Is the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW Is Worth YOUR Attention?

The Xiaomi Mi Dots weren’t necessarily the best TSW earbuds ever released - leaving us wondering if the Chinese company Xiaomi had peaked after a record-breaking amount of world changing releases. Announced yesterday, the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW could be the company’s return to glory - but will it improve a lot over the already existing Xiaomi Mi Air 2?

Being released at roughly $56, the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW features a lot of spark for your cash. Firstly, Xiaomi revealed that the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW comes with an upgraded dual-core chipset, featuring a new binaural syncrhonous transmission technology - To put it in everyday terms, the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW will better the earbuds’ abilities to synchronize both earbuds during listening, meaning that the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW could potentially feature really impressive latency results.

To further its low latency focus, Xiaomi has included LHDC Bluetooth decoding, Bluetooth 5.0 and a low-latency mode that automatically turns on during use. With both the hardware and software focused on providing a low-latency experience, the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW may be truly remarkable for gamers and content-viewers alike.

In sweetening the deal, the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW also includes support for Xiaomi’s XiaoAI assistent, and a dual-microphone array, ensuring that phone calls and speech recognition will be superb in Xiaomi’s new wireless earbud. Furthermore, the earbuds will feature a 5 hour charge, with up to 24 hours when its new wireless-charging is used to charge it.

But to answer the question raised in the first paragraph, we don’t believe that these differences will be significant enough to sway those who already own the Mi Air 2 to upgrade. Not only does the Mi Air 2 already include the same LHDC decoding, but it can now be found for cheaper, making it the better deal than ever. Perhaps the inclusion of noise cancellation or the Qualcomm 3020 chip could have made the Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW a better deal. Nevertheless, the improvements to low-latency await to be seen, and could change this opinion when the earbuds officially launch.

The Xiaomi Mi Air 2S TSW will have a China-exclusive release on April 9, with plans for a release in other countries not in sight.

Are you excited for Xiaomi’s new attempt in the wireless earbud space? Let us know in the comment section below!

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The Tronsmart Spunky Beats Misses what makes Wireless Earbuds Great

Truly wireless earbuds have been growing in popularity in recent years. Much of the hype for bluetooth earbuds after the Xiaomi Mi AirDots. It becomes easy to understand where that popularity for a product like the Redmi AirDots Or Xiaomi Mi Airdots comes from. With the recent release of the Tronsmart Spunky Beats however, it has become evident that some companies simply don’t understand the very appeal with this product category or what makes great bluetooth earbuds great, and what makes mediocre bluetooth earbuds….mediocre.

What Makes Wireless Earbuds Great?

To understand what makes the Tronsmart Spunky Beats a bad pair of earbuds, it is first important to understand what makes wireless earbuds great. After over a year of reviewing these products, we have nailed the appeal of this type of product into a few categories: Convenience, Design and lastly, Usability.

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On the Convenience front, truly wireless earbuds must deliver an easy to access audio experience that can be easily portable. It’s important to recognise that users are giving up in a lot of areas when choosing wireless earbuds over their wired counterparts: Battery life, ease of loss and in some cases, audio quality. For this reason, successful pairs of truly wireless earbuds need to be compact - and that comes in both the ear pieces themselves and the carrying case.

As for design - it is pretty self-explanatory. Having unfashionable, or clunky ear pieces makes for an audio experience that often times feels as if it is bringing you down rather than creating the boundless freedom that the concept is known for. On the carrying case side of things, a case needs to strike a balance between size, features and battery life, as lacking any of these features creates a clearly unbalance experience.

Usability, though the last feature we are mentioning, is often what makes or breaks a pair of wireless earbuds. With this category, we make reference to the features packed into a pair of earbuds such as touch controls, charging methods and of course, audio quality itself.

Where the Tronsmart Goes Wrong

the touch panel is making contact with the earl, registering a touch

Having identified all that makes a truly wireless pair of earbuds good, now we can identify what makes the Tronsmart Spunky Beats bad: inconvenience of use, poor design and its unusable features - but what’s perhaps worst about these heavy words, is that they all come down to one very poor decision: making the headphones too small. Headphones being too small isn’t something that is unique to the Tronsmart Spunky Beat, but the Tronsmart Spunky Beat is the only pair of headphones that we have tested, that have powered themselves off due to size.

