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Christian Thomas / SoundGuys

EarFun Air Pro 3 review

These 'buds are affordable, but come with caveats.
By

Published onJune 21, 2024

7
EarFun Air Pro 3
The bottom line
The EarFun Air Pro 3 do exactly what it says on the box: no more, no less. However, with audible distortion and poor ANC, you'll probably find comparable options that perform a bit better at the same price.

EarFun Air Pro 3

The EarFun Air Pro 3 do exactly what it says on the box: no more, no less. However, with audible distortion and poor ANC, you'll probably find comparable options that perform a bit better at the same price.
Product release date
2023
Price
$82.99
Dimensions
Case: L x W x H mm
Earbuds: 21 x 20 x 32 mm
Ear tip diameter: 5mm
Weight
5.2g
Model Number
‎EarFun Air Pro 3 ANC
Waterproof
IPX5
What we like
Price
Specs
aptX Adaptive connectivity
Easy fit
What we don't like
Weak ANC
Audible distortion
7
SoundGuys Rating
7.8
User Rating
Rating Metric
Our Rating
User Rating
Isolation / Attenuation
5.2
7.5
8.0
Active Noise Cancelling
6.0
6.0
6.0
Durability / Build Quality
8.4
10.0
10.0
Value
6.3
10.0
10.0
Design
7.0
4.0
4.0
Connectivity
8.5
10.0
10.0
Portability
9.7
10.0
10.0
Battery Life
5.3
5.0
5.0
Feature
6.5
7.0
7.0
Comfort
7.1
8.0
8.0
MDAQS rating
Learn more
Timbre
4.9
Distortion
1.4
Immersiveness
4.5
Overall
4.6

Those looking for a great deal often jump at the chance when presented with a bargain. The EarFun Air Pro 3 offers current-gen specs and features for under $100, so what’s the catch? We tested to find out.

Editor’s note: this is the first version of the article. Updates will follow as the market changes.

About this EarFun Air Pro 3 review: We tested the EarFun Air Pro 3 over 7 days. The earbuds firmware version 1.1.4, and the EarFun app ran version 20.0.5. The company provided the unit for this review.

The EarFun Air Pro 3 is for a bargain-hunter that is looking for a very bass and treble-heavy sound.

What’s it like to use EarFun Air Pro 3?

A top-down photo of the EarFun Air Pro 3 and the contents of its packaging.
Christian Thomas / SoundGuys
The EarFun Air Pro 3 comes with extra sizes of ear tips, and a USB-C charging cable.

The EarFun Air Pro 3 is a set of lollipop-styled earbuds with an aggressively forward-angled stem. The buds fit into a relatively small charging case, which enables charging over USB or wirelessly with any Qi-compatible charging pad. EarFun may not have made the most exciting earbuds ever, but it did debut a product with a lot of nice touches for something on the more affordable end of the market.

The earbuds have short nozzles, which is good for those who aren’t a huge fan of the brain tickle longer ones give. The nozzle is that little bit hidden behind the ear tip that sticks into your ear. A shorter nozzle is also a great way to make sure your product will fit a wider array of people. Consequently, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me that I could wear the EarFun Air Pro 3 for hours without too much discomfort. I’d still prefer a more ovoid shape, but that may be too much to ask at this price point.

A photo of the EarFun Air Pro 3 being stuffed into a man's jeans pocket.
The charging case is quite small, enough to be shoved into a pocket easily.

For those of you who really punish their earbuds through workouts, the EarFun Air Pro 3 bears an ingress protection rating of IPX5. This simply means that you probably couldn’t kill the earbuds with a squirt gun. However, that doesn’t mean that these earbuds are waterproof; you just can’t sweat through the casing. They won’t survive a swim.

A close-up photo of the EarFun Air Pro 3's nozzle.
Christian Thomas / SoundGuys
A short nozzle means an easier fit, fewer issues.

Like many of the more well-polished earbuds out there, using the EarFun Air Pro 3 is as simple as it gets. You don’t really think about them being there; they just are. Over time, the silicone eartips will build up heat, but that’s true of any earbuds.

Playback and call controls for the EarFun Air Pro 3 are accomplished by a series of taps and long presses on the backs of each earbud.

