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M**E
Better than "known brand!" and I have tried many
This review will review these headphones towards the end but I'd like to share some info first about my use of headphones and a general view on what makes a good headphone for me, so that you can understand a little more why I like these and then can use this info to help your search for the perfect headphone (there is no perfect headphone, but you do want to find the perfect balance of budget/sound/convenience etc.I use in-ear headphones on a DAILY and NIGHTLY basis.I like my sound to be like a home cinema in your head, I listen to soundtracks, calming music and heavy metal and dance music for the gym.Over the years I have used headphones for commutes and just walking/exercising so just so you know what sort of person is giving this review and whether you can trust this info or not (lot of fabricated reviews out there and I always like to share a review if I want someone to feel confident in what they are buying) so headphones to me are a really important purchase.I have spent big money on headphones over the years and it got to the point that even the expensive ones break, need new buds, cable wears out too much etc etc. It has taken a lot of trial and error to find the right headphone for me. Eventually I managed to find one of my favourite "in ear" buds and these are called Skullcandy Ink'd.I actually remove the wax filters from inside them which make them sound even louder and clearer. You can find a lot of fake ones of these (avoid these, they sound dreadful, even had some on amazon at one point that were fake) but at a price at around £10 I always go for them.Great punchy sound to them with a great rumbly bass sound which I love, I use them on my xbox one controller that is paired to my PC and I use these skullcandy ink'd buds every other night to play games, the sound is brilliant and because it is in-ear i can get a more detailed and personal sound at lower levels because it is directly inside my ear, with bigger headsets I find that after a while they hurt the top of my head, and sometimes I just want to have one ear so can hear what is going on around me.I use headphones every single night listening to calming music and the sound of rain. So these skullcandy headphones durability last through all of this for about 2 years a pair.The sound quality is on par with anything from sony (my other go-to for headphones). I have tried more expensive brands, but a lot of these skimp on the bass sometimes, some then sound the same (perhaps a little better?) but then when they break then the cost to replace just gives you a bad taste in your mouth after.So for years now I have stuck with cabled in-ear headphones. I never ventured much into wireless because the battery on some wouldn't last through the night (id have to charge them every day being unable to use them in the day) and some brands skimp on the bass to increase battery life and others then are too big and protrude out so that this is no good for using them whilst laying down.With my phone being only USB C and with no headphone jack, it is making it harder and less convenient for me to use my beloved headphones with my phone because I have to use a headphone adaptor, which has since broken, and after buying about 7 or 8 different adaptors (ones that can charge at the same time as use the headphones) they break as they get snagged and the cable bends and breaks etc causing connection issues and a slight buzzing etc) it is time for me to think now about getting wireless ones.So finally we get to the wireless headphone part of the review lolWireless headphones for me have to be small enough to not stick out or get in the way or feel uncomfortable, have that same great in-ear sound as a cabled headphone, have a battery life that lasts through a whole night and part of the day and finally the budget has to be right because if I lose these (or the little batteries begin to lose their charge) then it'll be a waste of money and i'll just stick with the cabled headphones.I looked at what skullcandy had on offer and they were priced between £30 and £50 and the size of them looked like they stuck out a little too much.Sony ones, what are they thinking, £110+ for in-ear headphones and some come in luxury casing and all of this, I tried them on a demo and they sounded similar to my go-to headphones but for that price it just seemed silly to me.I had a look at these xiaomi ones and they are a drop in the ocean of the many unknown or "sorta known" brands of in-ear buds so I went on my previous experience with them..I have owned a xiaomi product before and this is the miband 2. Fantastic little device for step counter and heart rate etc, great build quality, can get replacement bands cheaply and easily etc..I bought my father in law a miband 4 and he absolutely loves it, he walks every day and he only has to charge his miband 4 ONCE A MONTH! It's crazy, so upon hearing that about the battery life - to hear xiaomi has made in-ear buds as well I think that the battery life could be good for these too!So when i was looking for in-ear wireless headphones, i was naturally going to go for Sony or Skull Candy. Because these two brands I like their sound, and also the price range is good (because headphones can get lost/damaged easily, so the higher cost for a better brand doesn't mean always a better sound or better product, there are so many different ear shapes and tastes of sound that even the best reviews would be no good for you as your tastes would be different to theirs).But for their wireless buds, they aren't really being better than the competition this time imo, especially Sony I think they are far too expensive for what they are even though they claim a high battery life and noise cancelling.My thoughts on noise cancelling? Basically the ONLY way to cancel noise is to wear some foam ear protectors and then a pair of giant ear protectors on top of those, this would be the true effective way to cancel noise (you