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Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional: Two-minute evaluation
You’ll have heard of Chinese language tech firm Xiaomi from its spectacular digicam telephones just like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, its spectacular funds mobiles just like the Poco X7 Pro or its highly effective tablets just like the Xiaomi Pad 5. Chances are you’ll not have heard as a lot about its earbuds.
It is true that the tech big’s in-ear headphones have but to characteristic in our best earbuds information, however maybe that is that point? The Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional are the most recent providing from the corporate, a uncommon ‘premium’ pair of earbuds alongside the endless line of funds buds it releases beneath its Redmi line. They’re the specced-up model of the Xiaomi Buds 5 from six months prior, in addition to the brand new iteration of the Xiaomi Buds 4 Professional.
Like most earbuds made by smartphone firms, you’re in all probability testing this Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation since you’ve discovered a deal that mixes one of many firm’s newest smartphones (maybe the Xiaomi 15 or Xiaomi 14T) with them for a low value. And albeit, that’s in all probability the one time you must take into account them: the buds are acceptable however nothing particular, with a value that’s significantly uncompetitive (until you’ve discovered them in a bundle).
There’s definitely some spectacular acoustic engineering on show right here, with every earbud boasting two drivers and a tweeter, however sadly the motive force array doesn’t ship equally-impressive audio chops, with music missing the required bass influence and vitality to invigorate your tunes.
A visit down the specs listing will present some head-turning options, like a excessive audio bandwidth or the power to play music over Wi-Fi as an alternative of Bluetooth. The latter is unique to a more expensive model of the buds called the Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi, not this mannequin, however each choices require very particular Xiaomi telephones that’ll rule out many consumers.
That will appear harsh, however the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional do clear up many problems with their non-Professional siblings: they’re snug to put on, simple to tote round and don’t fall out of the ear on the slightest provocation. The Lively Noise Cancellation (ANC) has seen a very enchancment, each within the potential to take away noise, and the customization over its numerous modes.
Finally, as a result of this proposition prices greater than some actually spectacular rivals, it’s exhausting to suggest selecting the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional off the cabinets (digital or bodily). However as a bundle bonus alongside one other gadget, it could possibly be the music companion you want – and that’s equally true if you could find them decreased in gross sales.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation: Value and launch date
- Introduced in February 2025
- Prices £159.99 / AU$340 (roughly $210)
- Over twice as costly as non-Professional
The Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional had been introduced in February 2025, alongside the Xiaomi 15 collection of smartphones in addition to the Pad 7 and some different devices.
When you recall, the Buds 5 offered for £69.99 (roughly $90, AU$140); the Buds 5 Professional have undergone a critical value hike. They go for £159.99 / AU$340 (roughly $210), in order that they’re over twice the value of their predecessors.
As Xiaomi solely sells its Redmi earbuds within the US, the Buds 5 Professional aren’t on sale there. In Australia, I seen their costs from Xiaomi’s personal retailers starting from $340 to $380, so the value is somewhat nebulous.
In a while on this evaluation, I’ll contact extra on the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional Wi-Fi, a extra superior mannequin that I didn’t check. These price roughly £20 / AU$40 (roughly $30) greater than the usual mannequin, relying on the place you discover them.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation: Specs
|
Drivers |
11mm + planar + tweeter |
|
Lively noise cancellation |
Sure |
|
Quoted battery life |
8 hours (buds) 40 hours (case) |
|
Weight |
5.6g (buds) 41.8g (case) |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Frequency response |
Not acknowledged |
|
Waterproofing |
IP54 |
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation: Options
- A number of ANC modes
- 8-hour battery life (with ANC off)
- Xiaomi app has EQ and extra
Xiaomi has bumped up its characteristic set with the Buds 5 Professional, providing just a few enhancements over the non-Professional mannequin, and it does make the earbuds way more aggressive.
First up is the battery life – the buds themselves will final for 8 hours of listening if ANC is turned off, and whereas Xiaomi doesn’t present an ANC-on determine, I’d guess at about 6.5-7 hours based mostly on my testing. The battery lifetime of the case itself has solely seen a modest enchancment of 1 hour over the previous mannequin, however the ensuing determine of 40 hours in whole is nothing to smell at.
