Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review

The open wearable stereo (OWS) market has gained serious momentum over the past two years, and almost every brand now has its own entry. While traditional earbuds come with the tried-and-tested plug form factor that sits inside your ear, OWS models place their drivers directly at the tip of your ear canal. The result is increased awareness of your surroundings at the expense of passive isolation.

The OpenWear Stereo Pro is the latest offering from Xiaomi, and it aims to outdo its competitors by offering a more premium build while retaining its open-fit system. Xiaomi is promising impressive claims of low sound leakage and exceptional battery life of up to 8.5 hours from the buds and up to 45 hours with the charging case.

So, are the OpenWear Stereo Pro worth their €150/£140 asking price or are you better off with a traditional pair of in-ear buds? These are our findings.

design

While Xiaomi could have used a less complex name for the OpenWear Stereo Pro, we have to admit that the fit and finish on the buds and case feel great. The buds have a shiny metal finish covering the drivers, which connect to the bulbs on the back via TPU. Glossy plastic looks great, but it attracts fingerprints easily.

The swoosh design hooks around the upper half of your ear and places the driver right above your ear canal without actually making contact. This makes for a comfortable fit, and Xiaomi’s three-point support design distributes pressure evenly over the length of the buds.

Each earbud weighs 9.8 grams, while the case weighs in at 53 grams, making it a total of over 73 grams. We never felt discomfort while using the OpenWear Stereo Pro and their ergonomic design is on par with the best of the best on the OWS market.

The ear hook design also ensures that the buds stay in place at all times, even during running and workouts, where normal in-ear TWS buds would easily lose their grip.

The case feels like a bouncing stone as it is sleek and perfectly crafted with a soft and pleasant hand feel. It’s certainly not compact, but it goes along with most of the OWS earbuds we tested.

Our review unit comes in Graphite Black and features a faux leather finish on the lid of the case and a matte one on the lower half. Despite its plastic construction, the case feels well built and doesn’t make any creaking sounds. The lid closes with a strong snap, and the hinge has a reassuring feel.

The inside of the case has a faux suede inner layer on top. This is the first time we’ve seen this choice of materials inside the earbuds’ case, and it’s nice to see Xiaomi put so much effort into something that’s only visible when you open the case. The soft material should also prevent any unwanted scratches on the buds’ shiny driver housing.

The OpenWear Stereo Pro offers IP54 dust- and water-resistance, while the case lacks ingress protection. The unboxing experience is pretty standard, you get the buds, a USB charging cable and a user manual inside the case.

features

Xiaomi didn’t skimp on features with the OpenWear Stereo Pro. The buds connect via Bluetooth 5.4 with support for dual device pairing so you can use them on two devices simultaneously. You also get 360° head-tracking with surround sound, although this feature is more suitable for watching movies than listening to music.

Sadly, like all OWS buds, these lack active noise cancellation (ANC), which goes against their primary purpose of allowing you to be aware of your surroundings. In terms of safety, this is especially useful for runners and cyclists in urban areas and the on-ear design proves to be more comfortable for longer listening sessions.

Although there is no ANC, Xiaomi claims this has improved sound leakage, which has been a problem for all OWS buds. OpenWire Stereo Pro has a dedicated sound leakage reduction driver that emits reverse-phase sound waves.

On paper, Xiaomi claims that you shouldn’t be able to hear any sound leakage within a 25cm range of the buds, but in reality, people around you will hear sounds coming from these earbuds despite Xiaomi’s optimizations.

You control the buds via touch controls that are integrated on the exterior of the drivers. We had no issues with touch registers, and you’re free to use single, double, triple tap as well as press and hold gestures.

Adaptive Volume is another cool feature that adjusts the volume level depending on the noise level of your surroundings. In our experience, it had a hard time controlling the volume in noisy environments where it was needed most, so we can’t guarantee its effectiveness.

Xiaomi has also added the ability to record audio directly from the buds. You get up to 120 minutes of recording time per earbud, for a total of 240 minutes. The recording quality is not that good, but the feature is quite useful for writing audio notes when you are in a hurry.

Connectivity was great with no drops or irregularities during testing of the buds with Android, iOS, and macOS devices.

sound quality

The OpenWear Stereo Pro features custom 18 x 13 mm dynamic drivers with piezoelectric ceramic tweeters and dual balanced armature. They support AAC, SBC and LDAC codecs and feature Harman audio tuning. We’re not always impressed with the audio from the OWS buds due to sound leakage and disproportionate levels of bass and clarity.

But the OpenWear Stereo Pro delivers a surprisingly vibrant soundstage with plenty of bass for earbuds that don’t make contact with your ear canal. You get a detailed mids and highs experience while benefiting from the comfortable wrap-around design of the buds.

Increasing the volume doesn’t distort the sound at higher ranges, which isn’t always a given with OWS buds. Talking about volume, if you are using these buds in a noisy environment then you will have to turn the slider up, as sound leaks out.

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We found that the OpenWear Stereo Pro offers a more detailed sound output than something like the Nothing Ear (Open), with deep bass and a lively soundstage.

Although you don’t get actual control over the equalizer, Xiaomi has provided four pre-installed options, including Harman Master and Harman AudioEFX, as well as treble and voice enhancement modes. In our experience, the Harman Master preset brings out a wider soundstage and more detail in instruments.

While the microphone quality on the buds is far from class-leading, it works indoors, with people on the other end receiving my voice clearly. When jumping across a noisy road with car traffic, the microphone has a hard time picking up sounds.

battery life

Xiaomi claims that you can expect up to 8.5 hours of playback from the buds which increases to 45 hours when combined with the charging case. Each earbud packs a 56mAh battery while the case holds a massive 700mAh.

During our testing period, we got over 8 hours of continuous playback from the buds, with the case good for 5 full recharges. The endurance of this type of battery is quite good and enough for several days of heavy use.

The case charges via USB-C. A full charge from 0 to 100% takes over 2 hours, while a quick 10-minute top-up will give you 2 hours of listening time.

decision

Xiaomi’s OpenWear Stereo Pro OWS is a great pair of earbuds that offer detailed sound output with spatial awareness and excellent battery life. They have a premium design and almost every feature set you could want from a pair of open earbuds.

The fact that they hang over your ears means there’s no ear fatigue even after several hours of use, and the evenly distributed weight only adds to the luxurious experience. The sound output is surprisingly rich for an OWS product, although you will need to turn up the volume in noisier environments. Despite Xiaomi’s efforts to hide sound leakage, it is still present in everyday use, but that is the nature of this form factor of earbuds.