XIAOMI Buds 3T Pro – XIAOMI Latest High-End Earbuds

Hello, people of the internet, it’s me again back for another review, and this round I’m reviewing the latest earbuds in the Xiaomi lineup – Xiaomi Buds 3T Pro! Let’s get right into it.

GENERAL CONTENT

Content-wise, nothing too fancy but decent. you’ll find yourself a unit of the Xiaomi Buds 3T Pro sitting right inside the package, wrapped with protective sleeves, complete with a charging case and a pair of standard-sized, handle-shaped wireless earbuds with standard size eartips attached. Take out the 3T Pro unit and the cardboard fixating the unit below and you’ll find yourself a unit of type-C USB charging cable (45 cm/ 17.717 inches long, excluding the plug heads), a 162-page palm-size user manual consisting of 11 languages, and a box of white eartips with 3 sizes (small, medium, and large).

Basically, that’s it, buckle it up and you’re ready to go. One more thing worth noting is that Xiaomi claimed the material used in the packaging is made out of biodegradable material, and I could prove that correct because it does, there’s no plastic involved in the packaging at all.

DESIGN

Okay, how do I put it, the package that came with the 3T Pro has that Xiaomi signature simplistic design, just displaying the 3T Pro unit at the front with a pop-up surface, accompanied by the word ‘XIAOMI’ printed in silver just at the bottom and the Xiaomi logo on the top right. Nothing more nothing much. Other than the fact that it has a dimension of 160 x 95 x 40mm (6.299 x 3.740 x 1.575 inches). As for the back of the package are detailed specifications printed on it for a user’s quick reference. And that’s all of it.

We can now dive straight into the unit design itself, so the Xiaomi Buds 3T Pro is available in two (2) colors, which are black and white. The unit that I received is in white, glossy white mind you because the entire body is composed of hard matte plastic. However, the body is not shielded against fingerprints. The moment I picked up the 3T Pro unit and lay it back down I could clearly see my fingerprint left on top, blocking any light reflection from my ceiling lamp. The charging case has a roundish and edgeless design overall, fairly heavy, nice to grip and carry, just not suggestible to put in your pants pocket, it may gather up heat fairly quickly due to the weight and size.

Moving on, there’s a single LED indicator light at the front of the charging case that will light up the moment you open up the lid, and it will stay that way for about 7 seconds before it lights out. Behind the case is just the word ‘XIAOMI’ printed on the hinge. Whereas the bottom of the case consists of a USB C port and a function button.

Inside the charging case is where the earbuds sit. When both of the earbuds were taken out you’ll start to notice some peculiar design choices. It has the standard handle design but is just slightly tilted inwards. The outward surface of the earbuds has a shiny plating covering the back of the earbuds with a hole in the center, that’s actually the secondary microphone. At the bottom tip of the earbuds are the charging port and the primary microphone. Moving on to the inward you’ll find a tiny bump located there, and that everybody, is the pressure sensor where the most command is initiated through pinching, not tapping. More on that later.

Measurement wise, here’s a quick summary :

• Weight (each earbud) – 4.9 grams / 0.173 ounces
  
• Weight (charging case w/ earbuds) – 48 grams / 1.693 ounces
  
• Weight (charging case w/o earbuds) – 43.1 grams / 1.520 ounces
  
• Dimensions (each earbud) – 34 x 20 x 23mm / 1.339 x 0.787 x 0.906 inches
  
• Dimensions (Charging case) – 65 x 24 x 48mm / 2.559 x 0.945 x 1.890 inches

BATTERY

So how do you check the battery level? simple, just press the function button and the LED indicator lights will tell you :

• Green light – more than 40%
• Red light – less than 40%
• Red but blinking – it’s time to charge it

Alternatively, you could also check the battery level on phones that is MIUI 13 compatible, the battery level will be displayed on the Bluetooth settings screen.

Or even better, if you have a XIAOMI or REDMI device at your disposal, you could easily check it in your notification bar. Just simply place your earbuds back into the case and close the lid, move it closer to your Xiaomi/Redmi device and make sure the Bluetooth connection is paired with the Xiaomi/Redmi device, open up the lid, and voila! pop goes your notification bar, with a clear display of the earbuds’ battery level.

