Xiaomi Mi AirDots, After Three Months

Xiaomi Air Dots, my thoughts after two months of extensive use.

There is no beating around the bush, the Xiaomi Mi AirDots have stunned the market by being able to bridge the gap between aesthetically clean and unoffensive and not being an Apple Airpods clone.

Upon First inspection you will see that the Xiaomi MI AirDots come packaged in a flimsy cardboard box which was easily beaten and dented during shipping. Inside the actual box we are greeted by the Xiaomi Mi AirDots, Case, Micro USB Cable, and extra ear tips for customized fit.

Here are my initial impressions from them. Cheap feeling case, with premium feeling headphones. The headphone earpieces themselves are quite solid feeling and feel like they could take quite a bit of use. The case on the other hand feels incredibly cheap. The magnetic lid is less than stellar, and the micro usb connection does not inspire confidence. We will get to more of this later.

The sound these units produce is quite bass heavy and very "thumpy". They sound great with electronic music while Hip-Hop vocals can be often overshadowed and muddy. Much of this can be changed with a simple change to the EQ and you can clean up sound. Once you have tweaked the EQ the Xiaomi Mi AirDots are capable of producing a very pleasing sound. Although the Xiaomi Mi AirDots might not be the most accurate sounding headphone it doesn't make them any less pleasant.

From this point I'd like to talk about how they have handled over 2 months of strenuous use. This is to say that by and large they didn't survive. At least the case didn't survive more than a month. Aseries of minor drops onto tabletops, out of pockets and onto carpets killed my battery case. Tha's right, with regular use i was able to kill the case of my Xiaomi Mi AirDots in LESS THAN A MONTH.


At this point I decided to take the case apart and use my misfortune to fuel more Youtube videos on the subject. Needless to say i was slightly disappointed by the over the design of the case. It's clear Xiaomi was making a budget product when they engineered these. This is unfortunate since the charging case is an integral part of using truly wireless bluetooth headphones.

With the case quality aside you might be thinking that there is some type of hugely redeeming quality in the Xiaomi Mi AirDots and this is where you'd be wrong. They have horrendous touch controls as outlined in my youtube videos, their microphone is atrocious and can't be relied on for calls or even voice commands, and the playback controls are far behind their competitors. The reality of living with these headphones is that they ultimately fail have a quality that puts them ahead of other comparably priced offerings.

In a vacuum the Xaiomi Mi AirDots aren't a bad product. They sound good, fit in your ears well, offer a secure fit and ultimately are a 5/10 on most categories. Here is ultimately where the problem lies. The Xiaomi Mi AirDots do enough things competently enough to be an entertaining purchase but they fail to be astounding at the nearly $40 pricepoint they are available for outside of China.

The QCY T1 Pro is a far better option and I will do a follow up review on it on my blog.