The TWS headset Xiaomi AirDots was introduced back in November 2018 at a price of 199 yuan, or 1,900 rubles, at the time of release and was positioned as an inexpensive competitor primarily for Apple AirPods.
It just so happened that not a single TWS headset entering the market can avoid comparison with a product from the apple company.
Some manufacturers put a special emphasis on this in order to simultaneously draw attention to their product, and thereby highlight the advantages, the most important of which is usually the price.
Good or bad, the fifth question, but this approach achieves its goal – users begin to compare, which means they get acquainted with the device.
Today, the TWS headset market is booming, and the more offers there are, the better for the consumer: choice is almost always good.
But back to AirDots. Considering that the headset from Xiaomi was presented quite a long time ago, there are a lot of impressions about it, so this material will be more about impressions of the product than about characteristics.
But we will start, as usual, with the packaging and appearance.
Packaging and delivery set
A traditional small white box, which depicts the device on one side, and on the other is described in great and mighty Chinese, which, of course, every buyer of this Chinese company knows – it seems that this is what they think in Xiaomi , otherwise how to explain the absence of at least English?
Yes, it is clear that this is a version of the product for the domestic market, but it's still a shame. It is good that at least the numbers remained Arabic, thanks to which the eye catches the values familiar to every gadget lover, by which one can understand part of the technical specifications of the device.
- The version Bluetooth is 5.0, which is great, since most manufacturers just can't get past 4.2.
- Supported protocols: HFF / A2DP / HSP / AVRCP.
- The battery capacity of each earbud is 40 mAh.
- The battery capacity of the case is 300 mAh.
- Operating time when playing music in stereo mode – 4 hours.
- When working in mono mode – 5 hours.
The case can provide an additional 2.5 charges for the headphones, resulting in about 12-15 hours of music playback.
Looking ahead, I will say that the headphones do not work for 4 hours. Real time is just over three hours. It seems that with such a low capacity of the built-in batteries, this operating time is achieved largely due to the current version Bluetooth – 5.0.
In addition to the headset itself and the case, inside the box you will find a short flat microUSB cable for charging the case, as well as an accordion instruction manual and two pairs of small and large interchangeable ear pads (medium-sized ear pads are already on the headset). That's the whole kit.
Design and appearance
Now a few words about design.
What I love about the products Xiaomi and their partners is the design commitment to the 'minimalist' style that the company has been practicing for years.
AirDots in this sense are a typical product – smooth body lines, a minimum of protruding parts and controls. Nice white color and plastic with a slight soft-touch effect.
This gives the impression of a more expensive product than it actually is.
A small case measuring 62x42x26mm and weighing 35 grams has smooth contours and a spring-loaded cover, under which headphones are located in magnetic cradles. The lid itself does not carry any additional functionality, it is just a case lid, so nothing happens when it is opened / closed.
It is a pity that a microUSB connector is used to charge the case, it would be better if it were Type-C.
Headphones in the case are charged through two contacts at the bottom of the cradles.
The way the earbuds fit onto the contacts inside the case gives AirDots an inexpensive product – this does not always happen the first time, and sometimes you have to move one or another earbud to find contact.
There are also complaints about the convenience of removing the headphones from the case and about opening the case itself – due to the absence of any protruding parts on the case, it is not always possible to pry off the cover the first time.
Exactly the same difficulties sometimes arise when removing the headphones from the case – due to the lack of grooves for the fingers, it is difficult to hook the headphones, especially on the go – it is actually inconvenient.
But they keep inside securely and do not fall out. ?
After the earbuds are placed in the case and contact is found, the earphone enters sleep mode and disconnects from the phone. When removed from the case, the headphones themselves connect to the device, announcing this in a sweet female voice in the same great and mighty Chinese. The connection takes place with a second delay of the left earphone, since it is the slave and connects to the right one, not to the phone.
You can connect the headphones separately, but this one gives you two separately connected headphones that play in mono mode. This option is convenient when you need to listen to information from one phone together, for example, during an excursion on vacation when using an audio guide, since in this mode the distance at which the headphones work will be 10 meters for each ear, and when connected in stereo only 2-3 meters, from the right ear to the left.
The headphones themselves measuring 23×14.5x13mm and weighing 4.2 grams each, are made in the same design as the case – soft-touch lower part and glossy translucent top – and are devoid of any mechanical controls.
By design, this is almost a complete copy of the mono headset Mi Bluetooth Headset Mini, which I wrote about not so long ago.
There is a microphone hole on the case at the front at the junction of the halves, and under the ear cushion skirt there is a pressure compensation hole and, it seems, a second microphone (but this is not accurate, since we could not find information about this). There is also the serial number of the device on the rim.
The designations of the sides are made on the inner side next to the contact pads in the form of very small convex letters that are difficult to see, and this is inconvenient, so the easiest way to navigate when removing the headphones from the case is the right one on the right.
An unusual moment for me was the implementation of a sulfur filter – it is practically invisible, and at the first moment it seems that it is not in AirDots at all.
However, if you take a closer look, it turns out that the filter is still there, it is just made of very thin nylon mesh and therefore is almost transparent.
The first time I come across this, and at first I was even upset, considering that in Xiaomi they decided to save on this.
Compared to, for example, Samsung IconX 2018, the headphones from Xiaomi seem to be much smaller and lighter, but this is a misleading impression.
If you put them side by side, it turns out that the AirDots are not much smaller. Such a deceptive impression arises precisely because of the shape of the headphones and the minimalist design that hides the dimensions.
