In the heavily crowded market of TWS earphones, some very good products often go unnoticed. I hope nobody has still forgotten about the sheer disappointment Mi provided us by pricing the Mi TWS Earphones 2 at Rs. 4,499 that too at the time of the pandemic. I have personally tested the Mi TWS 2 too, and I can say that is a pretty solid pair of TWS earphones but it never justified such a hefty price tag. Recently, Xiaomi silently launched the Mi TWS earphones 2C and boy I have to say, these pair of TWS are highly underrated. If you want to find out why, just read on the detailed review of MI TWS Earphones 2C.
Coming at Rs. 2,299 (the price at which I bought it) the Mi TWS Earphones 2C has a lot similarities with the Mi TWS Earphones 2 with almost half the price tag. So what's missing as a measure of cost-cutting? Surprisingly enough, not much at all apart from the replacement of the high-end LHDC codec on the Mi TWS 2 with the AAC on the Mi TWS 2c. Now, does that matter to the general audience? Very definitely not because you can't really utilize the extra bandwidth of the LHDC while streaming from any OTT or music streaming platform available widely in India. Most of them support a maximum of 320 kbps and AAC is more than enough to transmit that. Other than that, something which is improved, is the battery life on the device and the overall connectivity about which we will talk in a bit. The case design is changed from Mi TWS 2, which is both a good and a bad thing, and that's all the changes that have been made to the Mi TWS 2 to derive the Mi TWS 2c. Let's get on with our detailed analysis of the Mi TWS 2c now.
The unboxing experience is pretty simple and lackluster and I have to say Xiaomi's presentation here is pretty generic. I was very disappointed. The unboxing experience of OPPO Enco devices and Oneplus Devices are far more superior. Keeping that aside, the box contents are fairly simple too, the case which contains the earphones, the charging cable and a user manual. The charging cable is of decent quality and will just serve the purpose. Coming to the charging case and the earphones, the build quality feels solid with a clumsy hinge. The hinge design doesn't inspire a lot of confidence and screams "handle with care". The quality of the earphones on the other hand are top notched and I have dropped it several time from almost a 5 and half feet height and it did nothing to the earphones. The earphones are pretty solid for that matter. The design, however, isn't something I am a very big fan of but it will eventually grow on you. Apple Airpods 1st generation like in-ear design and a thick stem is what makes the Mi TWS 2c. The protruding stem might be a little off for some people.
The fit and comfort of the earphones will highly depend on ear sizes and shapes. This universally-fit-all-ears design doesn't fit properly on every ears properly. Lets get this out of the way straight, if these earphones do not fit in your ears properly, there's no point buying this. You are eventually gonna end up losing it. Hence it is highly recommended to try these earphones in person before buying them because if these earphones don't fit you, you are gonna end up burning your 2k to ashes. Once, these earphones fit you properly, there are a lot of good things to talk about it. First, the comfort. These earphones are quite comfortable and you are gonna often forget that you have been wearing them. They are super comfortable and will stay in your ears for the most part. However, these universal in ear deigns are never meant for running and these are no exceptions. However, other than that, the fit is mostly quite good and are very comfortable to the ears.
Now, let's come to the functions of the device. There are many to be precise. The best among them would be the presence of dual mics for noise cancellation during calls at this price range and this feature is called ENC as a marketing term. The worst among them would be absence of useful touch controls. Let's talk about it in detail now. The call quality is excellent for the price and I have to admit that. I will talk about that later. Another amazing feature will be the presence of in-ear detection in this price range. This feature is solely limited to earphones above the 3K mark for the other reputable brands and still this is most of the times a hit or miss for most in-ear style earphones. In the Mi TWS 2c however, I have to say that this feature works like a charm and I never faced any wrong play/pause gesture whatsoever. Let's talk about the touch controls now. This is clearly the most disappointing part of the Mi TWS 2c solely because there are only two gestures that are available as a part of controlling the your device with the earphones. One is double tap on the right earbud to play/pause music, which was really unnecessary in my frank opinion and the other is double tap on the left earbud to invoke Google Assistant or Siri or Alexa. And that's it. Yes, you guessed right, there's no gesture for skipping tracks let alone volume control like the Oppo Enco W11. I mean what on earth Xiaomi thinking, even taking any earbud out would have paused the music any-way. A control to at least skip the tracks was very very necessary. I am sorely disappointed.
