Yesterday, Xiaomi launched the Redmi Earbuds S in India. The rebranded Redmi AirDots S come in at a highly competitive price point of just ₹1,799. At that price, it’s difficult to ridicule a product like this. However, if you’re wondering whether you should buy these or not, here’s my review of the Redmi Earbuds S after having used them over the last week.
First up, let’s take a look at everything you will find inside the Redmi Earbuds S box.
You know, for a pair of truly wireless earbuds that are priced under ₹2,000, the Redmi Earbuds S have great build and design. There are a couple of neat touches that I like. Ironically, the first one is that you can’t see fingerprint marks on this thing.
The case here is pretty tiny which is great, even if it does feel just ever so slightly unsatisfactory when opening it up. It doesn’t have that very tactile feeling that some other earbud-cases offer when the lid is popped open. That’s me nitpicking though, it’s not really a deal breaker by any means.
Xiaomi said a lot of good things about how comfortable these earphones are, and how well designed they are for fitting into the average Indian ear, and for the most part that’s true.
I’m very confused about this part. On the one hand, there’s the fact that the Redmi Earbuds S don’t have great sound. They simply don’t. The soundstage feels narrow, and the earbuds struggle with instrument separation in the mids. Plus the bass, while thumpy, is also muffled.
Is it impossible to enjoy music on these earbuds? No, it’s not. If anything it’s a fairly decent experience. And under ₹2,000, you will not get a lot of TWS earbuds anyway. The Redmi Earbuds S get quite loud, and the sound doesn’t distort which is great.
The Redmi Earbuds S come with a multi-function button on each of the earbuds. This button is used to perform everything from answering and ending calls, controlling music playback, launching the voice assistant and more. Here’s what the controls look like.
All of these functions are great. However, I would have preferred also having functions to skip forward or back in my playlists. That’s an important feature for me. However, that doesn’t seem to exist here. While testing these earbuds I tried triple pressing the multi-function button to see if that skips songs, but the earbuds just played a weird tone and then continued playing the song.
Anyway, moving on, these earbuds come with Bluetooth 5, which is really great considering their price. You can use these individually if you want, and they pair easily. You can just take the earphones out of the case, look in your phone’s Bluetooth settings and tap on ‘Redmi Earbuds S’ to pair them with your phone.
For earbuds this small, the Redmi Earbuds S have a surprisingly good battery life. Xiaomi claims 4 hours of listening time from the earbuds on a single charge, at 80% volume. That claim is more than true by my testing. After two hours of continuous listening at 80% volume, the Redmi Earbuds S had only dropped down to 60% charge. So yeah, they will easily last 4 hours on a charge.
Pros and Cons
Alright, to sum things up, here’s a quick look at what’s good and bad about these earphones.
Cons:
Redmi Earbuds S Review: Best Truly Wireless Earbuds Under ₹2,000?
All things considered, the Redmi Earbuds S (₹1,799) are high on my list of the potential best truly wireless earbuds under ₹2,000 in India. They come in a sleek package with a pretty solid design. They are quite comfortable to wear, and fit easily in the ear, and they are priced as if they were on a sale. The only compromise here is in the sound quality which is a big deal. Still, as an overall package, in this price, the Redmi Earbuds S are a solid deal to go for.