By going on the small end, the Tronsmarts are easy to lose, and are aided poorly by a carrying case that - whilst making the device more portable - give it no real substance. Another aspect to consider about the size of the Tronsmart Spunky Beat that most reviewers won’t notice, the shape of the Tronsmart Spunky Beat means that the headphone doesn’t st in the case correctly. What’s more, by being so incredibly small, the earbuds’ area for touch controls, an important part of this sort of device’s usability, is simply too limiting to be truly usable. What’s worse is that with other user’s sharing their concerns of the Tronsmart Spunky Beats having poor quality control, it leads me to believe that the touch control and touch input of the Tronsmart Spunky Beats could vary greatly.

This brings us to a question that we beg this product’s designers to ask themselves: Why would someone spend the extra money on a wireless pair when it does not include this sort of product’s main selling point: convenience? The main reason our pair of Tronsmart Spunky Beats has been left relatively unused is because of their inconsistent touch response.

As we’ve stated before, consumers are not interested in wireless earbuds because of battery improvements (wired headphones need not be charged and don’t consume as much from your phone’s battery), or even audio quality (despite being very similar, wired headphones can offer more audiophile qualities) - it’s purely for convenience. Want bluetooth headphones with great battery life, incredible microphone performance, and good sound? There are a plethora of neckband headphones such as the QCY L1 which Mitchell uses daily and reviewed here. and with that principle out the window, we feel as if the Tronsmart Spunky Beats simply misses the mark entirely.

Haylou GT1 Plus VS Haylou GT2: Differences that Matter

With so many truly-wireless earbuds now entering the budget sphere, it is becoming increasingly hard to decide which is worth of our money. In our channel, we are strong advocates of the Haylou line of products, as we believe they offer a strong midpoint between value and audio performance. To no surprise however, Haylou has now also fallen victim to the multiple-model issue, which brings us to a core question: Which is worth your cash, the Haylou GT1 Plus, or the Haylou GT2?

Firstly, let’s quickly mention a very important similarity: both of these earbuds sound great, in fact, they are essentially identical. This is important to note, as it means that the differences to which we will discuss will simply come down to preference - meaning that Haylou has essentially created two similar products for two different sorts of consumers.

The out and about customers, are who we believe will much prefer the Haylou GT1 Plus. Featuring a more compact case that packs more juice than its counterpart, as well as a generally lower price in online markets, the Haylou GT1 Plus simply fits into your pocket and becomes one with your outdoors gear.

Meanwhile, those who prefer features over convenience will find the Haylou GT2s a great set of truly wireless earbuds. This mainly comes down to the product’s main selling feature: its charging cable included with the case. By simply lowering a flap, you have essentially reduced the need to bring around one extra cable with you. This comes at the cost of a larger, and less-battery packed case, but we find that to some the added benefit of having an all in one package may be worth it.

Furthermore, those who like physical controls will find no luck with the Haylou GT1 Plus, again going to testify how the Haylou GT2, whilst a larger earbud to bring around, makes up for the inconvenience by packing everything you could ever need from truly-wireless earbuds in one.

To conclude, for those looking for better battery, and a better price of entry, the Haylou GT1 Plus is the obvious winner. But for those looking for out of the box convenience, the better charging case and physical buttons bundled with the Haylou GT2 could very well be a selling point. For our money, go with the GT1 Plus, but everyone’s needs vary, and what is truly important is that no matter your personal pick, you will have a great listening experience.

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Haylou GT2: 5 Things To Love

The Haylou GT2s have just released, and after spending a while using them, we have found a great deal to love about the successor to one of our favourite value buds of last year. With that said, below follow simply 5 of those reasons:

A Value Beast

With most of the consumer market finally coming to accept that Bluetooth earbuds were an idea for the better, major tech companies have been quick to produce fantastic, but unfortunately also fantastically expensive audio experiences. The Haylou GT2s however, come at under $20, making them not only a viable option for every tech consumer, but one that can be easily replaced without breaking the bank.

