Xiaomi launched a truly wireless headset, Xiaomi Air 2 Pro, priced at only 699 yuan, in order to open the market, but because of the limited product power, the result was not satisfactory. After a year, Xiaomi has also learned a lesson and plans to rely on a true flagship TWS headset to make a shame. With this idea, our protagonist today Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro came into being. It not only brought the TWS headphones with the highest specifications in Xiaomi’s history but also brought a new beginning to Xiaomi’s audio field.
Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro can be said to be the TWS headset with the strongest specifications in Xiaomi’s history. For the majority of users, sound quality, noise reduction, and call can be said to be the top priorities for evaluating a headset. The Mi Noise Cancelling Headset Pro has the best sound quality, noise reduction, and the golden triangle of talking.
It has a noise reduction depth of up to 40dB, basically reaching the highest level of noise reduction for TWS headphones. Comes with a three-speed adjustment to avoid ear pressure discomfort caused by maximum intensity noise reduction.
The most mainstream three-microphone solution for calls can further enhance the collection of human voices and reduce the interference of environmental sounds.
Although the top two-unit composite solution is not adopted, the customized 11mm super linear moving coil unit is also very excellent. The mellow low frequency, and the moderately high frequency, make it sound quality enough to be among the high-end.
On Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro, Qualcomm QCC5151 audio processor was also launched in the world, which can bring more powerful audio processing capabilities to Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro, which can benefit from both noise reduction and calls.
For example, the transparent mode this time provides two levels of adjustment. The unique voice enhancement mode is different from the ordinary transparent transmission. It can only enhance the surrounding voices and filter the noise so that you can communicate with others more without being disturbed. Smooth and clear.
In addition, Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro also supports aptX Adaptive audio decoding. It can adaptively provide near-lossless audio transmission or provide a low-latency response comparable to wired, ensuring the best experience whether you listen to songs or games.
Next, let us experience the Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphones Pro together to see how it is experienced with its sound quality, noise reduction, and other functions, and whether it is comfortable to wear.
Design & Appearance
The Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro also uses an oval charging box design, and the most eye-catching feature is naturally the color scheme. The bright silver mirror makes it look very technological. Of course, this material is also very easy to contaminate fingerprints, so be careful to clean it frequently.
The body of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro also uses a streamlined design. The shape is very similar to many in-ear models on the market. The spindle-shaped cavity and the earphone handle inclined at a certain angle can better fit the auricle and improve the stability of wearing.
It is worth noting that the volume of Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is almost larger than many TWS headphones currently seen. Compared with the well-known AirPods Pro, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphones Pro has a full circle, and there is even an illusion that the size of the cavity is comparable to the “noise reduction beans”, which also makes it extremely special to wear.
Because of its large size, although the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro looks like an in-ear design, it is almost the same as the semi-open headphones when worn. The fixation of the earphone mainly relies on the fitting of the huge cavity and the auricle. The silicone plug will not enter the ear but will be gently fitted to the ear canal to improve the airtightness of the entire sound channel and avoid affecting the sound quality and noise reduction effect.
To put it simply, the wearing feeling of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is closer to the semi-open headphones such as Apple AirPods, Huawei Freebuds, and Samsung Galaxy Buds Live. You may even feel it is a little loose, but the in-ear foreign body sensation will never appear on it.
At the same time, the silicone plug fits the entrance of the ear canal, which also improves the airtightness, so that the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro has the noise reduction effect and sound quality that the several semi-open headphones mentioned above can’t match.
Although the way of wearing it has changed, the internal design of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is still the familiar structure. In addition to the battery, the earphone handle is provided with charging contacts and silicon microphones at the bottom. There is an outward-facing microphone on the outside of the earphone cavity, and a wearing sensor and pressure relief hole on the inside. The hardware configuration is basically the same as Airpods Pro.
The buttons and interfaces of the charging box are set at the bottom, with a Type-C charging port and a multi-function button. In addition to the charging cable, there are two sets of silicone earplugs, which can be replaced by the user to get a better fit of the headset.
