Redmi Buds 6 review – GSMArena.com news | Infinium-tech

The Redmi Buds 6 are the latest entry-level pair of wireless earbuds from Xiaomi. Following the success of the Redmi Buds 5, the sixth-generation model features improved noise cancellation, a dual-driver design, and a quad microphone array. The new model comes at Rs 2799, which is slightly less than the price of the previous generation.

Design and comfort

The design of the Redmi Buds 6 is similar to the previous generation model, especially for the case. The case still has the same rectangular design that resembles the Impact Mint case. The lid opens relatively easily and also closes with a pleasant soft thump. The top and bottom of the case have a matte finish while the sides are glossy.

The front of the case has a USB-C charging port and status LED. Depending on which direction your charging cable comes from, you may or may not prefer to have the USB port on the same side as the LED. The LED strip lights up in steps from left to right to show the amount of battery left in the case and its charging status.

The pairing button is on the right edge of the case. It’s surprisingly hard to notice at first glance and merges almost completely with the side finish. It is also somewhat difficult to press and could have been designed more easily.

The earbuds have an updated design but have the same shiny strip on the outside. The rest of the shape, especially when viewed from the inside, is remarkably similar to the AirPods Pro design.

The overall finish and feel of the earbuds and the case are a bit plasticky, which is to be expected at this price. The earbuds have an IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance. However, the matter is not safe.

The comfort for my ears was excellent, with the earbuds barely noticeable once worn. They also slide in and out of the ears with minimal pressure on the inner ear. I’ve found that I can wear these for hours without any fatigue or discomfort.

software

The Redmi Buds 6 are compatible with the Xiaomi Earbuds app, which is available on Android and iOS.

Through the app, you can control features like audio effects, gestures, and more. You can choose ANC modes and fine-tune their individual options as well.

Unfortunately, the app has some issues. There was a huge banner for three months of free Spotify subscription, which could not be removed. Furthermore, membership was also not available when clicked. The app also makes you sign in to a Xiaomi account to update the firmware on the earbuds, which is frankly ridiculous. The app goes fullscreen for no reason on Android phones, which hides the status bar at the top. And finally, someone please fix the ridiculous alignment of the ANC buttons because the middle button is not even remotely centered.

Xiaomi Earbuds App

The Xiaomi Earbuds app has standard audio settings including four audio presets and an 8-band custom EQ. It also has an immersive sound feature, which is like spatial audio that works with any source.

If you pair the earbuds with a Xiaomi phone, you don’t need to install the app as the options are built into the Bluetooth settings. However, things are a little different here compared to the app.

audio settings

While most of the features are the same, the app has a personalized audio feature instead of standard EQ presets or custom EQ. It lets you listen to audio clips and choose your favorite sound to create a custom profile for you. However, in my testing, the final profile generated after calibration always sounded very different from what I was hearing before and thus was always unusable.

gestures

However, these options are also linked to the sound settings within the Xiaomi phone. If you have enabled Atmos on your phone, these options will be unavailable in Bluetooth settings for no apparent reason. Also, if you select Original Sound in the phone’s settings, the sound options will be available in the earbuds’ settings but won’t actually do anything. You’ll need to enable Xiaomi Sound Effects on your phone for the earbuds’ settings to take effect, which is unnecessarily confusing and complicated.

Other Settings

Overall, the software experience here leaves a lot to be desired and both the Xiaomi Earbuds app as well as the native experience on Xiaomi phones need work to be at par with other brands in the market.

Display

audio quality

The Redmi Buds 6 feature a dual driver design that includes a 12.4mm titanium-coated dynamic driver for low and mid frequencies and a 5.5mm piezoelectric driver for high frequencies. The earbuds connect using Bluetooth 5.4 and support SBC and AAC codecs.

I’m going to start discussing the audio quality with ANC disabled and you’ll see later why. With ANC disabled, the Redmi Buds 6 are good-sounding earbuds with pleasing out-of-the-box tuning.

The overall sound is mid-bass forward, so you get a lot of thump and warmth in the sound, but it’s not too loud or overly loud. You also get a strong midrange that hasn’t been sacrificed in favor of the typical V-shaped tuning, resulting in full-bodied tones with good timbre. At the high end, the sound lacks a bit of sparkle and air, resulting in details that become a bit vague. You’d think the piezoelectric driver would help here but the default tuning doesn’t really take full advantage of the dual driver configuration.

