OpenWear Stereo Hi-Res LHDC Earbuds, 17x12mm Dynamic Driver, Up to 38.5h Battery Life, Dual-mic with AI Noise Reduction (Sandstone Beige)

These Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Hi-Res LHDC Earbuds are comfortable to wear, and the sound is pretty good...but for several reasons, I was torn between giving them three stars or four. I'm going to preface my review by mentioning that I'm using them with a Xiaomi phone (13T Pro) because the experience of pairing and using them will likely be different on non-Xiaomi devices and because Xiaomi phones have a following here but aren't widely used in the United States. As soon as I opened the charger case and took out the headphones they were recognized by my phone and a pop-up menu came on my display to pair them. I didn't need to go into the Bluetooth menu or Bluetooth Pairing Mode first, but that's almost certainly because I'm already using a Xiaomi phone. The pop-up menu may suggest that you go to the Play Store to download the Xiaomi Headphones App. A bar code for the app is also included in the packaging of the headphones. The problem if you live in the United States is that the Xiaomi Headphones App is indeed available in the Play Store, but not for download here. You can download the Android app directly from Xiaomi's website in Taiwan or likely find it on an APK Site, although downloading it directly from Xiaomi is probably the safer choice. If you already own a Xiaomi smartphone running HyperOS, then you don't need the app because all of the menu options available in the app are baked directly into HyperOS. If you go into the list of paired Bluetooth devices on your phone and click the right arrow a menu with headphone options (see pics) comes up that's identical to the interface from the separate headphones app. You can specify what happens when you single, double, and long press the right and left earbuds, choose between using AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs (more on that particular setting in a moment--but if you read no further, NEVER USE THE AAC BLUETOOTH CODEC ON AN ANDROID DEVICE), and manually enable the ANC which does very little on my phone--possibly because it isn't compatible with the AI Features in HyperOS. I can tell when ANC is turned on and off, but it has so little practical effect in terms of reducing ambient noise that activating it is pointless. In the menu options ANC shows up under Laboratory Functions as Comfort and noise reduction and needs to be manually enabled every time you connect the headphones. Since this is a Laboratory Function, that probably means it's either experimental or still in active development. The other possible reason it's not part of the main controls may be that the ANC works better on some devices than others, since it's a function that relies heavily on AI to work. To be fair to Xiaomi---the ANC in Bluetooth headphones from Bose, Sony, and Samsung also relies on AI to work, unlike older wired headphones, where the ANC functioning was completely hardware-based and built into the physical body of the headphones themselves. Bluetooth ANC headphones often require an app and attempt to leverage the AI Capabilities built into your smartphone CPU to do most of the noise-cancelling heavy lifting. Earbuds don't offer sound quality comparable to over-the-ear headphones at the same price point, but you're sacrificing great sound for convenience and portability. As far as earbuds go, these Xiaomi OpenEar sound quite good with nice definition and a balanced range that keeps trebly music from sounding shrill or bass-heavy music from sounding muddy. I own earbuds from Skull Candy, Sony, Xiaomi (from their cheaper Redmi line), and Zipforce and these easily sound the best. I also appreciate the ear hooks because I have trouble with fit and comfort with some earbuds. These stay in place over the ear, and I don't have to worry about them popping out and losing one or both. Since they sit just outside of the ear, wearing them causes no discomfort or ear irritation over extended periods of use--problems that I often encounter with in-ear style earbuds. So if these sound good and are comfortable, why was I strongly tempted to give them three stars instead of four? The gesture commands don't work as well as they should. Using a single tap to raise or lower volume is fine although I wish a single tap didn't change the volume quite so much--but the double tap commands to stop and restart music don't work reliably to the point where I've given up on even trying to use them--if I'm at a register or in another situation where I would normally want to pause music I turn down the volume instead because turning down the volume actually works. Using the double tap on either earbud more often than not gets registered as two separate taps to change the volume or as a single long tap to access Google Assistant (Gemini) but since accessing the assistant makes it ready to listen, I didn't realize that the assistant on my phone was being activated. While the ANC does little on my phone call quality is good even in noisy environments and people at the other end of calls can always seem to hear me so there is some kind of noise cancelling going on with phone calls that does work well. Now a quick warning about AAC: In the Audio Menu for the headphones under Audio Quality you can choose between AAC which is listed as High Quality and SBC which is listed as Standard Quality. That's not an accurate description on Android. SBC has been capable of high definition sound since Bluetooth 5.0 and AAC is an Apple Bluetooth codec that works very poorly on Android devices. Even if you're listening to a music source with the AAC Audio Codec you shouldn't use the AAC Bluetooth codec thinking that it passes through the sound. Despite sharing the same name the AAC Audio Codec and Bluetooth codec are two separate things. The AAC audio codec is capable of reproducing full CD-quality sound. The AAC Bluetooth codec is not. The AAC Bluetooth Codec re-encodes audio rather than passing it through even on Apple devices. The menu toggle for the headphones allowed me to switch between AAC and SBC on the fly while listening to songs. With a lot of music, you can barely tell any difference between the two. But with songs that are difficult to reproduce because there are multiple instruments playing simultaneously or music that uses reverb to create atmosphere and space the AAC Bluetooth Codec cuts off audio frequencies well within the range of normal human hearing. Sound is clipped and songs have noticeably less range. Final Verdict: If having effective ANC is an important feature, then I definitely can't recommend the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Hi-Res LHDC Earbuds. The tap gestures beyond single taps to change volume also work poorly. But these are very comfortable to wear, they sound nice, and if you're using a Xiaomi phone running HyperOS, all of the headphone controls from the separate headphones app are baked right into the OS. For me, these were worth the money, but they may not be the best choice for everyone--especially in the United States, where Xiaomi phones aren't that widely used.

