On May 13, Xiaomi launched its annual noise-cancelling headphones – Mi Noise-cancelling Headphones Pro. In all, this is the second true wireless noise-cancelling headset under the Xiaomi brand. So what are the improvements of this headset?
Xiaomi Mi Noise-cancelling Headphones Pro Design
First, let’s take a look at the charging case. The overall outline of the charging compartment of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is outlined with a large number of rounded arcs, and it is smooth and delicate in the hand like a pebble.
The main color of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro is black. But it also has some shades of green. For the first time, the surface of the charging bay is designed with a high-gloss nano-NCVM coating process. The only drawback is that it is more sticky to fingerprints.
The switch between the lid and the box body of the charging case has a built-in magnetic attraction structure, which has a strong magnetic attraction force.
The only physical button on the box body is hidden on the right side of the Type-C charging port at the bottom.
Once we open the box cover, we can see that there is an indicator light on the outside and inside of the box. It is used to remind the power status, pairing status and charging status.
In terms of the headset body, based on 5000+ ear data, 20 rounds of modification, and 10000+ user surveys, Xiaomi created this ergonomically designed headset shape with the ear area and the ear stem at 50°.
The design of the headset body is similar to that of Apple’s AirPods Pro. But the overall size is a bit larger, and the bright surface and matte stitching design make the headset more textured. The color is consistent with the charging bay, and it is also black.
Because of the slightly larger size of the earphones the Mi Noise Cancelling Earphone Pro has a more obvious sense of foreign body when worn. Although Xiaomi provides ear caps in three sizes, large, medium and small, changing to a smaller ear cap only slightly reduces the foreign body sensation.
Xiaomi Mi Noise-cancelling Headphones Pro Performance
When using it for the first time, simply open the lid and press and hold the physical button at the bottom for a few seconds to see the corresponding connection pop-up window (currently only supports Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra).
After the connection is set successfully, users can enter the Bluetooth page to check the headset status and make corresponding settings, such as setting noise reduction/transparency mode, custom gesture operation, earplug fit detection, and so on.
By default, users can switch songs, control the noise reduction state, and other operations by pressing the ear handle of the headset. Single press will switch song play/pause, double tap will switch to the next song, three presses will switch to the previous song, and long press will switch the noise reduction/transparency state. Of course, you can also choose different settings for the left and right ear compressions.
Noise Reduction
In terms of noise reduction performance, the Mi Noise-cancelling Headphones Pro comes with the industry’s strongest independent noise reduction chip ADI 71251, with 40dB active noise reduction performance.
Users can set three active noise reduction modes in the setting interface: “Travel Mode”, “Daily Mode”, and “Office Mode”.
In the transparent mode, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro provides two options: “Full Transparent Mode” and “Vocal Enhancement Mode”.
In the “Voice Enhancement Mode”, there is a strong electronic flavor, and the voices of the surrounding people seem to be processed before entering the ear canal, which is a little uncomfortable.
The “full transparent mode” is much more comfortable. The ambient sound collected by the headset is quite clear, and it sounds like you are not wearing the headset.
It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headset Pro also debuted the Qualcomm QCC5151 flagship processor. The three microphones work together during a call to effectively separate the human voice from the noise and ensure clear communication during a call.
In terms of sound quality, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro uses an 11mm super linear dynamic coil, which brings a large amplitude of 0.6mm, in order to make the bass sound more robust and powerful. In addition, there are LCP liquid crystal composite diaphragm, composite high-rebound centering support piece design, etc., which improve the sound quality of high, medium and low tri-band from different degrees.
Xiaomi also uses aptX Adaptive audio decoding on this headset, so that mobile phone audio signals are transmitted to the headset almost losslessly.
But from the actual experience, the performance of the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro in terms of sound quality still has a lot of room for improvement. After turning on the noise reduction mode, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro gives people a muddy feeling at low frequencies, and this phenomenon has been improved to a certain extent after the noise reduction/transparency mode is completely turned off.
The Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro can also connect dual devices intelligently. This headset can be connected to Xiaomi mobile phones and Xiaomi notebooks at the same time, and connect any device under the same account. Other devices can be added automatically.
In addition to Xiaomi’s own devices, this function can also achieve dual connections between other different systems such as Android, Apple, and Windows, and it is quite practical.
Battery Life
In terms of battery life, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro supports a dual-chip fast charging solution, and you can listen to music for 2 hours after charging for 5 minutes.
The company claims that the Xiaomi Mi Noise Cancelling Charging Earphone Pro has a battery life of 7 hours when noise reduction is turned off, and 5 hours when noise reduction is turned on. It is 28 hours and 23 hours when used with the charging box. Generally speaking, they are in line with mainstream flagship wireless headphones.
Of course, as the flagship product, the wireless charging function is there as well. The Mi Noise Cancelling Earphone Pro supports QI wireless charging standard and mobile phone wireless reverse charging, and supports up to 2.5W wireless charging power. However, it should be noted that if you use Xiaomi’s own vertical wireless charger you have to put the charging case upright to successfully charge.
Conclusion
As Xiaomi’s second true wireless noise-cancelling headset, the overall performance of Xiaomi’s noise-cancelling headset Pro can be said to have made considerable progress.
Compared with the Xiaomi True Wireless Headphones Air 2 Pro launched at the end of last year, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphones Pro has much improved design and noise reduction/transparency performance.
However, in terms of sound quality, the Mi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro has regressed to a certain extent. Compared with the crisp and transparent sound quality of Xiaomi True Wireless Headphone Air 2 Pro, the sound quality of Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro, which is too thick or even slightly muddy, is obviously not so pleasing in terms of hearing.
If you pay more attention to the noise reduction performance of headphones and the sense of hearing in transparent mode, then the Xiaomi Noise Cancelling Headphone Pro priced at 799 yuan is definitely a product that you can’t ignore when you consider a noise reduction headphones.