would never really achieve true silence) the movement of trapped air inside then helps dampen harsh frequencies from entering your ears. This is what noise cancelling is. If you lay down in a bath and immerse your ears, you can still hear things because the water can carry sound vibrations and things, so the sensation of noise cancelling isn't for everyone as well.If your in-ear headphone is a rubber tip, whilst it can dampen a lot of outside noise, it will never be true noise cancelling. Any headphone claiming to be true noise cancelling is a lie, because as I say you need to have 2 ways to protect your ears (the in ear buds, and the external over the head ear protectors).For tiny in-ear headphones to claim this then essentially all they will be able to provide is an air-tight hold inside your ear to stop any air getting inside your ear (since sound waves will travel inside tiny gaps where air can get in).So expensive "noise cancelling" headphones often will come with memory foam tips so that you squeeze them, insert into your ear (like you would with in-ear protectors) and then the foam expands to fit tight inside your ear.Some people like this sensation, others do not as it can make you feel a bit like you are in an airplane.The reason for this is because of the pressure in the plane, and as such this feeling is similar to the air pressure from inside your ears being pushed in because it is air tight inside your ear giving that same "pressure" sensation.Regular rubber tipped headphones for me are the best of both worlds, because they can do a good job of cancelling out a lot of external noise but they don't give you that pressure sensation that some of these noise cancelling headphones have.These xiaomi are the rubber tipped ones, so that get a tick for me.The battery life gets another tick, just enough battery to last a whole night and half day for me (aprox 15 hours) and even then I always put them in the case (which charges the headphones portably, you charge the case at night then take the case with you in the day) so you never would really run these out dry, because you have to dock them in the case at some point, or even then I often would use one at a time, so I can dock one and use the other. So battery life is just right for how I use it.I can always buy memory foam tips you can get online quite cheap (aprox 10 pairs for £5) and this helps further with that "noise cancelling" I was talking about.These xiaomi headphones come in a lovely small case which is a nice size (the sony ones come in this bigger case which is a bit too big to carry about imo) and although it DOESNT come with a charging cable, it is just a regular usb micro connection, which i use for my xbox pad and loads of other things so its very cheap to get a cable with a length that suits you.The case takes around 20 mins to charge on a regular charging plug (not a usb port or a low charge data cable) and you can charge the airdots around 3 times in a day. They have around 4 hours use before you have to charge them which is ok for me at night as i use them to mainly get off to sleep and then once i am asleep they will be off but have a sort of "noise cancelling" aspect to drown out a little sound when off. One day there will be in-ear buds at a good budget that will last a full 8 hours. You can pay a silly amount for increased battery but I didn't come here for that.The sound quality on these are great if you use some EQ (the sound setting to increase treble, reduce the bass) as these headphones natively have a very bassy and a tad muffled sound, which is nice for a budget headphone because usually its mostly mids and terrible bass.If you can adjust the EQ setting to have treble at the highest and the bass turned down half then this is perfect. It is perfect as-is for heavy metal music etc but for classical you need more treble in there especially with stuff with vocals and piano.A lot of the budget headphones have a delay between the sound coming over bluetooth to the sound you are hearing, some can be around 2 seconds which isn't acceptable imo, so you can press volume up and 2 seconds later the volume moves up, which can be annoying after a while. There isnt much of a delay with these at all so gaming with them is ok. Not perfect but ok.There is no function for these for example to skip tracks etc, just a simple start and stop press or press to answer.I dont really like to change tracks by touching the headphones anyway because say you want to skip every other track, you just end up raising to touch your ears all the time which annoys me also.So yeah for the budget these headphones are superb, they last just as you would expect for a headphone in the last year or so, 4 hours with the ability to charge-dock them in the case (you get in theory around 16 hours use if you dont add in the 20 min x3 charging times) out of the headphones.If you look at other devices such as a nintendo switch, this lasts around that time as well. And if you look at other brands of headphones with a similar battery life but are considerably more expensive then the sound quality when you EQ it is close to those expensive brands, so only pay for more if the battery life is good and also the sound quality is from a trusted review not a insta influencer, if you are going for sound quality etc then the apple/sony/etc ones arent very different for these and the price on those is silly for what they are and they hang down from your ears needlessly and is more of a fashion statement imo.if it is a good budget headphone that is wireless then these are the ones for you imo if you are moving from normal in-ear headphones. the audiophile will probably stick to cabled headphones or go for a brand that suits them. I don't believe there are many brands that are as renowned as they used to be and it is surprising now how well these chinese sets hold out by comparison especially price-wise I think this is a very sensible purchase to stick with xiaomi rather than other brands that arent as well recognised etc.Give them a try!