Furthermore, it supports wireless charging; It also has a 6 hours battery life while in use (on vanilla settings) and a 24 hours battery life while placed inside the charging case. It will only take around 70 minutes of wired charging for the battery level to reach 100%. Not too shabby for a high-tier range of earbuds. You can basically go about your day without the need to bother much, be it work-out, chores, jobs, or even study.

SPECIFICATIONS

Got it simplified for y’all, refer below :

PERFORMANCE

1) Features

Here it comes, the performance, the utmost importance of them all. Is it worth it or passable? Will see. Let’s begin with some noticeable and interesting features: the moment you pop the lid and place the earbuds on your ears, it will have a faint chime emitted from the earbuds, indicating that your earbuds had been firmly sited on your concha. And yes this is known as wear detection, I personally like it, it’s an adorable little touch to the device. Moving on, comfort-wise, it’s considered decent, I’ve been wearing it for 4 hours straight and I have yet to experience any unpleasant soreness or pain around my ear area. Of course, is highly dependable on what kind of silicon earbud size you use, I’m using the small variant one and it fits nicely with pure sound-emitting into my canal. So it’s suitable for long work and study that’s for sure.

There’s also another wear detection function whereby when you take out either one of your earbuds while leaving the other on your ear, it will automatically pause whatever you’re playing on your phone until you decided to place the earbud back onto your ear. This feature would help you out when you are trying to talk to someone in the midst of your audio play. Of course, you could however resume your audio by just placing the earbud back into the charging case while pinching the pressure sensor on the remaining earbud left on your ear, just as simple as that.

Hohoho that hits me, speaking of pinching, now here’s the thing… When I first got the 3T Pro, the instruction manual indicated that a command is given by just tapping the pressure sensor. Which I did! Been doing that continuously for 10 minutes but nothing happen, music just played plainly on normal mode and nothing more. Little do I know, after a few tweaks later I was supposed to PINCH the pressure sensor, not tap but PINCH. Of course, the official website did state that the command has to be triggered through pinching but I think something may need to be done with the user manual. But other than that, there’s no big issue. One quick way to realize your pinch is ‘registered’, is to apply just a bit of force on the pressure sensor until you hear a faint, but noticeable ‘click’ sound. And that’s it!

Other than that, if you’re looking to opt for a device connection history clearance, just simply place the earbuds back into the charging case, press and hold down the function button at the bottom of the charging case for at least 10 seconds and release it until the LED indicator stays white.

2) Sound performance

Now let’s move to the sound quality, the 3T Pro supports Latency High-Definition Audio CODEC 4.0 (A.K.A. LHDC 4.0) with HD audio transmission. In laymen’s terms, the 3T Pro is capable to deliver high-definition 96kHz or 24bit sampling frequency and Hi-Fi audio quality, provided your device is supported. It also has a pair of 10mm dual magnet dynamic drivers, backed by a lightweight CCAW coil, and triple microphones that allow for both ANC modes and phone calls.

So what command trigger do we have for these earbuds? Here’s a summary :

1. Pause/play function – pinch the pressure sensor on either side once.
2. Play next track – pinch the pressure sensor on either side twice / 2 times.
3. Play previous track – pinch the pressure sensor on either side thrice / 3 times.

When there’s an incoming call :

1. Answer call – pinch the pressure sensor on either side once.
2. Decline call – pinch the pressure sensor on either side twice / 2 times

Moreover, the 3T Pro has the following customizable adaptive ANC modes, namely :

Normal mode, pretty self-explanatory, your normal default setting;

Deep noise-canceling mode, which is suitable when you decided to take a nap on an airplane or while you’re taking any form of public transport since it removes most external environment sound;

Balanced noise-canceling mode, which removes some additional frequencies and moderate sounds from the surroundings while maintaining a bit of clearance for you to pay attention to the surrounding. Suitable for going on a jog; and

Light noise-canceling mode. This mode will only filter out some of the lighter sounds such as the mouse clicking and keyboard typing just to name a few. Suitable for office work.

