There are several solid reasons because of which Xiaomi's India was featured among the top 2014 Google searches. The company has not only released budget Android smartphones with great specifications, but also released a number of affordable accessories in India throughout the year. The list includes power banks, Mi series smartphone back covers and earphones as well.
Months ago, we received an Mi series in-ear earphone from the company for review. We didn't rush for writing the review of this great looking earphone, rather settled down and used the earphone at a daily basis to get the actual experience with the product.
Before drawing any conclusion we burned-in the earphone to let the drivers trimming down the noise level and bring the real potential of it. For your information the burn-in process engages an earphone/headphone driver to play hundreds of hours to bring in the correct fidelity through the drivers.
In the process, we also played a number of tracks which are believed to draw a challenge on output and here is the result.
Built & Design
The Xiaomi Mi piston earphone comes in an eco-friendly brown paper wrap, which needs to be torn off to get the see-through plastic box, in which the earphone comes packed in. Xiaomi deserves a pat for designing the package so well and elegantly.
Inside the see-through top lid, the Piston earphone comes packed in a rubberised utility cover. Though a bit complex to wrap it back again, the rubber cover can give the earphone a long life without any tearing issues.
Below that there is a separate section in the box, where the different-sized ear-buds and a clip for tying in has been safely placed.
The earphone contains an extra control unit too, for changing the tracks or manipulates the volume without accessing your device. The control unit also features calling abilities for pairing up with a smartphone.
Performance
We paired the Xiaomi Mi piston earphone with an iPod Touch 4th Generation and a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for playing the tracks across genres, watched movies and made a few calls and here's what we found.
Starting with the song, 'Hotel California' from Eagle's 'Hell Freezes Over' album, the guitar solo prelude sounded nice in low and mid levels. Each strum appeared crisp and distinct to notice with the ample presence of bass. Next we moved to the "Bras Monkey" track from the "Beastie Boys" and found the Xiaomi Mi Piston is delivering the correct amount of bass. Though the distinction of tracks didn't appear separate like it does with the premium earphones, the overall output has really been impressive.
We also tried several songs, which are high in bass and complex tracks like "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack, "Beverley Hills Cop" Theme song and "Echoes" by Pink Floyd to name a few and the Mi Piston performed decent as per expectation in lows and mids. The Xiaomi Mi Piston sounds a little muddy in the bass, while used in full volume with high bass tracks. But you can't expect a high performance from an earphone priced at a budget level.
The call reception quality was also good and so are the buttons in operation. All in all, we are quite impressed with the quality delivered by the Xiaomi Mi piston earphone. In comparison with the best earphone available at this price, Creative ep 630, the Xiaomi Mi Piston delivers a little less in bass, but delivers all-round performance and comes with a decent built quality and package.
Wrapping Up
Priced at ₹799 the Xiaomi Mi Piston is available on the web less than the quoted price. The Mi Piston is a must-buy for all the Xiaomi smartphone owners for the extra tweaking ability included with all Xiaomi made Smartphones. For others we would recommend this earphone for its decent build quality and overall performance. For the quality lover we would suggest two options in almost similar price range, Creative ep-630 and Sennheiser CX 180 Street II in-ear earphone.
