Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Xiaomi Unveils Its Own AirPods Clones

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,189
38,977



Xiaomi today unveiled a new version of its AirDots wireless headphones, and it's safe to say that the average consumer on the street would be hard pressed to distinguish the look from Apple's own AirPods.

Xiaomi-Mi-airpods-airdots.jpg

The Chinese mobile maker first appeared to take a leaf out of Apple's playbook back in November with the launch of its original AirDots, which were more akin to classic earbuds in design but offered much of the same functionality as AirPods, including gestural controls and a compact charging case.

Xiaomi's newly announced AirDots Pro (aka "Mi Bluetooth Headset Air") buds however look like a straight-up clone of Apple's best-selling wireless headphones, complete with the signature "arm" that houses the Bluetooth receiver and beamforming microphone.

Like AirPods, the earpieces feature touch controls for music playback and invoking personal assistants, and they're able to function independently of each other thanks to adaptive pairing. They also offer water resistance and a four-hour battery life, while the charging case offers an additional 10 hours of charge and can recharge the buds fully in one hour.

xiaomi-air-dots-pro-2.jpg

To their credit, the AirDots Pro have silicone tips for improved sound isolation and additional active noise cancelation. A black pair is also reportedly in the works. Still, the biggest difference is probably the price - Xiaomi's buds cost 399 Yuan (around $60), whereas Apple's come in at $159. How that saving impacts on sound quality and general performance remains to be seen.

Xiaomi devices, ranging from smartphones to tablets, have been criticized in the past for heavily borrowing design elements from Apple's iPhones and iPads and adopting marketing materials tactics similar to Apple's.

In 2017, Apple won the right to prevent Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi from registering its "Mi Pad" mobile tablet device as an EU trademark because the name was deemed too similar to Apple's iPad.

(Via gizchina.com.)

Article Link: Xiaomi Unveils Its Own AirPods Clones
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/01/08/xiaomi-unveils-airpods-clones-airdots-pro/
If you can’t innovate, imitate. Xiaomi will always be one step behind as they’re waiting for Apple to release the product they’ll be copying.

But then there’ll be another company that comes along which does the same for even cheaper. We’ve seen it time and again over the last few decades in technology. It’s not a viable long-term business model and within a decade they’ll be a long-forgotten company.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ILikeAllOS, AgentAnonymous, racerhomie and 2 others
samh004 said:
Fanboy or not, they should forge their own path instead of being so obvious in ripping off their competitors.
Click to expand...

The name is the most obvious ripoff for me . And they definitely launched it based on the AirPods. Though it’s eaily to tell the AirPods and airdots apart . All of these things have charging docks
 
keysofanxiety said:
If you can’t innovate, imitate. Xiaomi will always be one step behind as they’re waiting for Apple to release the product they’ll be copying.

But then there’ll be another company that comes along which does the same for even cheaper. We’ve seen it time and again over the last few decades in technology. It’s not a viable long-term business model and within a decade they’ll be a long-forgotten company.
Click to expand...

And what happens when you change the company direction to chase shareholders profits ? Run by a non product individual? If we are looking at history , I’d recommend you look at around 1997, 10 years prior . Took sculley about 10 years to almost make apple a long forgotten Company.
 
Shiro_Simba said:
And what happens when you change the company direction to chase shareholders profits ? Run by a non product individual? If we are looking at history , I’d recommend you look at around 1997, 10 years prior . Took sculley about 10 years to almost make apple a long forgotten Company.
Click to expand...

Good job shoehorning in your Apple hate on a Xiaomi thread, but I'll bite.

There are almost 0 companies where the CEO is a "product guy" who is actively involved in developing products. Steve was the exception to the rule. That isn't the problem with Apple. And yes there's a lot Apple need to improve, but there's a lot that's good as well.

If you're genuinely struggling to make a distinction between Xiaomi's business practices and Apple's, you're not qualified to give an opinion on either.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GaryMumford
scottishwildcat said:
Because if it wasn't the best place to put a BT receiver and a microphone, Apple wouldn't have done it that way either?
Click to expand...
If you’re buying into Apple’s marketing BS, then yes. I’ve had no issues taking calls and whatnot with other Bluetooth buds. I like my AirPods, but they look ridiculous.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tongxinshe
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back