Other than the customizable ANC modes, there’s also the :
Transparency mode only filtered out some of the unwanted sounds such as machine-generated sounds (i.e laptop cooling fan). Interestingly, it doesn’t filter out keyboard clicking noise. This is done by reversing the microphone of the earbuds and capturing the external sound from the surrounding. In a nutshell, you’re listening to a microphone without you even noticing.

All these modes are available provided you have a Xiaomi/Redmi device at your disposal using the built-in earbud apps found in supported Xiaomi/Redmi devices. The adaptive ANC modes allow earbuds to register any sound cancelation customization set even after disconnection. So the next time you’re connected to a device it remembers all the previous settings. Xiaomi/Redmi device owner also has the privilege to remap the controls and the battery LED indicator on the charging case.

But for 3rd party devices, you could still activate the following 3 modes:

1. Normal mode, as the name suggests, is the vanilla setting;
2. Noise-canceling mode, Cancel out most of the noise in the surrounding, providing you pure solitude with only your music playing, no customization available, unfortunately; and
3. Transparency mode, as mentioned above.

You could easily cycle through various ANC modes by just simply pinching and holding down the pressure sensor for more than 2 seconds. Enjoy!

To add the cherry on top of the icing, once again exclusive to Xiaomi/Redmi device owners, you could toggle spatial audio which allows you to enjoy your audio in a 3-dimensional manner, from supported videos and tracks of course. How does this work? Simple, the moment you toggle the spatial mode and start a supported track, the earbuds will determine the direction your head is facing, and it will set to that particular direction whenever your head moves so you could experience a holistic 3D atmosphere.

One thing worth noting is that you cannot activate any of the aforementioned ANC modes with just one earbud, so you need both of them in your ears.

So after a few rounds of gaming, tracks, and videos, I would say the ANC mode is quite good, no actually is quite outstanding, I would say it’s the highlight feature for the entire earbuds, the sounds were immersive enough and I like it. Phone call wise is good, there’s no deterioration in terms of sound quality unless the person you’re engaging with has rather poor line connection. The earbuds also filter out a lot of droning and unpleasant sounds from the external surroundings, as a matter of fact, it also does the same to your voice while you’re on phone calls as the earbud microphones done superbly in separating your voice from the surrounding dronings.

3) Bluetooth

As for the Bluetooth support, the Xiaomi Buds 3T Pro, just like other recent earbuds requires devices with Bluetooth 5.2 version in order to stay connected, regardless of Xiaomi/Redmi devices or 3rd party devices. Whenever there’s a new 3rd party device pairing with the earbuds, there might be a slight chance whereby the earbuds would request a password before access. You may find this password located in the user manual. Furthermore, the 3T Pro also supports multiple-device connections, both Xiaomi/Redmi or 3rd party-wise. The Bluetooth connectivity will be available the moment you open the charging case lid and the LED indicator lightens up. The range of connectivity, like any other earbuds, is 10m or 32.8ft, but honestly, it’s plenty enough.

4) Compatibility

The Xiaomi Buds 3T Pro is compatible with devices with the latest MIUI version (MIUI 13), additional features are available exclusively to selected Mi devices such as the Xiaomi 12 Pro, Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 11T Pro, Xiaomi 11T, Mi 11, Mi Note 10, and Mi Note 10 Lite.

VERDICT

The Xiaomi Buds 3T Pro is actually a decent TWS earbud. It offers one of the best ANC modes out there and I do enjoy it thoroughly. However it does come with a few pitfalls, most notably is that it could not reach its full potential without a Mi device. For a high-tier TWS earbuds with its price tag, it would not do much if you use devices other than the Xiaomi/Redmi. But if you just so happen to be a Mi device user with the required Mi devices, you gonna have a blast with it I guarantee.

TL;DR :

PROS

• Long-lasting battery
• Innovative ANC modes
• Decent sound quality
• Comfortable for the ear

CONS

• XIAOMI/REDMI devices are needed to perform at the fullest potential
• Fingerprint and dust magnet for the charging case
• Spatial audio may have some delay

If the Xiaomi Bud 3T Pro has piqued your interest, you may purchase the unit through LAZADA or SHOPEE, whichever you prefer.

Unfortunately, there is no known official Xiaomi protective casing for the Xiaomi Buds 3T Pro, if you’re looking for extra protection then the only way currently is to purchase a 3rd party TWS casing.