Review Verdict: While Xiaomi went to the unconventional route and chose a half-ear design, the Buds 5 offers great sound quality and decent ANC for its form factor. However, it could benefit from optimizations, especially with battery life.
Pros
- Natural and balanced soundstage out of the box
- Pinch controls work great
- Good ANC despite form factor
Cons
- Battery life is short (with ANC enabled)
- Fit not for everyone
Aside from the 14T series, Xiaomi also brought over the Buds 5 to the Philippines as well. Its latest TWS earbuds aim to bring premium audio at an under Php 5k price point while utilizing a less conventional half-ear design. We’ve used them for a week, and here are our thoughts on Xiaomi’s latest TWS earbuds.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Review Philippines: Design
Regardless if you buy the black, white, or the signature Titan Gray colorway, they all have a mirror gloss finish for the top part of the case. It’s more prevalent in the Titan Gray colorway, and it is a definite smudge magnet. While it scores points in terms of aesthetics, you’ll have to be mindful of how sensitive the lid is to smudges.
Opening the case reveals the buds themselves, which are positioned unconventionally compared to other TWS earbuds I have reviewed in the past. I give Xiaomi credit for this approach, as it makes removing (and returning) the earbuds to the case less cumbersome. Like the case, you also get the same mirror gloss finish on the stems, adding aesthetic appeal at the expense of being another fingerprint magnet.
Xiaomi knows how to offer premium looks at an affordable price point, and that’s evident with the Buds 5 with their metal grilles for the drivers and microphones. You get a notch on the stem area to guide you for the buds’ pinch controls.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Review Philippines: User Interface and Fit
Like all Xiaomi TWS earbuds like the Redmi Buds 5 Pro, the Buds 5 uses the Xiaomi Earbuds App, where you get access to a lot of customization features. Unique to the Buds 5 is Dimensional Audio and Record Audio. The latter utilizes the Xiaomi Buds 5’s microphones to record audio, which is a handy feature if you’re doing interviews. Do note that you’ll have to use the Xiaomi Earbuds app for this feature, and you’re limited to 90 minutes of recording time.
The pinch controls are customizable for music playback, volume control, and ANC settings. Compared to more expensive TWS earbuds like the Galaxy Buds3 Pro, the Xiaomi Buds 5’s pinch controls are less cumbersome to use.
Moving to the fit, the Xiaomi Buds 5 utilizes a half-ear design that’s popularized by the original Apple AirPods. In the case of the Buds 5, they are contoured in a way that they sit comfortably on your ears. While they stayed on my ear without worrying about them falling off, there were only a few times when I had to adjust the fit due to sound leakage–a common pain point for half-ear TWS earbuds. Not everyone will like its half-ear form factor–but I’d say the Buds 5 is one of the better ones out there.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Review Philippines: Audio Quality and Battery Life
Making the Buds 5 interesting aside from its support for HiRes Audio and Snapdragon Sound is that they are Xiaomi’s first TWS earbuds to be tuned by Harman. The Harman EFX sound profile is enabled by default, and they delivered a natural and balanced soundstage that’s rare to find in a pair of budget earbuds–especially one that does not need any further EQ tweaking through the app.
Aside from my usual KPop fix, I also listened to indie songs from Metric and Tame Impala to appreciate the Xiaomi Buds 5’s balanced soundstage. I like how the drivers are tuned, as they deliver an adequate amount of bass without drowning the vocals and instruments of every track I’m listening to.
The Xiaomi Buds 5’s ANC also impressed me–especially considering they are a half-ear design. Noise cancellation is much better compared to similar half-ear TWS earbuds, with sound leakage being less than what I expected.
One aspect that the Xiaomi Buds 5 falls short of is battery life. I barely got three hours with them with ANC enabled when I got a battery-low prompt–and that’s lower than the other ANC-equipped TWS earbuds I have reviewed in the past and lower than Xiaomi’s claims. I think that power management can still be optimized via firmware updates, so I’m optimistic that Xiaomi can address the Buds 5’s battery life in the future.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions
Beyond its unconventional avant-garde design and unconventional half-ear design, the Xiaomi Buds 5 offers premium sound quality and excellent ANC performance for under Php 5k. The battery life may be slightly underwhelming, but I’m optimistic that Xiaomi will be able to improve this in the future.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Review Philippines: Price
The Xiaomi Buds 5 is priced at Php 4,699.
