Soundpeats Mini Pro Review
Wireless earbuds have been a fascination among futurists in the previous century, right alongside virtual reality, handheld computers, hoverboards, and flying cars. And while we may not have fully realized those last two technological developments, the progress that’s been made in the other categories is nothing short of staggering.
Customers interested in listening to music through a pair of low-profile buds without any annoying wires are now spoiled for choices, with Airpods and Ray-Cons being some of the most popular options. However, I humbly suggest that you consider a pair of premium Soundpeats wireless earbuds if you’re in the market— check out my Soundpeats Mini Pro review to learn why:
Soundpeats Mini Pro Unboxing
These wireless earbuds come in a small box, about the size of the box for a pair of Airpods. Inside the box you’ll find the Soundpeats Mini Pro Bluetooth earbuds inside a wireless charging case, two pairs of alternate sized ear cups, a 7” USB-C charging cable that plugs into the back of the charge case, and a multilingual manual with basic setup instructions and a list of possible commands. I would have preferred a longer charge cable and a wall outlet adapter, but the cable included is more than capable of quickly recharging these buds and their carrying case.
The charging case is made of a soft plastic with a matte black finish, which is much more scratch resistant than the all-white Airpods charging case. However, it isn’t as resistant to cosmetic damage as the Soundpeats Free2 Classic case with its faux-leather pattern, since fingerprints and oily smudges easily show up on the matte finish. However, these are easy to wipe off with a microfiber cloth or the inside of your shirt, and the case feels much more “premium” than the pretend leather pattern for the other Soundpeats product.
A dim LED light on the front of the case indicates whether the earbuds are low on battery, charging, or fully charged; lights on the inside of the case fulfill the same purpose, as do small lights on the base of the earbuds themselves.
Once removed from their housing, these earbuds quickly enter pairing mode and can easily connect to any Bluetooth compatible device, such as a smartphone or portable gaming console. For my review, I tested the Soundpeats Mini Pro earbuds on an iPhone and Nintendo Switch.
Soundpeats Mini Pro Features
For a fraction of the price to buy a new pair of Airpods — even the previous gen — the Soundpeats Mini Pro earbuds come with superior battery life and nearly identical functionality. Comfort wise, I would say it’s about on par with the Airpods Pro, which is even more impressive when you consider that these earbuds cost basically a third of the price.
Battery Life
First, let’s talk about the more than decent battery life. Out of the box and without a single charge, the Soundpeats Mini Pro worked for 1 1/2 weeks of daily use— roughly 1-3 hours of listening each day. When the charging case finally died, it only took 1 ½ hours to fully charge once plugged into the USB 3.0 port of my PC. The side of the box advertises 7 hours of continuous battery life and 21 hours with the charging case, which estimates that you can charge it three full times before plugging it into a power supply. Based on my experiences, I would say this is actually an understatement.
Connectivity
The Soundpeats Mini Pro uses Bluetooth 5.2 to connect wirelessly to any compatible device, which it manages to accomplish easily and with no wait time or signal interference. By long pressing the left earbud, a voice assistant will inform you when these earbuds have entered pairing mode. During my tests, I managed to quickly and seamlessly connect these wireless earbuds between my iPhone and Switch, even while both devices were on and next to each other. Throughout all of my tests, I experienced no delayed or dropped connections.
Comfort
If you’ve ever worn a pair of Skullcandy earbuds, you’ll have a good idea of how it feels to wear the Soundpeats Mini Pro. The in-ear cups offer impressive noise cancellation without any extra software; I was able to listen to music and video game sound effects clearly despite background noise. Unlike the Soundpeats Free2 Classic, I found these ear cups comfortable even after multiple hours of use; even when exercising at the gym, I found that these earbuds stayed firmly and comfortably lodged in my ear canal.
Gaming Mode
One of the main selling points to these headphones is the possibility to switch into “Game Mode” by tapping the left side three times. This decreases the latency when connecting wirelessly at the cost of battery life. I didn’t notice any change in audio fidelity, but I did see a decrease in latency when testing this feature in Crypt of the Necrodancer.
Soundpeats Mini Pro Sound Quality
When listening on my iPhone, I noticed that these wireless headphones had excellent lows but so-so mids and highs. When listening to music on Spotify, acoustic music and live performances sounded the best. Hip hop also sounds great, as does metal; however, electronic music like the Hotline Miami soundtrack and Anamanaguchi didn’t sound nearly as good. Something about the intensity of layered tracks and the faster tempos just didn’t work with the sound profile offered by these earbuds.
Then I switched over to podcasts, which sounded excellent and provided vocals that were both clear and robust. I even tried some guided meditation tapes that used binaural audio, which were extremely effective and deeply immersive.
But now for the ultimate test— how does the Soundpeats Mini Pro sound when playing video games?
Just like with my review of the Soundpeats Free2 Classic, Earthbound sounds great and the stereo effect for the soundtrack is immersive and soothing, especially with the bolstered low end. When booting up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, however, I started to notice that the low end compensates for an audio spectrum that feels less impressive.
When certain aspects of the game’s soundtrack changes — such as the addition of heavy percussion when switching from the character select page to the stage select page, or when the score changes during each lap of the Mount Wario stage — you can clearly hear how live instruments and synths in the mid and high range of the spectrum feel muted. When a full composition of music and sound effects come together, it almost sounds dissociative. This was the same effect I noticed when listening to the dense electronic music on Spotify.
Final Recommendation
In all fairness, you shouldn’t expect sub-$100 wireless earbuds to provide the same experience as a large pair of studio quality headphones— but that’s hardly a fair comparison to make, since these wireless earbuds aren’t really trying to provide that experience. When judged on that metric, these are a fantastic purchase that I recommend for budget earbuds with decent sound quality.
However, there is one small gripe I have that’s worth considering.
Ultimately, I think the Mini Pro differentiates itself from the Free2 Classic by offering more bass in the same way that Beats headphones are often criticized for doing. It’s my cynical belief that Soundpeats is capable of providing a full-bodied audio experience, but chooses to arbitrarily limit the functionality of different models in order to justify selling them at different prices.
This is similar to the practice many CPU and GPU manufacturers use to increase or decrease the cost of virtually the same component— in many cases, the most notable difference is aesthetics. This ties into a larger issue of planned obsolescence in tech that goes beyond the scope of a Chinese earbud review, but I still thought it was worth mentioning.
