Xiaomi’s Mi neckband Bluetooth earphones are great affordable travel companions

These days most smartphones don’t have the headphone jack, which makes it problematic for a lot of people to enjoy music on the go. Of course, in-variably phones don’t ship with a pair of earphones and when they do, they usually suck. Xiaomi’s new Mi neckband Bluetooth headphones in more ways than one they solve this problem in an affordable way. And at the same time, they double as great earphones for multiple use-cases, be it travel or fitness.

What’s Warped

• Firstly, these are super affordable earphones at Rs 1,599 which is basically peanuts for the type of sound quality you’re getting from them. These are Bluetooth 5.0 enabled which means the audio compression the even better than ever and it will work with a host of flagship-grade devices.
• They stick to a function over form mantra offering a cushy neckband which can nestle behind your collar providing the peace of mind of it never falling off while you’re in the middle of an intense run or have dozed off on a long flight. The fit and finish is typically solid and you also get a bunch of ear tips so that you can find the right size for your ears.
• The sound quality is superb — I played a wide range of music which had a mix of classic rock from bands like The Rolling Stones, to deep house tunes from artists like George Fitzgerald to even a bit of drum and bass. They work well with a wide spectrum of sounds providing a fairly balanced sound with good levels of detail and clarity for 320kbps MP3s.
• For watching movies and videos, generally the sound quality is more than adequate and these would double as soothing companions for all kinds of sonic purposes while providing some decent sound isolation from the world outside, including flights with loud babies.
• Perhaps the most impressive bit about these earphones was the battery life. Xiaomi claims around 8 hours of constant use which I consistently managed to get from these. Even though the charger is micro-USB based, it charges quite quickly which paired up with a charging brick.

What’s not

• They do, however, become quite sharp while listening to vocal-heavy acoustic music providing a very sharp chiselled sound which may not be of the liking of many people. The bass can also become a little too boomy at times.
• The design is quite boring and pedantic. While very well built, these earphones look very bland and have a rather spartan look which was a problem with a lot of Xiaomi’s phones till last year.
• These earphones don’t support the Qualcomm APTX protocol which makes things a little underwhelming from a sound quality point of view when used with high-end Android phones which are based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip.

Long story short, these are great no-nonsense wireless earphones which sound good while being comfortable and affordable at the same time. Now, that’s a rare combination.

Originally published at https://warpcore.live on September 19, 2019.

Article link: https://warpcore.live/2019/09/19/xiaomis-mi-neckband-bluetooth-headphones-are-great-affordable-travel-companions/

Words by Sahil Mohan Gupta