When Xiaomi announced about a month ago that they are going to bring their new wireless earbuds to India, most of us were wondering the reason for the delay in this action. A lot of other companies have launched true wireless earphones in India at a reasonable price. According to Xiaomi, this new pair of wireless earbuds are engineered to suit Indian ears and the audio profile has been customized to suit well. This was a big move and was rather impressive on Xiaomi’s part, this also proved that quality does matter a lot for a product when it comes with the Mi tag for the brand.
As we started using the earbuds a little more, it became very clear that the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 certainly does not feel cheap in any aspect. The earbuds do feel premium and sturdy, the price of Rs. 4,499 also means that it will have to fight against a similar offering from Realme, the Buds Air that was launched for a cheaper price of Rs. 3,999.
Xiaomi has progressed a lot over the past few years and we can see a lot of focus and emphasis on the quality of their products these days. We started noticing a positive incline in terms of quality in their smartphones and the earbuds only prove the direction of Xiaomi in terms of quality. The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 feels solid and well built overall. The cuboidal white box with curved sides comes with heft and the matte finish helps bring a premium feel to the earbuds. When examined closely, the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 feels very well made, and it seems that this is a product that might cost upwards of Rs 10,000. The LED status light, the pairing button, and the USB-C port fit well in the case and everything is designed to feel natural and as one piece.
When you open the case, the earbuds are presented very well. Although the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 imitate the Apple AirPods, Xiaomi has added some unique touches of their own. The extended stick does not fuse with the ear tips and instead rises high so that you can pick them easily from the case without having to struggle for a hold. The stick on the earbuds is finished in white and prevents grime from building up due to constant touching. The tips are finished in glass white and help with an in-ear grip with a near design overall. The closing and opening of the lid of the charging case feel very satisfactory further proving the focus on the quality of the earbuds. The only issue with the earbud is the thickness of the stem that makes it a little unstable because with most others, the stem sits right there comfortably but with shakes on this one, it feels like the earbud can fall off and you need to be extra cautious with it.
While we were impressed with the design and the build quality, the performance and quality of audio delivered by the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 are equally important to the overall value if not more. Luckily, the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 ticks all the right boxes, the audio team of Xiaomi have tuned the audio in a way that most Indians will greatly appreciate. It has a nice balance of treble and mids with an extra punch to the bass. The audio profile on the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 is mostly balanced with all the major frequencies tuned to provide a good impact.
The mids are clear and loud without clipping, the highs are crisp and feel good in the ear. While you can not expect pristine levels of clarity in the highs and the mids like what you get on the Apple AirPods Pro, the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 beats most mid-priced wireless earphones in the segment that it is offered at. The lower end has good depth and is slightly bass-heavy with the tuning which makes listening to a pleasurable experience for most.
We tried our several Bollywood songs and EDM tracks on the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 while working and while working out. The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 offers a fine listening experience with most sounds including the Mix Tape Season 2 tracks, Pop Remix from Spotify, and more. The sound comes with the right amount of bass infused to the strong but not overpowering mids to create an overall clear audio profile. Even the international music genres do not put the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 under stress and work out pretty well.
Using a Xiaomi smartphone for streaming allows you to use the LDHC code and while many reviewers have claimed irregular streaming issues, we didn’t face any such issues. The audio quality is pretty good and up to the mark, but we do miss the noise isolation in the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2. These earbuds come with no rubber or silicone ear tips that block noise from external sources, while using the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 in the living room I could hear ambient noises including TV sound, and even the sound of wind from the fan above in some cases. The form factor and the lack of silicone tips mean there is little to no noise isolation directly allowing all the external sounds to seep in and disturb your audio experience.
We were able to circumvent the external noises by raising the volume on the earbuds, the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 can get extremely loud and overpower the sound from most external sources. Coming to the call reception, the audio quality is pretty good and consistent. The microphone also does a good job of picking up your voice, we tried it on a call with a friend and despite movement in vehicle and unreliable network, the earbuds ensured to keep the voice clear so that they could understand what I spoke easily.
The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 comes with touch controls and in our experience, it didn’t seem to work all so well. The touch sensitivity was a little low and sometimes failed to register inputs in a lot of instances. I often found myself reaching out to my phone to manually control the playback, while this might be an issue that Xiaomi could fix with a software update, the lack of dedicated app and no option to customize the controls or alter the audio profile feels like a missing feature.
The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 also showed issues with pairing and we had to intervene a few times by reconnecting manually as the earbuds failed to connect and work properly with the smartphone. This is yet another issue that can easily be fixed by Xiaomi over a software update. Once the pairing is successful, the connection is pretty good, and we were able to go around the house without any issues while leaving the smartphone in the room.
The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 plays a tone in the ear when it is detected to be placed in the ear, if you are using a Xiaomi phone that runs on MIUI for setup then you will see a floating notification showing the battery charge of the earbuds and the case.
The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 charging case comes with a 250mAh battery according to the company while the earbuds come with a 30mAh battery each. The brand promises up to five hours of battery life, in our experience they lasted an average of about 4.5 hours with half volume setting. We had to charge the case once a week when the battery level in the case was about 25% after use. The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 does not support wireless charging, but it does support Quick Charge and takes about 1.5 hours for a full charge using a Type-C charger.
We really liked the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 in our experience due to the audio and build quality. The design is very minimal, and the build quality is excellent, the added convenience of use with a Xiaomi phone with the easy connect and display of battery life makes it an even better choice. The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 feels like a perfect choice for the Indian market and Xiaomi’s focus on quality audio and build raises the bar for the competitors under the Rs 5,000 segment. Only if the earbud stem was a little slimmer, this would have been one of the top blind recommendations, sitting alongside the Realme Buds Air, and the OPPO Enco W31.
