Mivi, the Indian audio brand debuted a new pair of TWS earbuds recently which it considers as a flagship launch, called the Mivi SuperPods Halo. Priced at Rs 1,499, the SuperPods Halo comes with a decent amount of features such as ANC, 3D surround sound, and much more. However, how well do they perform in the real world? Let’s find that out.
Design & Comfort
The Mivi SuperPods Halo come with a flashy design with a notably glossy case where the lid of the case is of golden shade. The case is made entirely of plastic, and honestly, its quality doesn’t inspire much confidence in its durability, whether it can withstand a few drops or if handled with force when opening. Furthermore, it also makes the lid of the case prone to scratches, and even though I have been using them with utmost care, I already have a load of scratches on the top.
There are four LEDs on the front telling you the battery level of the case and the buds. At the back, there’s a USB-C port for charging the case. The buds’ design retains a glossy look and fits well in the ear. They are comfortable to wear during whatever activity you are doing. The buds are also IPX4-rated for water resistance.
Overall, while the buds are comfortable to wear and look good in the ear, the case isn’t quite well-built. It purely focuses on the looks, because of which durability might have taken a step back. However, it might still appeal to you due to the glossy looks, but you’ll have to make a tradeoff with durability if you opt for looks.
Sound Quality, ANC, App controls, Battery Life
As for the sound quality, it relies on 13mm drivers and in our experience, it wasn’t the most impressive. The mid-range and low-end frequencies take over the vocals and high-end frequencies. Due to that, songs sound muffled in most cases. Even after playing around with the equaliser on offer, I couldn’t get the songs to sound as clear as they should. Aside from the default equaliser, you get 8 more options to choose from, including a custom one, as mentioned before.
Speaking of Active Noise Cancellation, the buds can cancel up to 35db of noise and while ANC wasn’t the most effective in canceling out most noises, it works as it should for canceling out human chatter, fan noise to some extent, and more. The Transparency mode barely works, with only slightly enhancing ambient sounds.
With the Mivi Audio app, you can further customise the touch controls of the buds, and choose from various actions for single tap, double tap, triple tap, and tap & hold. The touch controls work well and aren’t overly sensitive to the touch.
Next, spatial audio support is present as well, which basically adds an echo to the music and makes it sound louder. Gaming mode helps reduce the Latency while playing games to some extent.
There’s also a Kids mode, which lowers the volume of the buds to protect children’s sensitive ears. In addition, a ‘Find my device’ option is also available to find the buds in case you lose them somewhere.
However, the app itself has some UI issues. While the UI is neat, some elements look odd, such as an ad banner for other Mivi products in the middle. Moreover, the iOS version of the app keeps playing a video advertisement despite dismissing it repeatedly. I couldn’t update the buds properly on the Android version of the app. Even though the app showed that the update was successful, it kept on repeating the updation process by showing an update was available.
As for the battery backup, Mivi promises 60 hours of total playtime with the case and 8.5 hours on a single charge. We are assuming these numbers do not factor in ANC usage, as we couldn’t reach these stats with our usage of the buds. However, the buds and the case can still easily last for days without recharging.
Finally, the call quality of the Mivi SuperPods Halo is acceptable at best. It is fine indoors, but when it gets noisy, such as traffic noise, the buds pick up external noise, which could make it difficult for the person on the other end to hear your voice.
