Redmi launched the Redmi Buds 3 Lite, the company’s latest true wireless earbuds, in India last week. This was launched in China last year. The main highlight of the earbuds are the light weight lock-in design for better sound insulation, IP54 ratings for dust and splash resistance and long battery of up to 18 hours with the case. Is it worth the price of Rs. 1999? Let us find out.
Box Contents
- Redmi Buds 3 Lite in Black colour
- Ear tips in Small and Large sizes (Medium pre-installed)
- Ear Hook in Small
- User manual
Design and Build quality
The charging case has a round box that has a matte finish that feels nice to hold and doesn’t attract fingerprints and is not prone to scratches easily. You can see the LED indicator on the front, which only glows in white colour, that too when you plug in for charging. The Redmi branding is present on the bottom. The USB Type-C port is on the bottom part of the case. It only comes in black colour. The charging case measures 60 x 46 x 23.7mm and weighs 35 grams, making it compact and light-weight, so you can carry it in your pocket.
Opening the case, you can see the slots for buds, but there is no buttons to pair the case with the phone.
Similar to the case, the headset also has a plastic finish, with a matte look on the inside and a glossy finish on the outside for the touch area, so it is prone to fingerprints. There is an LED indicator on the glossy area, and you can see a tiny microphone. The earbuds measure 24.5 x 16.7 x 24.6mm and weigh about 4.2grams. These feature an in-ear design, and comes with winged bands that the company calls a lock-in design. This wraps the earbuds with a double tiered silicone band for a better in ear fit, so it doesn’t fall out of your ears when running, cycling or during strenuous workouts.
On the inside there are charging contact points. It doesn’t have sensors for in-ear detection like the Redmi Buds 3 Pro. The earphones also have IP54ratings for dust and water resistance so that it can withstand splashes or light rain, but you can’t immerse in the water.
There are touch controls on the back of both the earbuds that lets you control play or pause or skip music, launch voice assistant and accept or reject calls.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
It has Bluetooth 5.2. The pairing process is very easy, just remove the buds from the case, and the lights blink to show it is in pairing mode. Enable the Bluetooth function on your device, and select the ‘Redmi Buds 3 Lite’ and connect. It doesn’t have Google Fast pair support. I didn’t face any connectivity issues during my use with the Nothing Phone 1 and Pixel 6a. It doesn’t have dual mode connectivity, so you can only pair with one device at a time.
The touch controls are easy to access and are responsive to touch. The earbuds turn on when you remove them from the case. You just need to place the buds in the case to turn them off. To save power, it turns off automatically when it is not connected to any device for 10 minutes.
| Function | Left earbud (L) | Right earbud (R) |
| Answer a call, answer a second call during first call | Double tap | |
| Reject a call | Triple tap | |
| Play / Pause | Press and Hold | |
| Activate voice assistant | Triple tap | |
| Play Next song | Double tap | |
| Low latency mode | Press and hold both the earbuds | |
There is no volume control option. It doesn’t come with any companion app for customizing controls or receive firmware updates.
Audio Quality and Call Performance
The Redmi Bus 3 Lite packs 6mm dynamic drivers that handle high and middle frequencies well, but you don’t feel the thumping bass for low frequency audio. Since it doesn’t have a custom equalizer support or bass booster mode, there is no option to increase the bass, if you love bass.
The volume of the headset is loud enough unless you are in a crowded environment. The earbuds offer a good amount of passive noise isolation as well since it has an in-ear design. It doesn’t support AAC audio codec, and has only Subband Coding (SBC). This is capable of bit rates up to 328 kbps for listening to 320-bit MP3s. This is common in Bluetooth devices with Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). Difference between audio quality in SBC and aptX is minimal, but the latency is normally over 100ms with SBC, however there is a dedicated gaming mode, which comes in handy. There were no disconnection issues between the buds or the phone.
The low-latency gaming mode, which is useful since it reduces the latency by a certain, and we could feel the difference. It is also easy to enter the gaming mode by pressing both the earbuds.
The earbuds’ tiny microphone is decent in most cases, but sometimes it struggles to pick up your voice clearly for calls, especially in a crowded and noisy environment. This is common in most Bluetooth headsets in the price range, since the tiny microphone doesn’t catch your voice clearly.
Battery Life
The earbuds pack a 36mAh battery that promise about 6 hours of standalone battery life. During my use, I got over 4 hours of battery life in 60 to 70% volume. It takes over one and half hours to charge the earbuds fully, but there is a fast charging feature that promises 100 minutes of music playback with 10 minutes of charge.
With the 315mAh charging case, it promises up to 18 hours of battery life. It takes close to 2 and hours to charge the case fully over USB Type-C.
Conclusion
Overall, the Redmi Buds 3 Lite is a decent Bluetooth true wireless earbuds for the price of Rs. 1999, if you need compact earbuds with a secure fit. It comes with IP54 ratings, and there is also a gaming mode, but the company could have offered AAC codec and a companion app with custom EQ settings like Bass boost mode and customizable controls.
The Redmi Buds 3 Lite will be available from mi.com, Amazon.in, Mi Home stores and Mi Studio starting from tomorrow, July 31st. As a part of introductory offer, you can get it for Rs. 1,499 for the first 48-hours.
Pros
- Decent audio quality
- Compact, lightweight case
- Low-latency gaming mode
- IP54 ratings for the buds
- Decent battery life with fast charging
Cons
- No AAC codec
- No companion app
- Call quality is average