The number of true wireless earbuds is growing by the month, with Apple's AirPods beating out Samsung's Galaxy Buds and Amazon Echo Buds, as well as manufacturers like Huawei and Anker. And now, Chinese smartphone maker Oppo is considering a return to the ring.

News media outlet 91mobiles has discovered two new true wireless earphone patents filed by Oppo: Oppo's current earphone model, the Enco Free, will soon be available in select international markets, including India and Malaysia, while the Apple It closely follows the design of the AirPod. Oppo's new plan is to offer two separate designs, one with an AirPods-style stem and one without an appearance more in line with Samsung's Galaxy Buds.

Each headphone design can be checked out below:

Oppo's Enco Free allows volume and song control via the stem. Slide your finger up and down the stem on the left earpiece to adjust the volume, and slide your finger up and down the stem on the right earpiece to skip in the middle of a song.

Without the stem, Oppo's new buds will need to be redesigned to keep the controls intuitive if the Chinese company wants to beat the big boys on the audio scene. Although not very clear in the image above, the presence of what appears to be physical buttons on the stemless buds may be a move toward redesigning these controls.

Both designs have microphones, which are expected to use beamforming technology where sensors map jaw movements to identify when you are on a call and adjust the volume appropriately to make the call intelligible. Most serious earbuds do this as well as wind blocking and active noise cancellation (similar to Enco Frees) to further enhance sound clarity and adjust listening volume as you go about your day.

Oppo's current Buds offer 5 hours of listening on a single charge, or up to 20 hours with the included charging case. This is comparable to Apple's first generation AirPods.

We expect Oppo's followers to surpass this time and last longer during calls, which consume significantly more power due to the Bud's greater use of features. We have not yet seen the charging case, but we assume it will have a USB-C charging port as usual. The biggest question is which design Oppo will go for.

As Oppo's stemmed Enco Free earbuds roll out to international markets, Chinese smartphone companies will be watching user response closely. Whether the earbuds do well or not may sway Oppo to stick with a design that works, or to ditch the stem and go a little more radical.

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