Xiaomi recently released their new noise-canceling TWS earbuds, the FlipBuds Pro. If you remember, Xiaomi had launched an active noise-canceling TWS earbud last year called the Air 2 Pro. However, these brand new earbuds come under a new lineup called Flipbuds.
So what upgrades and improvements does it have over the Air 2 Pro? Welcome to Gizmochina’s full review of the Xiaomi FlipBuds Pro.
Xiaomi FlipBuds Pro Review: Design
Unlike the oval cylindrical shape of the Air series, the FlipBuds Pro has become more rounded and compact. Xiaomi claims that this design is in line with the new Xiaomi logo design concept. However, in terms of shape, it looks very similar to OPPO’s Enco X.
But FlipBuds Pro is still simpler and more like a pebble. The frosted material has also turned into a glossy finish. The Xiaomi logo is on the spindle, and the pairing button and charging port are at the bottom. Of course, the Flipbuds Pro case is still equipped with wireless charging. Other than that, there are no extra design elements. Unfortunately, it’s only available in black, and with the glossy finish, fingerprints will soon cover your entire earbuds case.
When you open the case, you will find that the lid is very flexible, so it is very easy to open the box with one hand. Taking out the earbuds, you can see that the shape of the earbuds is very familiar. It looks like the black version of Airpods Pro, but Xiaomi has added some of its own design elements, so you can find some differences if you look carefully. For example, the earbuds look similar to the AirPods Pro, but they are actually larger than the Apple earbuds. The earbud stem is also thicker. So they have a better fit in your ears.
We all know that the Air 2 Pro (our review here) does not have the best fit, but thanks to the enlarged earbuds and the new design, this issue is no longer a problem. There is a ring of a metal-like decorative strip to make the earbuds look less monotonous. This time the Flipbuds Pro has abandoned the Air 2 Pro’s personality design and changed to a more popular form factor, making it suitable for more people to wear. I think Xiaomi is right to make this change, after all, good wearing comfort and solid active noise cancellation performance of the earbuds are the most basic requirements.
Xiaomi FlipBuds Pro Review: ANC Performance
One of the criteria for identifying good and bad active noise cancellation earbuds is the strength of noise cancellation. Because recently I have been using my own noise-canceling TWS – the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, let’s talk about the difference between the Buds Pro and the Flipbuds Pro.
First of all, let’s look at its disadvantages. Although the earbuds have improved the design to reduce the wind noise, the effect is still relatively poor, and when compared to the Samsung Buds Pro, there is a difference. The Flipbuds Pro’s transparency mode is not as transparent as the Samsung Buds Pro either, but other features of the Flipbuds Pro are basically the same as the Samsung Buds Pro.
There are three noise cancellation modes to choose from, but there is not much difference in noise reduction intensity. The transparency mode has an option to Enhance voice, which when turned on, will slightly degrade the environmental sound and retain the human voice. Considering the price, Flipbuds Pro’s noise cancellation performance is still at a relatively good level.
Xiaomi FlipBuds Pro Review: Sound Quality & Operation
The LHDC encoding on the Xiaomi Air 2 Pro is replaced with aptX Adaptive, a Bluetooth encoding protocol. We’ve seen the same on Redmi Airdots 3, which combines low latency and high sound quality. The tuning style favors heavy bass, the vocals have lower volume, so listening to rock or symphonic music is a more suitable choice. Gaming latency with Xiaomi phones is very low, but for non-Xiaomi phones the latency is very high, if you are not a Xiaomi phone user, you need to pay attention to this.
The Flipbuds Pro is also operated by touch instead of press. Long press to switch to the noise cancellation mode, short press to control the music play and pause, the previous song and the next song. Volume can also be controlled in the earbuds through custom settings. There is another good news too, you can control the Flipbuds Pro settings without using the XiaoAi App.
You only need to go into the Bluetooth settings to do all the operations, and the response time of the pop-up animation has become faster too. But you can only enjoy the above features if you are a Xiaomi phone user, otherwise, you still have to use the Chinese XiaoAi APP. The app on Xiaomi phones and non-Xiaomi Android phones is the same, there are no missing features. But the XiaoAI iOS app does not support this earbud yet.
One feature is particularly interesting, if you do not put your earbuds in the earbud case within three minutes, the phone will remind you that the earbuds are not in the case, which is a very useful feature for users who often lose their earbuds.
This time Flipbuds Pro also supports dual device connection similar to the Huawei FreeBuds Pro, which simply means that you can connect two Bluetooth devices at the same time. When you connect two devices, the earbuds will automatically switch to the device which is playing the audio, without you having to manually switch. The convenience of multi-device switching is even more convenient than the Samsung Buds Pro.
One might wonder, can it connect to three devices at the same time? The answer is no, if there are three or more devices that need to be switched, they still have to be connected manually. Dual device connectivity should be the biggest highlight on Flipbuds Pro, and I think it’s worth buying it for this feature alone.
Xiaomi FlipBuds Pro Review: Battery Life
We were impressed by the long battery life of the Air 2 Pro, but the Flipbuds Pro does not continue this advantage, with only about 5 hours of battery life with the ANC turned on, and only 22 hours of battery life with the earbud case for charging. So the battery life is just ordinary.
The official price of Flipbuds Pro is $15 more expensive than the Air 2 Pro, but it upgrades the wearing comfort and stability, solves software problems, and enables multiple devices to be connected at the same time. I think these upgrades are still worth the $15.
Would you consider it as your primary noise-canceling earbuds? Let us know in the comments section.
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