D**N
Absolute steal!
I've always quite wanted a pair of earbuds, but couldn't really justify the huge cost of the offerings from Apple or Samsung. However, I stumbled across a review of the Xiaomi Redmi Airdots from a reputable tech website which seemed to suggest that they were a passable pair of wireless earbuds. In the review, they were priced at £50, but here they were listed for just £16. At this price point, lets be honest, it was worth a punt and if they were anything more than mediocre then it'd be win. And if not, what's been lost?It should be noted that the unit I received was badged as "Mi True Wireless Earbuds Basic" rather than as "Xiaomi Redmi Airdots" as advertised, but rest assured that they are the exact same product - Xiaomi simply badges them differently depending on the market they are sold in. They are also quite firmly a genuine product - having examined the product against a number of online resources which allow you to make this distinction quite clearly.So having established I've got the real deal - how are they? Well, the downside - no charger or charging cable is included in the box. This is standard for this product, so you're not missing anything. Also, slightly annoyingly, they require a last generation micro-USB connector rather than USB-C which the majority of current devices are now shipping with. However, we've got a load of Amazon Fire tablets at home which all have micro-USB chargers, so we didn't struggle to charge these.I've given this product 5 stars for sound quality, because (a) I'm no audiophile so am not best placed to judge this; and (b) because I really can't discern any difference from the wired headphones that came with my Samsung S20. Also, the volume gets reasonably loud when turned right up which is great. When taking calls using the buds, you can hear the other caller perfectly well, but the mic quality is, lets say, less than perfect. It's adequate if you're in a quiet room, but don't try and take a call when you're out on a run as the environmental noise (wind, traffic etc) really takes over!I've only given the product 3 starts for noise-cancellation because they don't include any active noise-cancellation (£16 remember!) - however, the buds fit snugly enough in the ear to mean you don't really get an awful lot background noise creeping in anyway.I can only give the airdots 1 star for volume control because there's actually no independent volume control on them - you can only control volume on the mobile phone itself. There's also no way to skip audio tracks, as the physical buttons on the buds only allow you to pause and play audio or answer/ reject callsBut hey, what do you want. £16 for truly wireless earbuds, that produce perfectly passable audio. I'm really happy with this buy and they really exceeded my expectations.
M**K
Good for the price.
For £20 true wireless earbuds I was expecting a lot worse than what I received. Instant connection over bluetooth and surprisingly loud volume in a tiny package for a cost lower than most reputable budget choices.Obviously at this price line you make some compromises such as micro USB charging connection, an overall budget feeling plastic product construction and a lack of premium features (wireless charging, noise cancellation etc) being the main problems here, but these are things that should be expected at this price range, and should not wear too heavily on an overall rating.As far as sound quality goes, fresh out the box I found that the bass was overbearing and everything else suffered as a result, but some fiddling with equalisers goes a long way to make the overall sound more neutral, even with my inexperience in such tweaking.Overall, it's hard to be anything but impressed with what you get for £20, especially given that true wireless earbuds are a relatively recent audio technology. If you're not super enthusiastic about premium quality audio response, don't mind fiddling with EQs to get a sound you like or just want to try true wireless earbuds at a price point that's inoffensive compared to other available choices, these are a good place to start.
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