Still, the tuning isn’t as deep as the Sony WF-C510, but it lacks the liveliness of the Nord Buds 3 Pro. However, the Redmi Buds 6 have the most balanced sound of the group with a more broadly appealing sound that can work with a variety of genres and media.

This is where we reach the ANC on display. Enabling ANC changes the timbre of the sound drastically, sounding very unnatural and artificial. As the soundstage collapses and the sound moves to the center of the image, it typically sounds more compressed and more boxed-in. The bass also sounds a bit hollow and wooden. Compared to the full, clear, airy and comprehensive sound with ANC off, this is a serious letdown.

One thing I noticed during the review process was that whenever any type of audio processing was introduced, whether it was in the form of ANC, EQ, Personalized Sound, or anything else, it always made the sound sound more artificial. Almost metallic timber. Either Xiaomi’s audio processing is not sophisticated enough or the onboard chipset does not have the ability to do the processing in real-time fast enough, so it is forced to do it poorly. The sound from these earbuds is best when virtually every single effect and feature is disabled. The only exception to this seems to be Transparency mode, which feels just as good as ANC off mode.

microphone

The microphone performance in Redmi Buds 6 is quite good. When testing the sound quality in a quiet room, sound sounded clear and natural without any noticeable noise reduction artifacts. When tested in a noisy environment, sound remained clear and background noise was well isolated, although there were some loud popping sounds at times. Still, for most environments, the microphone quality is impressive.

noise cancellation

The Redmi Buds 6 have impressive noise cancellation performance for a product of its price range. When tested against everyday sounds like fan, AC, air purifier, etc., the earbuds perform really well for the most part. The only issue is that they don’t reduce high-frequency sounds as much, so some sounds like running water or noise from some machinery get in.

In noisy environments, such as on an airplane, the Redmi Buds 6 again perform well. Compared to more expensive earbuds like the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, they tend to be noisier in the mid-range but the Pixel Buds are so much more expensive that it’s nowhere near them. Compared to similarly priced rivals like the Nord Buds 3 Pro, the Redmi Buds 6 are quite similar, and in fact, reduce noise in the mid frequencies slightly more while releasing more high-frequency sounds. The ANC also seems to have its own high-frequency whispers, which doesn’t help.

The Redmi Buds 6 don’t deal with wind particularly well. They take a long time to adjust to the wind, much longer than competing earbuds, and an equally long time to return once the wind stops.

Moving on to the transparency mode, the Redmi Buds 6 have an adjustable system that lets you customize for voice, ambient sound or balanced regular mode. The Voice mode doesn’t bring out surrounding sounds as well as I’d have liked and the regular mode also seemed a bit slow as it’s designed to cancel out some sounds while letting others in. The ambient sound mode seemed to be the most revealing option of the three and the one I would use.

delay

The Redmi Buds 6 have terrible latency performance out of the box. The low latency mode helps a lot on Xiaomi phones but since it is not available in the Xiaomi Earbuds app, you are out of luck if you use a non-Xiaomi device.

connectivity

The Redmi Buds 6 had good connectivity performance, with no dropouts or pairing issues. The earbuds also support dual device pairing and work perfectly fine when paired with two devices simultaneously. For example, you can pair the earbuds to a phone and laptop, and control sound features through the app on the phone, even if the sound is playing through the laptop.

battery life

The rated battery life of Redmi Buds 6 is 10 hours with ANC disabled and 6.5 hours with ANC enabled. The company also claims that with ANC disabled, a 10-minute flat charge gives 4 hours of playback.

Doing standardized testing with ANC disabled (since earbuds need to be worn with ANC enabled), the Redmi Buds 6 lasted an impressive 10 hours and 28 minutes, which is slightly more than the claimed number. When tested on just 10 minutes of charge from a flat, the earbuds lasted 3 hours and 56 minutes, which is close to the claimed figure.

Overall, the battery life of the Redmi Buds 6 is very good, at least with ANC disabled.

conclusion

The Redmi Buds 6 are a very affordable pair of earbuds. For that price, you’re getting a comfortable design, good audio quality with ANC disabled, great microphone performance, good active noise cancellation, and impressive battery life.

On the other hand, the audio quality is subpar with ANC enabled, the software experience leaves much to be desired, and latency performance is poor without the low latency option available only on Xiaomi phones.

For the price, it’s easy to overlook some of these issues. However, I would like Xiaomi to fix the audio quality with ANC enabled, as it is not fair to let the user choose between audio quality and the key features of the earbuds. But if you don’t care about ANC then this is a great option for the price.