Returned! Volume is very low!

A bit lose

Disappointed the volume is low tell me how to turn up the volume I like listening to HD music on YouTube it has gteat cinema sound wen watching movies on YouTube

It is super comfortable to wear, sometimes even forget I put them on. My new jogging partner! Sound quality and connectivity are always perfect with Xiaomi's products.

Ich habe bis vor längerer Zeit immer In-Ear Kopfhörer getragen, die ich allerdings nicht mehr vertrage. Nachdem ich inzwischen mehrere On-Ear-Hörer ausprobiert habe (u.a. von Bekannten) habe ich, da ich auch ein Xiaomi-Handy habe, mit dem ich mehr als zufrieden bin, diese hier gekauft. Sie sind heute angekommen und ich bin begeistert. Sie wirken hochwertig. Die Koppelung war so flink, wie ich es bei noch keinen bisher hatte. Die app hab ich dann auch sofort geladen. Sie ist selbsterklärend, aber man kann die Hörer auch ohne benutzen. Von den Hörern selbst sind ja in der Beschreibunb und auf der Seite von Xiaomi genügend Fotos. Daher hab ich mal screenshots der app mitgeschickt, die wohl mehr nützen. Wer auch immer sich diese Hörer kauft, wird es sicher nicht bereuen, ein paar "Mark" mehr ausgegeben zu haben. Ich habe dann vorhin die Hörer gleich mal bei der Hunderunde und ziemlich starkem Wind ausprobiert. Das Tragen ist trotz Brille seeehr angenehm. Man merkt sie kaum. Der Klang ist toll. Die Lautstärke reicht völlig. Ich hab noch nicht mal auf volle Pulle 😉 gestellt. Bei Begegnungen mit Bekannten war die Musik ruckzuck durch antippen gestoppt und ich konnte mich ganz normal unterhalten, ohne die Dinger abzusetzen, wie es bei den In-Ears immer nötig war. Ich bin begeistert (und ich glaube, mein Hund auch🐕), da ich trotz Musik alles (auch Autos und Fahrräder, die hinter uns waren) hören konnte, was mir zusätzliche Sicherheit gibt. Ich freue mich auf viele schöne Stunden mit diesen tollen Helfern.

Ottime cuffie ad archetto. Date a una donna di 60 anni, l'uso risulta essere comodo che mi conferma che non cadono.

HaiThese headphones are seriously impressive! The sound quality is just amazing, so clear and rich. I've tried a few different brands, but these truly stand out as the best. Pairing was super easy, and they fit comfortably for hours. Definitely recommend these for anyone looking for great audio on the go.

The sounds were amazing and colors were nice and even you are having exercise it was not easily detached from the ears.