Xiaomi Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro review: These ain’t it

Bluetooth headphones have long been democratized. In fact, you can even get real wireless earbuds for little money. So it’s no wonder that high-end features like Active Noise Canceling (ANC) represent the next frontier. With the Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro, Xiaomi is trying to make ANC more accessible.

Typically, a product as affordable as these Mi headphones will hit the build quality. Can Xiaomi – the king of affordability – deliver a compelling pair of bluetooth earbuds that sound great and offer noise cancellation for the low price of $ 25? Find it in the Android Authority Xiaomi Mi Neck Strap Bluetooth Earphones Pro Review.

About This Xiaomi Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro Review: I wrote this review after spending ten days with the product. Xiaomi India delivered the device.

What is the design of the Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro?

The Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro are inexpensive earphones and the design reflects the price. The construction is a mixture of rubber and shiny plastic. Nobody is going to consider it a premium product – these things were clearly built at a price. However, the soft-touch neck tape is comfortable to wear for long periods of time. I had no problem keeping it around my neck even when it was turned off.

Xiaomi Buying Guide: Everything you need to know

The headphone cables protrude from a hard plastic end that shines on the inside. A micro USB port (ugh) is on the right side along with all the other buttons. You will find an on / off switch and a volume rocker within easy reach. On the inside there is an additional key to toggle the active noise cancellation.

Unfortunately, the noise-canceling button is too small and there isn’t much tactile feedback from the volume buttons either. I fumbled a lot trying to activate the buttons.

The headphone cables aren’t the epitome of quality either, but they are enough for the price. The earphones are made of polycarbonate and are magnetically connected to each other. The magnetic attachment is only used for cable routing. The headset does not turn off.

Do these neckband earbuds stay connected?

The Mi Neckband Bluetooth earbuds support Bluetooth 5.0 and stay connected in any environment as long as the headset is within 10 meters of the source device. Bluetooth codec support is limited to SBC and AAC only.

Continue reading: Bluetooth Codecs 101: Everything You Need To Know

If you own an iPhone, you’ll hear consistently high quality audio through the AAC codec, but Android users are a bit of a gamble when streaming through AAC. Android OS does not encode the AAC codec uniformly, which is hardware dependent. However, the earbuds were set to AAC by default when connected to my OnePlus smartphone, and the stability was reliable even from a distance. I had no problems at all with walking around my apartment streaming music on Spotify.

How does the Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro sound?

Xiaomi plays with the Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro in front of an audience. The earbuds add bass, which will please most listeners who want to use them on their commute or at home casually. I’ve played a number of songs in different genres to see how they fared.

Learn more: Headphone Buying Guide: Everything You Need To Know

My goal for measuring altitude response is “You Must Have Freedom” by Pharaoh Sanders, and the Mi neckband headphones don’t do it justice. The loud bass is emphasized so much that vocals and treble sections are masked. A lack of detail and clarity comes at the expense of additional “oomph” in the lower area.

On acoustic tracks like Featherweight by Fleet Foxes, the vocals are again obscured by the bass-heavy sound. When switching to rap music like E-40’s I Stand On That, the rumbling bass track was more than noticeable. These aren’t neutral sounding headphones, and you’d better prefer bass – tons of them – to appreciate the sound here.

Is active noise cancellation effective?

The noise suppression of the Mi Bluetooth neckband headphones is available in one variant: On or Off.

Unlike some of the new budget alternatives, you won’t be able to adjust the noise cancellation or the passthrough mode. The noise cancellation alone is reasonably effective. Xiaomi claims to have about 25dB of noise attenuation. In practice, it will reduce the ambient noise level by a few notches, but it won’t completely isolate you if that’s what you look for.

The Mi Bluetooth Neckband Earphones give you a taste of ANC but are far from the best in the business.

This is understandable given the price of the headphones. What it doesn’t, however, is the increased noise level and constant hissing when you are not listening to music.

What is the battery life of the Mi Bluetooth Neckband Headphones?

The battery life of the Mi Bluetooth Neckband Earphones Pro is competitive. Xiaomi claims to work 20 hours on a single charge, but that depends on a number of factors. With active noise suppression activated and a volume of 60%, I managed to use it for around 14 hours. That’s not bad, but a far cry from the advertised figure.

It takes about two hours to charge the headphones via micro USB.

Are they good for calls?

The Mi Neckband headphones don’t have a great microphone system. It’s tuned to combat the proximity effect, but it goes a little too far. When transmitting speech, soft voices sound a bit “distant” or “muffled”. It’s usable, but I wouldn’t buy this just for making phone calls.

Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro Microphone Demo:

Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphones Pro review: the verdict

It’s great that Xiaomi has tried to democratize audio technologies like active noise cancellation, but there is a limit to how deep you can go before quality suffers. This is certainly the case if our Mi Bluetooth Neckband Earphones Pro review has something to offer. Sure, it’s priced cheaply at just Rs. 1,799 (~ $ 25), but for that money, you can get much better sound quality.

In particular, the Oppo Enco M31 sounds significantly better for a little more money. You can also get the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z for Rs. 2,000 (~ $ 27).

The headphones don’t sound particularly good, nor are they exceptional in terms of noise cancellation. The battery life could also be better. If you don’t really need ANC I would give this one pass. Xiaomi’s own Redmi Earbuds S sound better and have the added convenience of being real wireless earbuds.