The Xiaomi Mi AirDots Pro Are Incomplete
/
Last year, Xiaomi became a new competitor in the ever growing business of truly-wireless headphones, as any first generation product however, the device had more a few flaws that we wished could be fixed with its sequel. With the sequel here, we are sad to report that after spending a few days with this device however, we’ve come to realize that it is oddly missing many features from its sales pitch - making it impossible for us to bring you our full review.
During its unveiling, Xiaomi discussed how amazingly their new pair of headphones would connect with their new software, showing pop ups and offering an always on-assistant just like Apple’s AirPods. Though this excited us, we have been greeted to the rude awakening that not only does the popup not currently show any visual of the earbuds, but that its always on AI is only available in mandarin, not offering any settings for English speakers to use an alternative such as Google Now.
On a more technical level, Xiaomi offered the ability to access a settings option for the earbuds, which would not only allow for users to setup control gestures as they see fit, but for the earbuds to enable a new audio codec, which should in theory sound a lot better than its previous generation. Despite running Xiaomi’s latest software, MIUI 11, we were not able to access either of these services, which Xiaomi’s promises will be fixed through a software update.
Because that update has not yet arrived, the device also features less than optimum delays, making the viewing experience not as comfortable as was promised. Using the previous codec, the earbuds still sound as average as they used to, which at a price-tag of $60, makes for a unappealing purchase.
For a device so readily advertised as Xiaomi’s answers to AirPods - a device that would bring a lower price, great audio, but most importantly convenience, the Xiaomi Mi AirDots Pro 2 are currently very lacking - and given Xiaomi’s track-record with updates, we are left with little hope that it may be what it was promised to be one day.