Pairing connection
The Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro supports connection when the lid is opened. Currently, it can be used with new phones such as Mi 11 Ultra, Mi 11 Pro, and even Mi Notebook Pro 14 to experience this convenient feature. Open the pop-up window to connect, and it can automatically pair and connect without any operation, which is very convenient.
In terms of headphone function management, the MIUI system has a built-in setting interface for many functions of the Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro. After the pairing is successful, the noise reduction gear can be further managed through the system settings, and the gesture shortcut keys can be set.
For third-party mobile phones, you need to download Xiao Ai and enter the relevant setting interface through the device setting options in Xiao Ai.
However, in terms of functions, both the first-party and third-party menus are basically the same, which means that even third-party devices will not lack functions and can get an experience similar to that of Xiaomi phones.
In addition, it also supports dual connections between different systems such as Android, Apple, and Windows. This means you can connect two devices at the same time. For example, you can connect your laptop to listen to music and watch movies. When the phone receives an incoming call, you can also use the Mi Noise Cancelling Headset Pro to answer the call and listen to voice messages. You can use multiple devices without taking off the headset.
On the basis of dual connection, Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro also supports audio sharing function. If you want to share music with others, Mi Noise Cancelling Headphones Pro will not prevent the connection of new devices. You can also use the sharing function to allow audio to be played on two sets of headphones at the same time.
4. Noise reduction and transparent transmission: three-speed noise reduction + second-speed transparent transmission, variable earplugs, variable microphone
Active noise reduction
The Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro supports a maximum noise reduction depth of 40db and is one of the headphones with the strongest noise reduction capability among active noise reduction headphones on the market. The official APP provides a total of 3 levels of noise reduction intensity for adjustment. The three levels of office, daily, and air travel are enhanced in sequence, and the appropriate gear can be selected according to the needs of different environments.
In the strongest air travel gear, experience the noise reduction effect of Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro. In an office with 48dB ambient noise, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headset Pro can completely isolate the operation of the office machine and the roar of fans on multiple test platforms, and even the roaring city noise outside the window disappears. Except for the slight keyboard tapping sound, there is basically no other noise interference.
The same is true for the experience of standing by the window. The urban expressway downstairs has a huge traffic volume and will produce a lot of noise. However, under the noise reduction effect of Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro, you can only hear the friction between tires and the ground. The noise in the high-frequency part and the remaining rumbling low-frequency noise are perfectly eliminated.
In addition, the noise floor problem that active noise-canceling headphones have also existed on Xiaomi noise-canceling headphones Pro, but the noise floor is not obvious, and it can only appear in an extremely quiet environment with noise reduction turned on.
Transparent transmission mode
Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro provides two transparent transmission modes, namely transparent and vocal.
The transparent mode is similar to the familiar transparent transmission mode, which can amplify the surrounding environmental sound to ensure that the sound of the surrounding environment can be heard while listening to the song.
The vocal enhancement-mode suppresses environmental noise while accentuating vocals, making communication more convenient when wearing headphones. The full link delay is only 133ms, and the noise reduction sound with three microphones is clear
Delay test
We use video shooting to test the delayed performance of Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro. Trigger the sound in a quiet room, and record the time difference between the trigger sound and the sound reception, which is the rough delay data of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro.
When shooting a video, the audio sampling rate is 44100Hz, and the measured audio time is 5881Hz. A simple calculation can be drawn that the full link delay of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is about 133.36ms (the original material is high-speed photography, the error is 4ms Inside). This time is extremely good for true wireless headsets, and users can respond in a timely manner even when playing audio games.
Call effect
The Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro uses a three-microphone radio method to collect human voices and environmental noises separately, separate and cross-process different sounds to ensure that the voice call is clear.
Comparing the recording results of mobile phone recording and Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro, the sound of Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro is very effective in suppressing environmental noise.
But perhaps because the noise suppression algorithm of the engineering version of the firmware is too strong, the human voice appears slightly smaller. Hope that it can be improved in the official version.
Sixth, sound quality and battery life: 11mm customized large dynamic coil sound quality among the high-end standards
Although there is no special design of dual units like some products that pursue the ultimate sound quality, the 11mm super linear dynamic coil of the Xiaomi Mi Headphone Pro is not bad, and it is enough to rank among the flagships.
Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro has a large amplitude of 0.6mm, coupled with a composite high resilience centering piece design, which can ensure strong and powerful bass and excellent dynamics. In addition, the LCP conforms to the diaphragm, which can increase the fullness of the intermediate frequency and further restore the original taste of music.
Actually listening to music is true, and the performance of Mi Noise Cancelling Headphones Pro is very good in low and medium frequencies. While ensuring that the head is not booming, the bass is full of volume and flexibility, which is very suitable for rock, pop, and other styles of music.
In the mid-range and high-frequency range, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro gives people a warm and moist feeling. Although it can better express the texture of vocals and musical instruments, it is relatively ordinary in terms of transparency. However, it should be noted that this generally refers to the comparison with those dual-unit flagship headphones with a dedicated high-frequency unit.
In general, the tuning of the Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro is very similar to the Galaxy Buds+, with a strong Harman flavor, but due to the limitation of the single sound unit, the resolution and transparency are slightly inferior. But this does not affect the sound quality of Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro to reach the threshold of the flagship, and it has the upper hand with its low price advantage.
In terms of audio coding, Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro supports Qualcomm’s apex Adaptive coding. The advantage of this code is that it can be switched freely between low delay and high sound quality modes through adaptive adjustment.
However, the upper limit of apex Adaptive’s sound quality is not high, far inferior to lossless encodings such as LHDC and LDAC. If your usage scenario is mostly listening to domestic streaming music and watching videos, then apex Adaptive is sufficient. But if there is a need to listen to local lossless music, the equipment may need to be further upgraded.
In terms of battery life, when the noise reduction/transparency mode is not turned on, using the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro for 1 hour at 50% volume, the battery will drop by 10%. From this, it can be estimated that a single continuous listening to music lasts for 10 hours. With the charging case, it is absolutely no problem to use it for a day.
Read Also: Xiaomi Mi MIX FOLD Review: Folding Screen can Finally Be Used
Verdict
The Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro is priced at 799 yuan, but its competing products start at 1,000 yuan. This time, in the audio field, it has launched an impact on the high-end. Xiaomi still has a full range of products while showing a full price-performance ratio.
Unlike competing products, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro did not seek to specialize in a certain aspect to make its sound quality, noise reduction, delay, etc. reach the highest level. Instead, it is sewn and repaired on the basis of its opponents to catch up. At the same time, learn the deficiencies of the opponents, learn from them, and make a satisfactory product.
Just like the bucket machine in the mobile phone, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro also exists similarly. The sound quality is stronger than it, the noise reduction is not as good as it; the noise reduction is stronger than it, the sound quality is much worse. In terms of functional details, such as three-speed noise reduction, two-speed transparent adjustment gears, and care settings such as earphone fit detection, all of them can greatly add points to the Xiaomi noise reduction earphone Pro. When big parameters can’t tell high and low, these small details are often the key to victory.
In addition, the size of the Xiaomi Mi Headphones Pro is larger, which also makes its wearing experience closer to semi-open headphones, rather than the in-ear style that we look like. This means that it has a more comfortable wearing feel, and can greatly reduce the probability of infection and inflammation of the user’s ear canal. Compared with the true wireless that must be inserted into the ear canal to be worn, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro has an advantage in terms of wearing feeling.
For third-party mobile phones, the adaptation of Mi Noise Cancelling Headset Pro is also not bad. Through the Xiao Ai App, you can unlock the setting options of all functions such as noise reduction and shortcut keys. However, there are few people who know this at present and need to increase publicity. Xiao Ai is actually an audio device management APP, which can be widely known, and it will not cause third-party users to worry about poor adaptability.
Not all aspects are better than the opponent, but there are no obvious weaknesses. Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is just such a “bucket machine”. Coupled with the extremely competitive price of 799 yuan and the open ecology, the competitiveness of Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is not small at all. If you need it, you may wish to give it a try, it can give you the most comprehensive flagship true wireless headset experience.