Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi are the first of their kind – but are they ahead of their time?
Wi-Fi connectivity offers lossless audio, but will you get much use out of it?
Bluetooth headphones have been around for over 20 years now, so in a way the Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi are long overdue.
They’re the first earbuds in the world to offer Wi-Fi connectivity, with Qualcomm’s XPAN tech enabling 24-bit/96kHz lossless audio at up to 4.2Mbps – that’s more than double the bandwidth of Bluetooth 5.
They’ll also last marginally longer, with better battery life when using Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, there’s a catch.
To begin with, the only phone that’s compatible with them is Xiaomi’s 15 Ultra (with the standard model waiting for an update before it’ll work), but perhaps the bigger issue is that both the phone and buds need to be connected to a standard Wi-Fi network to enjoy the full benefits on offer.
That’s not a problem with Sonos’s Ace headphones, which only pair with the company’s very much home-based soundbars, but with most people predominantly using their earbuds outside where Wi-Fi is much harder to come by, it severely limits how much use you’ll get out of their new tech.
Fortunately, the rest of the specs still stand up. There are three separate drivers and two amplifiers inside each bud, head-tracking spatial audio, customisable active noise-cancelling, and you can even use them to record, transcribe and translate audio for you. Battery life is a very respectable 10 hours, with up to 40 hours in total when you include what’s in the case.
If you like the sound of the Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi but don’t think you’ll use the Wi-Fi there’s also a cheaper Bluetooth-only version that’ll need charging slightly more often but will save you £30. They look identical to the Wi-Fi ones, so the only way you can tell the difference is the colour. The Wi-Fi ones only come in black, while the Bluetooth pairs are white or grey.
Tom Wiggins
Contributor 
