Xiaomi has been busy updating its smartphone lineup for this year and with that, they have showered some love over to their audio products as well. We saw the Mi Outdoor Bluetooth speaker launch a while back and now we have the Mi In-ear dual-driver earphones.
Coming in at INR 799, they are a mix between their Mi in-ear basic earphones and their high-end Mi in-ear pro’s. Interestingly these also are the cheapest dual-driver earphones currently available in the market. We spent a couple of days testing out these, so let’s find out if they’re worth it in our full review.
Box Contents
- Mi dual-driver in-ear earphones
- Extra ear tips
- Documentation & Warranty guide
Design & Fit
As far as design goes, the earphones feel sturdy and well built. This is Xiaomi’s Made in India and Made for India product and it reflects in the making. You get a fairly standard length braided cable from the Y-junction down to the 3.5mm audio jack, while the earphones have a rubber cable. The braided cable is good for rigidity and prevents the cable from kinking or tangling. The jack here is L-shaped and gold plated for the better audio experience.
Moving to the earbuds, they have metal housing with two color options, blue and black and we got the blue variant with us for testing. The paint job is matte, which seems apt here. The element that gives character to the otherwise standard design is the carbon-fiber finish on the back of buds. The buds have magnetic backs, which lets you attach the two of them together, something that is common on Bluetooth earphones.
The right speaker cable houses the remote and microphone with the standard three-button layout. The volume buttons only work on Android devices, and not on iOS. That being said, you can use the middle click button on all devices, along with the microphone. There are three sets of ear tips in the packaging, they do feel cheap and we would recommend getting a good pair of ear tips. Xiaomi has given a nice touch to them by adding grills, to prevent ear wax and debris from going in.
Coming to the fit, the angled earbuds help by giving a sturdy fit, in our case, the medium tips did the job well but we still insist on getting a good pair of ear tips. Apart from this, there’s not much to explore in terms of design.
Performance
The Mi Dual driver earphones pack a pair of 10mm and 8mm dynamic drivers on either side. Usually, we see dual drivers with one dynamic and the other being a balanced driver, that’s not the case here, obviously to save cost. In terms of sound, they definitely are bass-heavy, which our Indian audiences love.
Looking at our tests, we feel like both the drivers are tuned for providing optimum lows while keeping mids and highs on the back burner. The mids are affected by the bass boost, that feeds over the lower-midrange. One thing we did admire was the decent instrument separation. That being said, in a couple of tracts, we did notice the audio sounding one-dimensional.
The high-end is average, certainly not the best one we’ve seen at this price point. If you’re someone that wants to churn out the best out of these, then you will have to be patient and set EQs for individual apps. For undemanding users, these will work quite well right out of the box. On comparing with the Realme Buds 2, the results were comparable in some areas while the Mi Dual drivers took the lead overall.
Verdict – Should you buy it?
There is no denying that the Mi Dual Driver in-ear earphones are the cheapest dual-driver earbuds that are currently available in the market from a name brand. The earphones are definitely tuned and made for keeping in mind the average users. The soundstage in our opinion could’ve been better if tuned a little differently.
That being said, if you are patient enough, this can be resolved simply by changing the EQ settings on your device. The audio via the microphone is great, coupled with the noise isolation, makes them good for taking calls.
People looking at these should check out the Audio Technica ATH CLR 100s as well which have been dominating the under INR 1,000 price category or the Sennheiser 180s.