Next up is the most important factor for which you buy a pair of earphones and that is sound quality and call quality of course. Now, the sound quality on the Mi TWS 2c is among the best in its price segment but let me explain it to you by dividing the analysis into parts. First, the lows. Bass or lows as we call are punchy. well-defined with a lot of structure and tight enough to maintain a clean sound. There is however some bleeding into the mid-range but if you are worried that because of the half in-ear design, the bass would not be good, Xiaomi will pleasantly prove you wrong there. The quality and punch of the bass is by-far excellent for the price but there's some bleeding whatsoever. The mids however are clear and clean but I won't call them particularly crisp. Maybe OPPO Enco M31 has increased my expectations for a 2K pair of earphones but yeah, the mids could have been a little more defined but I can't much complain either because if we tone down the bass a bit, the mids come to life and get much more defined for a very good listening experience. Now, lets talk about the highs. Here, I would say Xiaomi did a great job and people who like Sennheiser Earphones will definitely love the Mi TWS Earphones 2C because the highs do have the sparkle that Sennheiser is known for. The Mi Earphones do sound a bit shrill at times when compared to Sennheiser Earphones and this is normal because a fairly new brand cannot provide a sound signature like an iconic and luxury brand like Sennheiser. The sound signature is mostly V-shaped and thus the earphones are not very forward sounding but these are things which only a trained ear can pick. The soundstage is above average at best but not class leading like the Sennheiser CX 275s or the RHA MA 390 or the OPPO Enco M31. At most 2 or 3 layers of music are audible very well and subtle nuances get somewhat mixed with the foreground music. For most people though, the sound quality is excellent and I might not go too far saying that this is the best that you can get for 2K INR. Talking about the call quality here, I have to say that it excellent for the price and also for earphones almost priced twice its range. The noise cancellation outdoors work great and isn't too aggressive like OPPO or Realme TWSs which often sound robotic. The voice is very clear in light to mid traffic. But keep your expectations real, in heavy traffic no TWS can provide you good call quality in the sub 5K price bracket.
Next up is the battery life of the device and here I would say the Mi TWS 2c is fairly industry standard with a claimed 5 hours on a fully charged earbud and a claimed 22 hours or so with the case. In my testing, I found the claims to be mostly reasonable at around 70-80% volume and lasted for about 4.5 hours. I didn't however test the battery with the case because I don't think that's practical usage or is very reasonable. The battery is decent and is not an area of concern for the buyers.
Let's talk about my verdict now. There are two aspects where this earphone is a no brainer and one major aspect where this device is a complete no no. The aspect where these earphones are a complete no no is the fit. If these earphones don't fit you, don't get them straight away. There's no two way to it. Now the two positive aspects would be call quality and sound quality. If want a TWS for calling outdoors, this is your best bet around 2000 INR. Also, I can confidently say, this is one of the best sounding earphones in this price segment and hence if sound quality and music listening is your highest priority, you can definitely go for it. Another important aspect to consider is that this is a half in-ear design and it never meant for workouts and on top of that this even doesn't come with an IP certification and hence if you are looking something for workouts, this would not be a great idea. Yeah, weight training may be possible with it but nothing too movement oriented. Also, if you are someone who needs extensive touch controls, this might not be for you because the absence of skip track control really hurts while being completely handsfree. So, that's all about the Mi TWS 2C and I frankly feel this is a highly underrated product under the 2.5K INR price bracket and if this fits you well, you are definitely going to enjoy this device.
Comments
Post a Comment