EarFun Air Pro 3 controls:

InputLeft earbudRight earbud
Input
Single tap
Left earbud
Volume down
Right earbud
Volume up
Input
Double tap
Left earbud
Pause/play
Right earbud
Pause/play
Input
Triple tap
Left earbud
Previous track
Right earbud
Next track
Input
Long press
Left earbud
Noise canceling
Right earbud
Voice assistant

Should you use the EarFun app for the EarFun Air Pro 3?

Using the EarFun app unlocks some fun extras, like controlling ANC level and a lower-latency game mode. You’ll also occasionally need it for firmware updates, so even if you’re privacy-conscious, you’ll need to install the app occasionally.

There’s also a six-band equalizer with three equalizer presets that you can save if you get creative and make situation-specific presets that you’d like to swap to on a whim. While we usually look for something a little more fleshed-out, it’s a fair sight better than what’s offered by some of the more popular brands out there.

How do the EarFun Air Pro 3 connect?

The EarFun Air Pro 3 connects to your phone or computer with Bluetooth 5.3 via AAC, SBC, or aptX Adaptive. However, iPhone owners should note that the aptX family of codecs will not be available to use with their phones — the best you can use is AAC. This is really fine, though, as this codec often results in much better latency than SBC on Android and Windows.

If you often swap between two devices, the EarFun Air Pro 3 supports Multipoint, but only with two devices.

Like most Bluetooth products, you can pair the EarFun Air Pro 3 to a source device — your phone, or computer — by following some straightforward steps.

  1. Open the charging case of the EarFun Air Pro 3 and place the earbuds into pairing mode by pressing the button on the charging case for three seconds.
  2. Open the Bluetooth menu on your device and scan for new devices.
  3. Select the EarFun Air Pro 3 on the list of available devices.

How long does the EarFun Air Pro 3 battery last?

Withstanding our standardized battery test for 6 hours and 26 minutes, the EarFun Air Pro 3 performs better than average for earbuds. Though this kind of performance isn’t quite good enough to last for an intercontinental flight or anything, but it’s more than enough for your morning commute. Given that you’re going to be charging the earbuds anytime you’re not using them, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about as long as your charging case gets topped off now and again.

EarFun boasts that the EarFun Air Pro 3 can be charged for 10 minutes and achieve 2 hours of playback time.

How well do the EarFun Air Pro 3 cancel noise?

Loading chart ...

While the EarFun Air Pro 3’s ANC is fairly weak, the product does a decent job of isolation, so the story isn’t as bad as the above lines on a chart appear. Still, you can “only” expect to have about 60% of outside noise attenuated by the time it reaches your ears. Not terrible, not amazing by today’s standards. Of course, this will vary a lot depending on factors such as fit, so be sure to take the time to re-fit the earbuds if you notice something amiss. However, don’t try to chase perfection, as you likely won’t be able to find it.

How do the EarFun Air Pro 3 sound?

Though most people will like the sound of the EarFun Air Pro 3, those with sensitive, young, or trained ears will notice distortion.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the sound of the EarFun Air Pro 3 was assessed by the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics.

This chart shows the MDAQS results for the EarFun FreePro 3 in Default mode. The Timbre score is 4.7, The Distortion score is 3.4, the Immersiveness score is 4.8, and the Overall Score is 4.5.
You’re gonna notice some off-putting distortion.

The high overall score heavily depends on that very good Timbre score and the uncommonly good immersiveness. However, after several tests and retests, the distortion rates as something that most people will find off-putting. I can see the earbuds as an okay option for someone listening to non-music content, or listening to music in a noisy setting, but the truth of the matter is that these earbuds are not going to satisfy pickier audiophiles.

  • Timbre (MOS-T) represents how faithfully the earbuds reproduce the frequency spectrum and temporal resolution (timing information).
  • Distortion (MOS-D) represents non-linearities and added noise: higher scores mean cleaner reproduction.
  • Immersiveness (MOS-I) represents perceived source width and positioning: how well virtual sound sources are defined in three-dimensional space.