Charging is completed with USB-C or wirelessly through Qi, and for the previous no less than, it’s fairly snappy. Xiaomi estimates that you simply’ll get 4.5 hours of listening time on 10 minutes cost with a quick sufficient charger, and whereas mine isn’t as much as Xiaomi’s specs, I used to be nonetheless pleasantly shocked with how little you wanted to cost these items for them to be on 100%.
One other enchancment is ANC, or Lively Noise Cancellation – it’s nonetheless not industry-leading however these buds provide a marked enchancment over the Buds 5 (I’m certain the silicon ideas assist, extra on that later). You get the same old three modes: on, off and transparency, with the latter letting you select between enhancing ambient sounds, voice or each. It’s a neat technique to allow you to keep away from the downsides of passthrough modes whereas nonetheless having fun with the advantages.
There’s an adaptive noise cancellation mode, which will be toggled between ‘mild’ and ‘deep’ (I will be trustworthy, I can’t discern the distinction right here). This helps retain some juice if you’re listening, because it dials ANC up or down, relying on how noisy your environment are.
This may all be modified within the Xiaomi Earbuds app, which brings just a few further options. This consists of turning on adaptive sound and quantity, the power to alter what contact controls do, a spatial audio characteristic referred to as Dimensional Audio, and a voice memo recording characteristic which you’ll allow through the app or through gestures.
An eight-band equalizer is hidden deep within the app’s menus, however I discovered myself utilizing the six presets most of all. These embrace ‘lower bass’, ‘improve voice’ and the enigmatically-named ‘audiophile’, in addition to two Harman Kardon-tuned variations referred to as ‘Harman AudioEFX’ and ‘Harman Grasp’. The app doesn’t reveal what these imply, however Harman’s web site reveals that the previous is a instrument which intelligently balances the dynamics of a tune.
The Buds connect with your cellphone, pill or laptop computer through Bluetooth 5.4. There’s additionally a mannequin which helps Wi-Fi connectivity to your cellphone, which I didn’t check. This pair, referred to as the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional Wi-Fi and one of many big audio breakthroughs we saw at MWC recently, price somewhat extra and solely allow you to use that titular characteristic alongside the costly Xiaomi 15 Extremely, nonetheless extra telephones are apparently going to realize help sooner or later. The profit to this pair is you could hearken to 96kHz / 24bit audio utilizing the 4.2Mbps bandwidth, so it’s one for hardcore audiophiles to control.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation: Design
- Silver case is light-weight and small
- Silicon eartips make buds keep in ears simply
- Buttons on every bud stem
The Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional’s case is near-identical to the non-Professional mannequin’s. It’s a slender silver clamshell with a USB-C port on its underside, that opens as much as reveal the buds. It’s manufactured from plastic and weighs 41.8g, so it’s fairly light-weight (although 5g heavier than the Buds 5’s).
A praise I levelled on the earlier buds stands true right here: the design of the case makes it very easy to take away the buds rapidly, because the stems aren’t buried within the case. I admire buds that cut back the time taken faffing with the case.
Now onto the earbuds: these present a giant enchancment over the Buds 5 (and bear in mind, I’ve completely examined each) in that they’ve silicon ideas that hold the buds securely in your ears. The non-Professional mannequin lacked this, and my greatest subject with them was that they simply wouldn’t stick in my ear. The addition of ideas removes this subject.
Actually I by no means had an issue with the Buds 5 Professional’s match: they by no means felt wobbly or ill-fitting, they usually’re good and light-weight so it wasn’t a burden carrying them. They weigh 5.6g which is fairly svelte for earbuds.
The stems of every earbud home a button you could set off by squeezing the stem. You’ll want to squeeze them fairly exhausting although, and there’s not a lot in the way in which of response to indicate that your squeeze has registered as prior to now buds (which gave a light-weight ‘click on’ to indicate the button had been pressed). It’s not the tip of the world, nevertheless it’s a slight regression.
An enchancment right here is that the buds have an IP54 ranking, providing restricted protections towards wonderful particles (like mud) in addition to moisture (like sprays of water). IP certification is a pleasant reassurance that your chosen devices can face up to a dose of mom nature.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation: Sound high quality
- 11mm driver + planar + tweeter
- Excessive max quantity
- Spectacular mids and respectable trebles, however missing in bass
Xiaomi has actually stuffed the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional with tech: every bud has an 11mm dynamic driver alongside a planar driver and a ceramic tweeter.
