Hands-on: Xiaomi Hybrid Pro

I’ve bought plenty of cheap earphones — the Edifier H293P, the Amazon Fire Phone stock earbuds, the QianShui 39, the QianShui 25 — and they all broke.

Yeah, all of them. Some cracked, some snapped, some got mysteriously eaten away by liquid. Not sturdy at all. My main use for them is leaving a pair by the bed plugged into my tablet. I don’t listen to music, I just game with them, so you could call them sleep earphones. But these things just don’t hold up. The only two that survived any abuse were Apple’s EarPods and the Xiaomi Hybrid.

That said, the EarPods sound kind of muddy and don’t seal that well, so the ones I actually used most were the Xiaomi Hybrids.

Right, the original Hybrid that sold for 99 yuan. My verdict back then was it’s not as bad as people say — it’s at least a proper hybrid driver, and the sound is passable for games.

Then my dad asked me for a phone — he had a Redmi Note 4 — so I ended up giving him the Hybrids.

But out with the old, in with the new. I happened to see Xiaomi had released a Pro version, so I just bought it. That was back in November last year.

It arrived surprisingly fast, and the Pro packaging is way nicer than the first gen.

Nothing else in the box, just the usual accessories — it’s only an earphone. I gave them a listen and found… they’re fine.

I mean, an improvement over the first gen, and not a small one.

The first gen’s flaws were obvious: huge low end, highs drifting upward. The Pro reins the sound in a bit, pushes the mids forward slightly, and the bass isn’t as low. For pop music I’d say it’s about good enough, let alone gaming on a tablet. At the very least it should be worth the price.

My praise for the first-gen Hybrid wasn’t unfounded — mainly because the thing was indestructible. The cable was solid, braided, so even if you fell asleep with them on and strangled yourself, they wouldn’t break. Fit was okay too; clamping your ears isn’t something you can absolutely avoid, but most of the time it was fine.

The most important part: 99 yuan, a hybrid driver, tough, metal housing, and it won’t crack open like the Amazon Fire Phone earbuds. Braided cable, very sturdy, pretty great.

With the Hybrid Pro, though, the metal housing is still there and the sound is better, but the price went up, and the key thing is it’s no longer braided. For earphones at this price I think the most important thing is usability and durability. Sound quality is what it is — at this price, who cares about tuning, close enough, as long as there’s no static.

So I was happy with these, right up until yesterday, when I noticed the rubber at the cable joint had split. I gave it a little tug and it snapped.

So braided cable really is better, isn’t it? Why switch to rubber? I don’t know if it’s cost cutting.

So I figured I’d write something to commemorate the earphones I originally meant to praise. If you can, just buy the first gen.