments during voice calls.
Active noise cancellation on the Noise Buds Venus is expectedly basic given the earphones’ price tag, offering only a mild reduction in ambient noise without neutralizing it entirely. Even simple indoor sounds, such as the hum of a ceiling fan, were still audible when ANC was enabled, while outdoor sounds were even less affected.
That said, it’s useful for making music a little easier to listen to, even at moderate volumes, so it’s not entirely without use. However, it doesn’t quite match the level of performance you get with even the relatively affordable Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro, so consider ANC on this as a bonus rather than a USP of the Noise Buds Venus.
The battery life of the Noise Buds Venus is decent for the price. The earphones lasted about 5 hours per charge with ANC turned on and the volume at 60 percent, while the charging case added four additional charges to the earbuds. This provided around 25 hours of listening time per charge cycle, and even with mixed use you could certainly get close to the figure I got during testing. There’s fast charging for the case, with a 10-minute charge promising to give you around 2 hours of listening time.
Pronunciation
Active noise cancellation on budget true wireless headsets tends to be very basic, and that’s especially true if you’re dealing with an entry-level product. That’s even the case with the Noise Buds Venus, which delivers a very basic ANC experience that only makes a small difference to the overall experience, but is still nice to have. The lack of an app may be a nuisance to some, but in most other respects the Venus is a pretty good pair of earphones for the price.
The sound quality and battery life are good, and the simple design leaves no reason to complain. This is perhaps the best you can expect for less than Rs. 2,000 in the category given the typically unusual addition of ANC, and it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for new true wireless earphones at this price right now.