Whereas the midrange is way meatier than I’m used to in earbuds and the treble is obvious and agile, the Achilles’ heel of the Buds 5 Professional is bass, which might vary from ‘somewhat missing’ to ‘conspicuously absent’ relying on the tune.
Not everyone seems to be a bass-head, and I depend myself amongst that crowd, however even I felt that songs had been missing somewhat je ne sais quoi in consequence. Utilizing the equaliser can assist somewhat bit, however the odd lack of a bass enhance mode hurts (there’s treble enhancer, and bass reducer, not no bass enhancer or treble reducer?).
When you don’t care a lot for heavy grime or drum-and-bass music (or maybe you hearken to genres with a lot intrinsic bass that no earbud can take away it and a tempered efficiency would possibly really assist issues), you’ll seemingly be wonderful with the Buds 5 Professional. However I can see this being a deal-breaker for some consumers.
Maybe compensating for this subject is the Buds 5 Professional’s eye-watering max quantity. In some unspecified time in the future in testing, I crank earbuds as much as their max quantity to see how excessive they’ll go. The Buds 5 Professional made me remorse that I didn’t take the buds out of my ears earlier than doing so!
A bit characteristic I must flag for a really slim market (good day, audiophiles who should still put on wi-fi earbuds) is that the Buds 5 Professional help a 2.1Mbps transmission fee of lossless audio, which might be nice for high-res streaming… if it wasn’t for the truth that it solely works in case your cell is one in every of a choose variety of current top-end Xiaomi telephones. So it’s not for everybody.
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation: Worth
- Wrestle in comparison with some rivals
- Choose them up bundled or discounted
The Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional can be respectable buds, sitting on the excessive finish of the funds market, if that’s what they price. However they don’t – they’re somewhat pricier than I might have anticipated, they usually additionally price greater than some actually spectacular opponents that I’ll listing beneath.
It’s not an enormous margin, however it can save you £40 / AU$80 and decide up some nice opponents fairly simply.
That’s why, as I stated within the introduction, these are nice in a deal or bundle. However it’s tougher to suggest selecting them up on their very own.
Ought to I purchase the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Options |
There’s a powerful characteristic set, despite the fact that the cream of the crop is unique to Xiaomi cellphone house owners. |
3.5/5 |
|
Design |
They’re light-weight, dependable and simple to tote round of their case. |
4/5 |
|
Sound high quality |
They lack bass clout however make up for it in just a few different methods. |
3.5/5 |
|
Worth |
They do not fairly provide worth for cash in comparison with equally-capable, lower-cost rivals |
3/5 |
Purchase them if…
Don’t purchase them if…
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional evaluation: Additionally take into account
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional |
Xiaomi Buds 5 |
Nothing Ear |
Artistic Aurvana Ace 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Drivers |
11mm + planar + tweeter |
11mm |
11mm |
xMEMS stable state driver + 10mm dynamic driver |
|
Lively noise cancellation |
Sure |
Sure |
Sure |
Sure |
|
Battery life |
8 hours (buds) 40 hours (case) |
6.5 hours (buds); 39 hours (case) |
5.2 hours (buds); 24 hours (case) |
4 hours (buds) 16 hours whole (with case) |
|
Weight |
5.6g (buds) 41.8g (case) |
3.6g (buds) |
4.62g (buds); 51.9g (case) |
4.7g (buds); 46.6 (case) |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
Bluetooth 5.3 |
Bluetooth 5.3 |
|
Waterproofing |
IP54 |
NA |
IP54 |
IPX5 |
How I examined the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional
- Examined for 2 weeks
- Examined at residence, within the workplace and on the health club
I used the Xiaomi Buds 5 Professional for 2 weeks with a purpose to write this evaluation. They had been principally paired with my Android smartphone though I did use them on a Home windows laptop computer too.
This testing concerned journeys to the health club, walks round my neighborhood, working at residence, streaming TV exhibits and idling at residence. It was principally completed on music however I did hearken to some podcast too.
I have been reviewing devices for TechRadar for over six years now, and in that point have examined loads of wi-fi earbuds in addition to an enormous variety of Xiaomi gadgets.
- First reviewed in March 2025