Xiaomi has announced a new pair of TWS headphones to rival the plethora of options in the market today. As part of its extended IoT hardware range, the Chinese company is betting that the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 Basic’s features—including 20 hours of total battery life—will help them stand out in an increasingly saturated TWS market.
Ready? Here’s what you need to know about the latest TWS offering from Xiaomi.
Price and availability
The Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 Basic is priced rather modestly at EUR39.99 (~RM194.65), which places it in direct competition against other recent releases from Honor (although these headphones are priced at RM399) and Realme. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to pick these headphones up in Malaysia just yet, although Xiaomi says that local pricing details will be announced once the product is available.
Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 Basic – EUR39.99 (~RM194.65)
Despite the budget-friendly pricing however, Xiaomi’s latest TWS headphones offer a number of fairly impressive features. Read on for a quick breakdown.
Specs and features
Xiaomi says that the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 Basic have been “created for music buffs and always-on-a-call business people”—which basically means that you get a pretty versatile set of features. One of the more impressive specs here is the 20 hours of battery life, including three additional charges from the charging case. A single charge on the headphones will last five hours, which is even higher than the AirPods Pro (although those have ANC).
Regardless, these are fairly impressive figures, especially at this price point. There is no wireless charging, although you’ll be able to fully charge the headphones in 1.5 hours via USB-C.
While you won’t be getting Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) at such a low price point (for now), Xiaomi says that the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 Basic come with “environmental noise cancellation” by using dual-mics on the headphones themselves. This will help to reduce ambient noise in your surroundings, with one mic used to filter background noise and another used to pick up voice during calls.
The headphones also have some design similarities with the Apple Airpods. Xiaomi isn’t the first—nor will it be the last—brand to “copy” Apple’s iconic look, but it appears that users will be getting another feature that the AirPods have: automatic in-ear detection. This feature will automatically pause playback when you remove either of the earbuds, and you can also use either of them to listen to play back with single ear listening.
Xiaomi is also talking up the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 Basic’s SBC/AAC codec support, along with a large 14.2mm dynamic driver. As expected, support for iOS and Android devices won’t be an issue, and if you’re on a supported MIUI device, a quick pairing function will make things even easier.
So, what do you think? Personally, I think that Xiaomi’s latest TWS headphones offer a lot of bang for your buck—although we’ll certainly have to test them out to make an accurate judgement.