After all, it’s only natural for a new Xiaomi presentation to include new Xiaomi headphones. The Xiaomi Buds 4 Pro are said to have 48 decibels of noise cancellation and are LDHC 4.0 certified, allowing them to play Hi-Res Audio Wireless music. Was it really necessary?
In line with the Mix Fold 2
Because the headphones were released concurrently with the new Xiaomi Mix Fold 2, they have been designed to look nice.
The color of the device is silver, with a gold and a silver version available. They appear to be most comparable to the Xiaomi FlipBuds Pro, which we felt were more like FlopBuds.
Strange bluetooh codec choice
The inside is an 11 mm dynamic driver that is supposed to produce hi-fi sound. So, in order to provide high-quality music, as well, it’s supported by the LHDC 4.0 protocol in addition to Bluetooth 5.3. From a technical standpoint, it makes sense since the bit rate can be increased with LHDC; nevertheless, only a few smartphones support the codec and not even all Xiaomi phones are capable of utilizing it.
The LDAC codec would simply be smarter here because it is supported on every Android device. There is also no information about the LC3 codec, which will soon be supported in Android 13. A bit surprising, since the Redmi Buds 3 Pro were actually pioneers there. But the support of multipoint is good, with which you can connect several devices at the same time and thus quickly switch between smartphone and laptop, for example.
Big promises at the ANC
ANC is also available again, which is supposed to reduce ambient noise by up to 48 dB . But I would only believe the promise after a test, because so far Xiaomi can’t actually keep up with the best ANC systems from Sony & Co. Of course, there is also an ambient mode , where you can choose three levels
So that you can be clearly understood during phone calls, there are several microphones on the headphones, which use an algorithm to separate your voice from outside noise and thus improve the recording. A bone conduction sensor should be installed for this purpose, with which Xiaomi would like to identify your voice more precisely.
360° sound only on Xiaomi top smartphones
You also follow the 360° sound trend and use it here. This is currently only supported by the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 and 12s Ultra, so very few should be interested in it. But there is important information here because the headphones come with a Mi Headphones app. Xiaomi has finally created an app with which you can use their headphones. Hopefully, this will now also appear for Europe and you can finally configure the Xiaomi headphones properly.
With a total runtime of 38 hours, these headphones last up to 9 hours per charge. However, it is not specified whether this refers to the duration with or without ANC. There is also a rapid charging function; the headphones should be fully charged in under 30 minutes. The charging box takes 3 hours to charge using USB-C. Wireless Qi charging is included as well.
Own language assistant for the headphones
The headphones can be controlled in two ways. Once via the pressure-sensitive headphone stem that you can squeeze. You can use it to control the ANC and media playback.
Then, this time, there’s also a voice assistant that understands and performs certain words like “next song”. At the moment, however, this will probably only be possible in Chinese.
Final Words: Isn’t it slow enough?
The headphones here are certainly not bad and read quite interesting on paper. But as with their smartphones, Xiaomi is putting headphones on the market, some of which are very similar and seem unnecessary. Why not even one headphone per price segment, which might then get a new model every year? Other manufacturers can do it that way too. This would make their headphone portfolio clearer and not such a mess. But we know Xiaomi well enough to know that’s unlikely to change. Are you looking forward to the Xiaomi Buds 4 Pro or is it slowly enough for you?
