From the democratizing Redmi Buds S, to the Google Assistant-capable Mi Smart Speaker, the quality belies the price. In a time of connected-everything, the Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker sounds like a rather boring release from the brand. You can see that the speaker has been built to a cost, but the plastic-coated material should be easy enough to wipe clean if you drop a beverage on it. Xiaomi includes a pre-installed fabric hand loop, but there’s enough clearance at the anchor point to attach a carabiner instead if you prefer. As it stands, a long press of the volume plus and play button toggles the equalizer setting. Xiaomi hasn’t published the list of supported codecs, but the speaker defaulted to SBC across devices.
The Xiaomi Mi Portable Bluetooth speaker offers surprisingly pleasant sound quality, given its affordable price. Cranking up some Travis Scott was an enjoyable experience though bass did crackle just a bit at the highest volume level.
Despite the bass and treble emphasis, vocals do not get drowned out and the speaker should make a fun addition to any party. Talking about volume levels, the speaker goes astonishingly loud and this came in very handy while listening to podcasts and audiobooks across my apartment. Double pressing the power button activates the voice assistant on your phone and you can then use the speaker to perform any and all functions. With close to seven hours of music listening, the speaker still reported a 60% charge, and Xiaomi’s claims should hold true.
Xiaomi’s speaker meets and exceeds the competition, both in terms of audio quality and feature set. Not only does the speaker deliver on sound quality but backs it up with features like an IP rating, long battery life, as well as stereo pairing. The Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker gets a resounding recommendation, especially if your budget won’t stretch to more expensive options. Unless you have very specific needs like the ability to slot in a microSD card — a niche feature afforded by a few no-name alternatives — you shouldn’t even look at other options.
Review: Xiaomi (Mi) Mini Bluetooth speaker
It can easily fit in the palm of your hand it is so small, but don’t let its size deceive you. This little half-20oz can of a speaker can put out a lot of volume with a surprising amount of low end.
As mentioned, it is about half the size of a soda can, only slightly wider in diameter. You tend to press down on one of the feet easily, causing the track you are listening to, to pause. The highs are very sharp and bright, leading to a great deal of volume. The lows can hit pretty hard, leading to a positive impression as you don’t expect such a moderate amount coming out of something so small.
In certain tracks, you do notice a bit of tinny vibration coming from inside the speaker. It also helps to not max out the volume (which can lead to distortion in most speakers to begin with).
This isn’t a crazy expensive speaker that can travel 50-100 feet away from your phone as you walk around the house. This speaker is designed for smaller situations like dorm rooms, small offices or a stationary spot in your house where you don’t expect to move around much nor require mind-bending sound.
Battery life is similar to some of the nicer speaker options, lasting you about 9-12 hours until needing to be recharged. It’s just a Bluetooth speaker that is designed to be small, loud and carry a fair amount of bass while costing you next to nothing to invest into.
Call quality is above-mediocre resulting in a conversation where neither side is requesting the other to repeat themselves. Inside the box, you find your instructions and warranty information along with a micro-USB charging cable.
Just don’t max out your volume and keep it to small environments and you have a pretty solid speaker.
Xiaomi Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker review
1. volume 332.82cm³ Volume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by the product’s chassis or, in simpler terms, the space the product occupies. 4. weather-sealed (splashproof) ✔ Xiaomi Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker The device is protected with extra seals to prevent failures caused by dust, raindrops, and water splashes.
Review: Xiaomi Mini AI Bluetooth Speaker for $15.93
Just a heads up: The linked offer is already a bit older and the price of the gadget might have changed or it might not be available anymore. The round loudspeaker measures 6 x 6 cm and is only slightly higher than the old model.
The holes on the upper side are no longer even, but arranged in a pattern, and a Mi logo in the middle reveals at first glance where the speaker comes from.
Due to the lack of keys, the volume can only be adjusted on the mobile phone.
The box uses Bluetooth 4.2 for the connection, which as usual remains stable up to a range of about ten meters. Thus it disqualifies itself practically automatically completely for the western market, which already offers many alternatives with Siri, Alexa and the Google Assistant.
Whether it’s just a short voice message that you send, or integration into your own Smart Home – we are denied these functions. If you briefly press the microphone button, the speaker (in Chinese) will tell you to install the corresponding smartphone app. But you won’t find it in the Playstore, and the scanning of the QR code in the manual didn’t lead to any result for me.
I don’t have any real criticism of the Xiaomi Mini AI Bluetooth Speaker, except that the use cases may be a bit special.
Xiaomi Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker: Xiaomi Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker review: An affordable option
Top Features Solid build quality Acceptable sound Good battery life Be it smartphones, true wireless earbuds, TVs or Bluetooth speakers, Xiaomi has been seeing
To keep itself ahead of the competition, Xiaomi has launched several new products across the portfolio and the Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker is one of them. Double pressing the power button activates the voice assistant. Given it’s an IPX7 rated speaker, it is good to see Xiaomi paying close attention to such important details. Xiaomi has packed two 8W drivers that claim to offer deep bass, loud and clear sound output.
At times, in the song O Sanam by Lucky Ali, the mids, treble and bass were well pronounced. But in the song Genda Phool by Badshah, the vocals were surprisingly suppressed by the bass most of the time.
by Ketty Perry, Criminal by Britney Spears, Dynamite by Taio Cruz, Willow by Taylor Swift and Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Now, Shallow and Willow sounded really brilliant with the speaker, however, with other songs we faced a similar problem. It produces some deep bass, though it can sound a little artificial at times given you are listening at full volume. Mi Bluetooth speaker also comes with built-in microphones for taking calls and in our test, it worked fine.
Mi Portable Bluetooth speaker is feature-packed with reasonable sound quality and battery life.
Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W) Review: Loud, Yet Affordable
There also aren’t a lot of big brands in the affordable part of this market anymore, with options from JBL, Boat, Anker Soundcore, and Sony dominating online listings and offline store shelves. Although you can position the Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W) vertically, it’s ideally placed horizontally on a table-top and has rubber grips at the bottom to sit securely.
The buttons are easy to press, and don’t leave any room for water to slip into the sensitive electrical components of the Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W).
There’s a USB Type-C port for charging under a tight rubber flap on the right side, along with a 3.5mm socket for auxiliary connectivity. The Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W) has a rated output of 16W, split between two identical 8W full-range drivers. Design isn’t the only similarity between the Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W) and its more affordable sibling, the Mi Outdoor Bluetooth Speaker; the larger device has the same punchy, driven sonic signature, but is of course a fair bit louder thanks to two drivers putting out 8W of sound each.
When listening to Waiting by Oliver Heldens at my work desk, I had the speaker at around the 30-40 percent volume level, and this made for decent sound at a short distance. While the thump in the low-end of this dance track was audible even at low volumes, it didn’t quite have as much drive; instead, the speaker tended to highlight the mid-range impressively, which made for a detailed and enjoyable sound in the vocals.
I couldn’t hear much difference between the normal and ‘deep bass’ equaliser modes; the former sounded a bit cleaner, with the latter giving the lows a slight bump.
That’s the core difference between a product like this and more expensive options such as the UE Boom 3 which sound good even at high volumes. Charging is through a USB Type-C port, and there’s also 3.5mm auxiliary connectivity on the Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker (16W) It also helps that the speaker is IPX7 rated for water resistance, and offers good battery life for a device of its size and capabilities.
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