The Chinese company Xiaomi is probably best known to people in the West for making phones that look a lot like iPhones. And while that's true (look!), the manufacturing giant produces much more than handsets. There have been a steady stream of TVs, routers, and audio products released over the last couple of years under the company's consumer-facing Mi brand name. This November, Xiaomi released a new set of Mi in-ear headphones. They debuted in China for 99 yuan, which means they'll be priced at around $29 when they make their way to US consumers in the new year. Not a bad price for a nice set of metal earbuds.
The fit and finish is exemplary for something this inexpensive. The sound chambers of the buds are made of machined aluminum and not only feel sturdy, but look really nice. Visually, they're restrained and sophisticated. Even the plastic pieces feel like quality. Inside each chamber are two drivers: one balanced armature driver for the highs, and one traditional dynamic driver for the lows and mids. This design gives them a walloping low end—if you're always aching for more bass, these might make you happy. But unlike other bottom-heavy earbuds, the vocals and the high end of the mix have their own driver, so they're not obliterated by all that low-frequency muscle. There are a few different sizes of rubber tips in the box, so you can find a comfy fit pretty easily. The cables are Kevlar-reinforced, in case you need to take a bullet for a friend.
Kudos to the dual-driver design for keeping things tidy on the high end. But that low end is so big and boomy, it's overwhelming—most music ends up sounding murky. I found myself rolling off the lows inside my iPhone's EQ settings during testing, and I still couldn't clean up that bass. The hardware is smart, but it's tuned in a way that diminishes the design. The tiny and oddly-shaped buttons on the inline remote make it difficult to manage. The cables are coated in rubber from the ears to the Y-joint in the middle, but from there down to the plug, the cable is protected by a braided sheath. The result is a cable with two different weights and textures, which I found odd. For $29, they sound good, but there are better cheap in-ears for the same money (Mrice, JLab, Soundmagic) as long as you're OK with a lower-quality build.
6/10 - A solid product with some issues