The headset sits perfectly in my picky ears, but in my wife's ear AirDots did not fit even with the smallest attachments. Keep this in mind if you have a small ear.
For a correct fit, the earbuds must be inserted diagonally upward into the ear and then tightened to a horizontal position relative to the ground.
Such a fit will allow the headphones to hold on tightly and not fall out even with active head shaking.
The headphones do not bulge out of the ears at all, and they are convenient to wear, for example, under a hat – they do not interfere.
Noise isolation with complete ear pads is average – when you are outside, you can clearly hear the surrounding noise. This is both a plus and a minus, given that the headset does not have a sound transparency function, which means that you will hear what is happening around, which is good for safety. On the other hand, this is a disadvantage, since the headset will not be able to isolate you from noise, for example, the subway. This can be easily eliminated by replacing the complete ear cushions with foam ones – with them, noise isolation becomes excellent.
Now about management
All control here takes place using a touch surface in the entire area of the outer side of the headphones, under which there is a two-color LED that signals the connection by blinking white and charging or the need to charge the earphone by glowing or blinking red, respectively.
The following commands are supported: turn on / off with a long touch, switch to pairing mode with a long touch when turned on, start / stop playback with a single touch, and call the voice assistant with a double touch when music playback is turned off and on.
Unfortunately, the headset does not know how to flip through songs and adjust the volume. Only start / stop with a short press.
The sensor's sensitivity is average – for the earphone to feel the touch, you need to touch the sensor confidently. In fact, this is good, as it avoids frequent false alarms, for example, when the headphones are in your hand.
There are a couple of unpleasant nuances with the peculiarity of pairing with devices – the right earphone is the leading one, and sometimes the left one falls off from the right one and does not want to connect to it in any way. In this case, you must reset the connection. To do this, you need to insert the headphones into your ears and, touching both headphones, hold until a short trill of three signals appears, then, without releasing, wait for another similar trill, then put the headphones in the case, take them out and pair them. The connection will be restored and the pairing will be correct. You should not take this nuance as a tangible drawback, since I personally showed it during experiments with connecting to several devices at the same time.
After one long-hold reset and re-pairing with the phone, the connection loss between the ears no longer occurred.
Headset
During a conversation, the headset shows itself as standard for such a form factor – the interlocutors noted some deafness and sometimes a small background in the form of a muffled hum of the street. In the wind, the microphone blows as expected. However, a nice feature is that the sound of the conversation goes to both ears, and not to one, like many TWS headsets.
It has been experimentally found that the microphone of the right earpiece is used in the conversation mode, therefore, if you bring your hand with the boat to your right ear, the quality of speech transmission increases sharply. In this case, the interlocutors did not realize that I spoke to them through a headset, and not through a phone. Be that as it may, the function of conversations in this case is implemented on 4 out of 5. If you use the palm as a sound trap, then there are no questions at all.
Delay
A fairly common problem with TWS headsets is audio lag when watching videos and playing games. In this case, the problem did not manifest itself even once, neither when pairing with Samsung, nor with Huawei.
However, there are reviews that some users have a delay. Apparently, a lot depends on the version Android and the drivers of the phone manufacturer.
Sound
You can find a lot of opposite opinions on the sound quality of this headset on the web, from 'about nothing at all' to 'wonderful'.
Considering the cost of the headset, it was naive to expect Aptx here, it is not here, but there is AAC, which, of course, is not the same thing, but in general it is worthy.
My opinion is very good for this price. If we speak without looking back at the price tag, it’s quite good.
As for the volume, it is back to back, there is no stock, but it largely depends on the connected device. So, on Samsung S9, the volume was close enough, but on Huawei P20 Lite the maximum volume was difficult to adequately perceive more than a few seconds – it turned out to be too high.
The sound is a little lacking in detail and clarity, I would like more attention to detail. This makes the sound feel a little dirty. At the same time, there is a sense of depth, the sound is not flat.
The headset seems to be using inexpensive dynamic drivers, which can cause metallic notes and rattles in some tracks at high volumes. But there are no sibilants and 'cycling'.
In general, if you evaluate the sound of this headset in terms of listening to different styles of music, then they are best suited for popular and electronic music and to a lesser extent for rock and heavy music.
Oddly enough for this price point, the headphones are quite sensitive to the sound source. For example, lossless music sounds noticeably better and cleaner than streaming services, even the likes of Spotify.
Summarizing all of the above, I can say that the sound quality of AirDots surprised me in a good way, since I did not expect this from Bluetooth – a headset in this price segment.
It is pleasant to listen to music, there is no rejection. Especially after several days of 'every day' use, when you manage to get out of the habit of sounding an expensive headset of a completely different class.
Conclusion and impressions
The preliminary skeptical opinion did not come true, and the sound quality of the headset turned out to be better than I expected. This is especially true when you think about the cost of AirDots. If we compare it with classmates in the price category, then the QCY headsets loved by the Russian consumer sound worse, and I honestly don't understand their popularity.
If I had a choice between Xiaomi AirDots and QCY for similar money, I would have chosen AirDots without hesitation.
We upset some rough edges in the connection between the headset and the phone (blade of the left earpiece) and the not very well thought-out design of the case, which lacks hooks with which it would be easier to open the case lid, and grooves for the fingers inside for easier removal of the headphones from the case.
However, these minor flaws are offset by the wearing comfort, design, sound quality and cost of the headset, all of which form an overall positive product experience.
The author thanks the Ulyanovsk branch of the X | STORE store for the device provided for review.