Redmi launched the Redmi Buds 5, the company’s latest true wireless earbuds, in India last month. This was launched in China last year. The main highlight of the earbuds are the lightweight design, 46dB Hybrid ANC and long battery of up to 38 hours with the case. Is it worth the price of Rs. 2999? Let us find out.
Box Contents
- Redmi Buds 5 in Fusion Purple colour
- Ear tips in Small and Large sizes (Medium pre-installed)
- User manual
Design and Build quality
The charging case has a round box that has a matte finish that feels nice to hold and doesn’t attract fingerprints and is not prone to scratches easily. The Redmi branding is present on the front.
You can see the LED indicator on the front, which only glows in white colour. The USB Type-C port is next to the light. It also comes in colour. The charging case measures 61 x 50 x 24.60mm and weighs 42.47 grams, making it compact and light-weight, so you can carry it in your pocket.
Opening the case, you can see the slots for buds, and there is a large LED light. Even though the lid for the case doesn’t have magnets, the slot for the earbuds have magnets, so they don’t fall off easily.
Similar to the case, the headset also has a plastic finish, with a matte look on the rear and a glossy finish on the inside, so it is prone to fingerprints. You can see mics on the top and the bottom. The earbuds measure 29.52 x 21.44 x 23.45mm and weigh about 5.1 grams. These feature an in-ear design, and it doesn’t fall out of your ears when running, cycling or during strenuous workouts.
On the inside there are charging contact points. It has sensors for in-ear detection. The earphones also have IP54 ratings for dust and water resistance so that it can withstand splashes or light rain, but you can’t immerse in the water.
There are touch controls on the back of both the earbuds that lets you control play or pause or skip music, launch voice assistant and accept or reject calls. The touch area is on the top. With the large groove, the touch controls are not perfect, but it is fine.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
It has Bluetooth 5.3. The pairing process is very easy, just remove the buds from the case, and the lights blink to show it is in pairing mode. Enable the Bluetooth function on your device, and select the ‘Redmi Buds 5’ and connect. It also has Google Fast pair support. I didn’t face any connectivity issues during my use with the Galaxy A55 and vivo V30 Pro.
You can enable dual connection option that lets you connect to two devices at the same time and switch the audio playback between them.
The earbuds turn on when you remove them from the case. You just need to place the buds in the case to turn them off. To save power, it turns off automatically when it is not connected to any device for 10 minutes.
This lets you skip tracks, switch between noise cancellation modes, and adjust volume – all with a tap. The controls can be customised in the Xiaomi Earbuds app on Android and iOS.
| Function | Left earbud (L) | Right earbud (R) |
| Play / pause, Answer a call | Double tap | |
| Next song | Triple tap | |
| Switch noise cancellation modes | Press and Hold | |
Volume control is disabled by default, but you can customise them with the app. You can change actions for single tap, double tap and triple tap. Tap and hold is set for noise control, but you can change them to voice assistance.
Audio Quality
The Redmi Bus 5 packs 12.4mm dynamic drivers with a titanium-plated polymer, 1.6m dynamic coil, a robust neodymium magnet. This can handle high and middle frequencies well, but the bass is high on the higher side for low frequency audio.
You can enhance treble, bass and voice in audio effects option, but there is no manual EQ mode. Since these are loud, it is good even in 50% volume. However, there is audio leaking issue, so others can hear the music in high volume.
Noise Cancellation and Call Performance
Regarding the Noise cancellation, the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) blocks the ambient sound up to 46dB, wide 2kHz range, three noise reduction levels – Light, Balanced and Deep. It does a good job in cancelling noise. You can switch between noise cancellation, transparency and no noise cancellation with tap and hold gesture.
This also has Transparency mode that allows you to listen to ambient sound so that you can recognize the surrounding situation and any potential risks. There are three modes – Regular, enhance voice and enhance ambience sound. This is superb.
There is no separate low-latency gaming mode. You won’t notice anything when watching videos, but when gaming you might feel latency is high.
Coming to the call noise cancellation, they excel in calls with dual microphones and AI noise reduction, even in windy conditions to cut out wind up to 6m/s to ensure crisp, clear calls. This worked well for calls and cuts out the wind noise easily.
Battery Life
The earphones pack a 54mAh battery that promises 10 hours of standalone battery life without ANC and 8 hours with ANC. During my use with AAC and noise cancellation enabled occasionally, I got slightly over 7 and half hours in about 50% volume, which is good.
With noise cancellation fully off, it lasted for close to 10 hours. For calls, it lasts only for around 5 and half hours with ANC enabled, since it uses call noise cancellation tech.
With the 480mAh charging case, it promises up to 38 hours of total battery life without ANC and 30 hours of total battery life with noise cancellation enabled. You can’t expect wireless charging in the range. Charging the case fully with the earbuds takes about 2 hours. It also has fast charge, so that you get 4 hours of playback (Case + Earbuds combined) without ANC with 10 minutes of charging.
Conclusion
Overall, the Redmi Buds 5 is a good Bluetooth true wireless earbuds with ANC for the price of Rs. 2999. It comes with 3 ANC and transparency modes, does a good job in call noise cancellation and also offers a good battery life. The company could have offered a gaming mode and custom EQ adjustments.
The Redmi Buds 5 is available from Amazon.in, Flipkart, Mi.com, Mi Homes and Xiaomi retail partners.
Pros
- Good audio quality
- Compact, lightweight case
- Good ANC and transparency
- Dual-device pairing
- Good battery life with fast charging
Cons
- No custom EQ
- No Low-latency gaming mode