See here for an explanation of MDAQS, how it works, and how it was developed.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

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The EarFun Air Pro 3 is a fair bit bassier than we typically look to see, but that’s a plus for many people and more of a matter of taste. From middle-C and lower, the emphasis rises to over 8dB over our target, which is quite loud for bass and sub-bass. There is a dip in the mids from 266Hz to 1.1kHz, and then an overemphasis in the highs up until 8.1kHz. This is a fairly common feature seen in earbuds that have strong bass, and it helps some of the smaller details like instrument attack and room effects stay audible.

Though the frequency response doesn’t extend into the highs as much as I’d like, the EarFun Air Pro 3 does maintain a decent level of emphasis even above 10kHz. This translates to a very “V-shaped” sound, which strongly emphasizes bass and treble over mids — a popular sound, even if it isn’t something enthusiasts typically gravitate towards.

Loading chart ...

Turning the ANC off yields a much less bassy response, and you might quite like it. If you don’t count yourself as a bass addict, you may like the somewhat less loud low end. Considering that the ANC is so poor to begin with, you’re not sacrificing much should you go this route.

Can you use the EarFun Air Pro 3 for phone calls?

Just like you can with most other earphones, the EarFun Air Pro 3 is more than capable of handling a phone or video chat. Below are samples collected in our labs:

EarFun Air Pro 3 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

How does the microphone sound to you?

80 votes

EarFun Air Pro 3 microphone demo (Office conditions):

EarFun Air Pro 3 microphone demo (Street conditions):

EarFun Air Pro 3 microphone demo (Windy conditions):

EarFun Air Pro 3 microphone demo (Reverberant space):

As you can hear above, the EarFun Air Pro 3 struggles a bit with environmental and wind noise. Consequently, we recommend finding a less-breezy area to take calls if you use these earbuds.

Should you buy the EarFun Air Pro 3?

A photo of the EarFun Air Pro 3 earbuds in someone's hand.
Christian Thomas / SoundGuys
The EarFun Air Pro 3 has its flaws, but these earbuds are also affordable.

On sale, these earbuds could be worth it to someone merely looking for earbuds with wireless charging and up-to-date hardware, but I wouldn’t recommend these over many other options in the under-$100 price bracket. Sure, the specs are nothing to sniff at, and the performance is about what you can expect for this category, but there are too many models that compete with the EarFun Air Pro 3 at similar prices that I’ll generally recommend other products. That’s not to say that this is a bad product by any stretch — it’s okay — but I’m not sure it makes a compelling case for your dollar.

EarFun Air Pro 3
EarFun Air Pro 3
EarFun Air Pro 3
Price • Specs • aptX Adaptive connectivity
MSRP: $82.99
These 'buds are affordable, but come with caveats.
The EarFun Air Pro 3 do exactly what it says on the box: no more, no less. However, with audible distortion and poor ANC, you'll probably find comparable options that perform a bit better at the same price.

That said, the EarFun Air Pro 3 ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of people looking for a bargain, and aren’t terribly concerned with pristine audio quality. If you want creature comforts that you typically can’t find under $100, wait until these go on sale to grab a pair.

What should you get instead of the EarFun Air Pro 3?

Bargain hunters looking for affordable ANC earbuds are going to have to make tradeoffs, but there are plenty of options out there for those in the market for a portable music buddy. I strongly recommend increasing your budget by a couple of Hamiltons. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE ($99 at Amazon) offers pretty much everything the EarFun Air Pro 3 does, but with better ANC performance. So, too, does the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC ($99.99 at Amazon). You could also stick with EarFun, as the EarFun Free Pro 3 ($79.99 at Amazon) has a lot of what the EarFun Air Pro 3 have to offer at a similar price, but with better sound quality.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds FE have a tiny charging case.
Harley Maranan / SoundGuys
The Samsung Galaxy Buds FE offer better performance, at a slightly higher cost.

Alternatively, you could forgo the IPX5 water resistance and go for the ultra-cheap Moondrop Space Travel ($24.99 at Amazon). These earbuds sound better, have better ANC, and much lower price.

Frequently asked questions

The EarFun Air Pro 3 has an ingress protection rating of IPX5.

Yes, you can use any Qi-compatible charging pad.

Yes.

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