- Xiaomi teases its first clip-style open earbuds
- Launch date unknown, presumed imminent
- Past Xiaomi open earbuds have had sound leakage prevention tech
In 2025, it felt like every tech company felt the need to release open earbuds, and recently brands have been tripping over themselves to release clip-style buds, ranging from Anker, Bose and through the alphabet to (now) Xiaomi.
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has teased its first open earbuds, sharing on social media platform Weibo a graphic of a half-open case, with the slogan “Brand new form”. You can see enough of the enclosed earbuds to suggest these are clip buds (and it’s basically the only headphone form factor the brand hasn’t tried out yet).
There’s not much more to know about the buds just yet, but Xiaomi’s expected to launch a new smartphone at some point in May called the Xiaomi 17 Max. It’s likely the earbuds will get some screen time at the same launch event.
It’s therefore impossible to say what Xiaomi has cooking; from my experience, the brand’s audio products remain weaker than the competition, but clip buds are hard to get wrong. And Xiaomi has one piece of tech that could elevate these new buds over the competition…
No noise
Back in 2025, Xiaomi released the OpenWear Stereo Pro, hook-style open earbuds with a whopping five audio drivers. I tested them, and while I didn’t love the fit, or audio quality, they had one feature that was unique and really useful.
One of the drivers wasn’t for music, but was designed to reduce sound leakage. It basically worked as anti-noise-cancellation; it wouldn’t stop you hearing people around you, but it’d stop those people around you hearing you.
Sound leakage is one of the big problems of open earbuds. Since the drivers aren’t in your ear, and the sound has to travel across the void between the bud and your ear, audio will invariably be audible to those around you.
Don’t expect your guilty pleasure playlist to stay secret, if you listen with open earbuds; my partner is constantly humming along to my music when I’m using them. This didn’t happen with the Xiaomi, though, and the driver worked wonders in keeping my private playlists… well, private.
It’s hard to say whether Xiaomi will resurrect this tech for its clip-style earbuds, and it’s certainly not guaranteed — these kinds of buds have less space for drivers in the bud, compared to hook-style ones, since the driver sits in your ear.
Saying that, the Shokz OpenDots One had two drivers, so it’s clear that there’s space for a well-engineered clip bud to fit multiple. It’s just about whether Xiaomi decides it’s a good fit (so to speak).
The best open earbuds for all budgets
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tom.bedford@hotmail.co.uk (Tom Bedford)
