Redmi Airdots – proving that cheap things can be good
Bluetooth earbuds are dime a dozen. You go to any electronics or mobile phone store and you’re bound to come across a number of models. But with the proliferation of Bluetooth 5.0, true wireless audio has also taken a leap forward.
In case you didn’t know, True Wireless Earbuds are a pair of earbuds that are designed with absolutely no wires connecting the earbuds to each other. Hence the name “truly wireless”. We first saw this with the Apple Earpods, followed by the Galaxy Buds by Samsung. From there, numerous other manufacturers have launched their own iterations of true wireless sound (or TWS) earbuds to the market. The Redmi Airdots AKA the Mi True Wireless Earbuds Basic are one such example.
The first noticeable thing is the price
Priced at around LKR 4,000/-, the Redmi Airdots are by far the cheapest earbuds in the market. But does that mean they’re also cheap? Well, that’s what I decided to find out. The packaging of the Redmi Airdots is nothing extraordinary to talk about. The blue rectangular box has an image of the earbuds along with the carrying case. Around the box you will find the features and specifications of the earbuds. Opening the packaging you get a carrying case that acts as a charger, instructions and warranty documents and two sizes of eartips.
The packaging and contents of the Redmi Airdots is minimal, yet sufficient (Image Credits: YouTube)
Setting up the Redmi Airdots is fairly straightforward
The earbuds have a small blue sticker on the charging pins that need to be peeled off in order to charge the buds. Once peeled off, place the earbuds back in the charging case, and the buds begin to charge. The earbuds have an LED indicator on them to show the current status of the buds. While charging, the LED indicator is Red. Once fully charged, the indicator goes off. Similarly, the carrying case too has an LED indicator that turns Red when charging, and goes off once fully charged.
The pairing process of the buds is by far the easiest one I’ve had. All I need to do is to take the earbuds out of the case and they immediately went into pairing mode. The indicator on bot buds blink in white to let you know that they are ready to pair. One point to note is that even though the earbuds are true wireless and can act individually or as a pair, the right earbud is the master earbud. As such, you’ll only see the Right earbud showing up in your device’s bluetooth settings. Once the right earbud gets paired to your device, the left earbud automatically connects to the right one. Once both earbuds create the connection, the LED indicators go off and you hear a synchronized beep in both earbuds. If your device supports it, you can also see the remaining battery of the earbuds from the bluetooth settings.
From there, you’re all set to use your new Redmi Airdots. The buds come with a size M eartip attached but also have S and L sizes if required. For my usage, I found that while the Size L does create a tighter fit in my ear, it also tends to seal off a portion of the sounds from the earbuds. So I spent quite a bit of time twiddling with the earbuds to get it to sit just right in my ear. The Size M ones handle all this perfectly.
I’ve had my fair share of Bluetooth headsets and earbuds but this was my first entry to true wireless earbuds as they have no cables connecting them, you would think that they would fall out of your ear, but you’d be wrong. I spent a good part of my first hour with the buds shaking my head left to right like a dog, but the buds stayed firmly in place. In terms of music playback, I wasn’t expecting a lot. Hence, my surprise when the Airdots blew me away. The sound was astonishingly clear for a pair of earbuds in this price range. The mids and highs were quite accurate. As for bass, again I wasn’t expecting thumping bass but was pleasantly surprised when there was a noticeable thump in the bass department. If you’re a bass junkie, then these buds will definitely not disappoint.
In terms of usage, the Redmi Airdots last around 4 hours on a single charge with continuous playback (both audio and video). If you turn them off when not in use, then you will obviously have a longer battery life. Once the battery goes below 20%, a periodic beep is heard from the earbuds. Once the buds are completely drained of battery, they switch off and whatever you’re listening to stops as well.
As you probably figured by now, the only way to charge the Redmi Earbuds is via the charging case. A full charge takes around 45 minutes to an hour. The charging case itself has an 800mAh battery. This means you can have almost 3 full charges for the earbuds before you need to charge the case. Charging the case is done via a MicroUSB cable (not included). The case takes around 90 minutes to charge and you can charge the earbuds simultaneously as well.
While the Redmi Airdots seem like the perfect pair of earbuds, there are a few things that should be pointed out. For starters, while the qbuild quality feels good, there have been reports of the earbuds chipping in places after they were dropped. So dropping them is a big NO. In addition, there are no additional media controls on the buds. You get one button per bud. One press of the button is used to play/pause music and answer/reject calls. Double tapping the button will bring up either Google Assistant or Siri.
There are also two versions of the buds available. One has everything in Chinese including instructions as well as sounds from the buds themselves. The global version replaces the Chinese instructions with English ones and also replaces the Chinese assistant with beeps. So if you’re planning on getting a pair of these earbuds, pay particular attention to the version you’re getting.
All in all, the Redmi Airdots offer almost everything one could ask for in a pair of inexpensive true wireless earbuds. The sound quality is on point as some wired headsets. The inbuilt microphone on either buds also mean that you can choose which side to answer calls with.
The Redmi Airdots are available at SimplyTek, iDealz and a number of other mobile phone resellers and stores across Sri Lanka. You can also order it from AliExpress or eBay as well.