Small and Compact

Unlike most modern wireless earbuds, which take the gen 1 AirPods toothbrush design, the Haylou GT2 feels like a very minimalistic piece of technology. If to be described to the everyday person, I’d go as far as saying these are one of those earbuds that can simply disappear in your ear when you wear them, making them perfect with just about every outfit.

Long Lasting Fun

Part of the massive convenience of Bluetooth earbuds is the ability to use them away from your phone. When your battery doesn’t last however, this convenience can then become an awful disturbance - thankfully, this is no problem for the Haylou GT2. After using them with medium volume for about 2 and a half hours, our Bluetooth settings told us that we still had 50% charge on the earbuds themselves, meaning you can expect at least 4 to 5 hours of pure listening experience.

A Better Case

As some may remember, our experience with the original Haylou GT1s were not very pleasing, with our case breaking in the very first day. With their successors, we are happy to say that we feel more confident that the case will stand the test of time this time around.

Just as great is the fact that this case now comes with a built in charger, allowing you to easily and quickly charge your earbuds in the event that they do ever need more juice.

Button Controls

Another major complaint that we had with the first gen Haylou earbuds were their less than superb touch controls. But with the new button controls, that problem has since been fixed. While they weirdly enough exclude the ability to control volume, they offer a more than sufficient method change your tracks without having the terrible feeling of pushing the earbuds into your ears.

There’s much more to love about the Haylou GT2s, but we hope that these 5 reasons may be enough to keen your interest in what just may be our new favourite value king of 2019.

AirPods Pro First Impressions: Surprisingly Good

Since the debut of the original AirPods a few years ago, fans have been wondering what the pioneers of truly wireless earbuds would bring to the table with the Airpod’s next iteration. After briefly testing out the AirPods Pro however, all I have to say is: a lot.

Picture From Mobile Syrup

For your discretion, I must make it clear that the following impressions were based on a short in-store demo given at the Apple Store in my local area. I haven’t bought, or received the device, making my first impressions genuine and unbiased. With that said: For as much as I hate to admit it, Apple has just created what are in my opinion the best premium truly wireless earbuds.

Feature wise, the AirPods Pro finally add one much needed feature: noise cancellation. Being an owner of the previous generation AirPods for a while, my biggest complaint was simply just how much outside noise was able to penetrate my music listening experience. With the new technology it packs, the AirPods Pro allow for what is a much quieter and personal listening experience.

Unfortunately this comes with one big caveat. Whilst I was sure that the predecessors would stick in most people’s ears, as it used Apple’s tried and true headphone design, the new silicone tip feels oddly un-Apple like, and leaves me worried that the same universal magic is lost in transition.

As for sound itself, the AirPods Pro sound clearly better than its predecessors. For comparison sake, I would rank it as well as the Samsung Galaxy Buds, except that I felt that the AirPods Pro had a bit clearer base that is so typical with modern Apple and Beats audio products.

Picture From CNET

One concern of mine that was gladly solved upon first impressions was the charging case itself. In videos and marketing materials, the case can often look oversized, which made me rather worried that the AirPods Pro would not fit a regular person’s pocked. Upon inspection however, I came to a quick relief upon realising that the case is roughly the same size as that of its predecessor, simply trading length for height. 

A concern that sadly wasn’t answered during my testings though, were with the earbuds themselves: they’re just so tiny. Don’t get me wrong, I love this new, minimalistic design, as it not only looks better in the ear, but can more easily blend in to most outfits. This however, does not make me less worried that the individual buds will be incredibly easy to lose, and - knowing Apple - very expensive to replace.

Before concluding my first impressions, I’d like to bring some emphasis to one specific word in my original statement: premium. For those of us who can afford to spend between $150 and $300 for audio, I’d truly recommend the AirPods Pro for their great audio quality, and slew of sleek features it provides. For those of us who need every penny justified however, it becomes simply impossible to ignore offerings such as the Awei T10Cs. 

Where To Purchase The Haylou GT2

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