The Redmi Buds 6 are Xiaomi’s newest entry-level pair of wireless earbuds. 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 in at INR 2799, which is slightly less than the price of the previous gen.
Design and comfort
The Redmi Buds 6 have a similar design to the previous generation model, especially for the case. The case still has the same rectangular design that looks like an Impact Mints case. The lid opens with relative ease and also closes with a pleasant dampened thump. The top and bottom of the case feature a matte finish while the sides are glossy.
On the front of the case is the USB-C charging port and the status LED. Depending on which direction your charging cable comes from, you may or may not like the USB port being 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 also its charging status.
The button for pairing is on the right edge of the case. It’s surprisingly hard to notice at first glance and almost perfectly merges with the side finish. It’s also somewhat hard to press and could have been more conveniently designed.
The earbuds feature an updated design but with the same glossy strip on the outward-facing edge. The rest of the shape, especially when seen from the inner side, is remarkably similar to the AirPods Pro design.
The overall finish and feel of the earbuds and the case is a bit plasticky, which is to be expected at this price point. The earbuds have an IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance. The case, however, isn’t protected.
Comfort was excellent for my ears, with the earbuds being barely noticeable once worn. They also slide in and out of the ears with minimal pressure on the inner ear. I have found myself wearing these for hours with absolutely no fatigue or discomfort.
Software
The Redmi Buds 6 are compatible with the Xiaomi Earbuds app, available on Android and iOS.
Through the app, you can control features such as audio effects, gestures, and more. You can pick the ANC mode and also fine-tune their individual options.
Unfortunately, the app has some annoyances. There was a giant banner for the three-month free Spotify subscription, which could not be removed. Moreover, the subscription wasn’t even available upon clicking. The app also makes you sign into a Xiaomi account to update the firmware on the earbuds, which is patently ridiculous. The app also goes fullscreen on Android phones for no reason, which hides the status bar at the top. And finally, someone please fix the ridiculous alignment of the ANC buttons as the middle one isn’t even remotely close to the center.
Xiaomi Earbuds app
The Xiaomi Earbuds app has standard audio settings that include four audio presets and an 8-band custom EQ. There is also the immersive sound feature, which is like Spatial Audio that works with any source.
If you pair the earbuds with a Xiaomi phone, then you don’t need to install the app as the options are built into the Bluetooth settings. However, things here are a bit different than in 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. This makes you listen to audio clips and pick your preferred sound to create a custom profile for you. However, in my testing, the final profiles generated after calibration always sounded very different than what I was hearing previously and thus were always unusable.
Gestures
However, these options are also tied to the sound settings within the Xiaomi phone. If you have Atmos enabled on your phone, then these options will be simply unavailable in the Bluetooth settings with no obvious reason as to why. Also, if you select Original Sound in the phone’s settings, then the sound options will be available in the earbuds settings but won’t actually do anything. You need to enable Xiaomi Sound effect on your phone for the earbuds settings to be effective, which is all needlessly 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 on par with other brands on the market.
Performance
Audio quality
The Redmi Buds 6 have a dual driver design comprising of 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 the audio quality discussion with the ANC disabled and you’ll later see why. With the ANC disabled, the Redmi Buds 6 are rather good-sounding earbuds with a 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 without it getting overbearing or excessively boomy. You also get a robust mid-range that hasn’t been sacrificed in favor of a typical V-shaped tuning, resulting in full-bodied vocals with good timbre. At the higher end, the sound lacks a bit of sparkle and air, resulting in slightly obfuscated detail. 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 dark as on something like the Sony WF-C510 but lacks the liveliness of the Nord Buds 3 Pro. However, the Redmi Buds 6 is the most balanced sounding out of the bunch with a more broadly appealing sound that can work with a variety of genres and media.
This is where we get to the ANC on performance. Enabling ANC considerably changes the timbre of the sound, which has a very unnatural and artificial tonality to it. It sounds notably more compressed and also more boxed-in as the soundstage collapses and the sound moves into the center of the image. The bass also sounds a bit hollow and wooden. Compared to the fuller, clearer, airier, and wider sound with the ANC off, this is a serious downgrade.
One thing I noticed throughout the review process was that any time any sort of audio processing was introduced, whether it was in the form of the ANC, the EQ, the personalized sound, or something else, it always made the sound more artificial sounding with an almost metallic timbre. Either Xiaomi’s audio processing isn’t sophisticated enough or the onboard chipset simply doesn’t have the chops to do the processing well fast enough in real-time so settles on doing it poorly. The sound from these earbuds is at its best when literally every single effect and feature is disabled. The only exception to this seems to be the transparency mode, which sounds as good as the ANC off mode.
Microphone
The Redmi Buds 6 have very good microphone performance. Testing the voice quality in a quiet room, the voice sounded clear and natural without any noticeable noise reduction artifacts. When tested in a noisy environment, the voice remained discernible and the 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 in its price range. Testing against every day sounds like fans, ACs, air purifiers, etc., the earbuds do really well for the most part. The only issue is that they don’t attenuate high-frequency sounds as much, so some sounds like running water or the noise from certain machinery get through.
In noisier environments, such as on an aircraft, the Redmi Buds 6 again do a decent job. Compared to more expensive earbuds, like the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, they do let in more noise in the mid-range but the Pixel Buds are so much more costly it’s not even close. Compared to similarly priced rivals such as the Nord Buds 3 Pro, the Redmi Buds 6 do quite similarly, and in fact, attenuate slightly more noise in the mid frequencies while letting in more high-frequency sounds. The ANC itself also seems to have its own high-frequency hiss, which doesn’t help.
The Redmi Buds 6 don’t deal with wind particularly well. They take quite a while to adjust to heavy wind, much more than competing earbuds, and a similarly long time to revert once the wind has stopped.
Moving over to transparency mode, the Redmi Buds 6 have an adjustable system that lets you optimize for voice, ambient sounds, or a balanced regular mode. The voice mode didn’t bring out nearby voices as well as I’d have liked and the regular mode also sounded a bit muffled as it’s designed to cancel some sounds while letting others in. The ambient sound mode felt like the most revealing option of the three and the one I’d use.
Latency
The Redmi Buds 6 have horrible latency performance out of the box. The low latency mode on Xiaomi phones helps a lot but since this isn’t 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 to two devices at once. You can have the earbuds paired to a phone and a laptop, for example, and control the sound features through the app on the phone even if the sound is playing through the laptop.
Battery life
The Redmi Buds 6 have a rated battery life of 10 hours with ANC disabled and 6.5 hours with ANC enabled. The company also claims 10 minutes of charge from flat gives 4 hours of playback with ANC disabled.
Doing the standardized test with ANC disabled (as ANC enabled requires the earbuds to be worn), the Redmi Buds 6 played for an impressive 10 hours and 28 minutes, which is a bit over the claimed number. When testing with just a 10-minute charge from flat, the earbuds played for 3 hours and 56 minutes, close to the claimed figure.
Overall, the battery life on the Redmi Buds 6 is very good, at least with ANC disabled.
Conclusion
The Redmi Buds 6 are a fairly affordable pair of earbuds. For that price, you are getting a comfortable design, good audio quality with ANC disabled, great microphone performance, decent active noise cancellation, and impressive battery life.
On the other hand, audio quality with ANC enabled is subpar, the software experience left a lot to be desired, and the latency performance is poor without the low latency option only available on Xiaomi phones.
For the price, it’s easy to ignore some of these issues. However, I would like to see Xiaomi fix the audio quality with ANC enabled, as it’s not fair to let the user choose between audio quality and one of the key features of the earbuds. But if you don’t care about ANC then this is an excellent option for the price.
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