The first bluetooth speaker head to head. Who would have thought? And the contenders are the. In the blue corner, is the Mi portable bluetooth speaker 16W, and in the black corner, is the Oraimo Sound pro.
Unboxing and accessories
Let’s talk about the unboxing experience. The Mi speaker comes in a relatively ordinary box and in it, you get the speaker itself and the USB-C cable to charge it plus a manual.
The Oraimo box is a little bit of an occasion with the top sliding off and inside you have the speaker itself, some paperwork, a Micro USB cable for charging, and a 3.5mm aux cable. So on just unboxing and accessories alone, the Oraimo Sound Pro takes a win.
Design
Now, this section is very subjective but I can start with the easy stuff. The Oraimo Sound Pro is much lighter than the Mi portable Bluetooth speaker 16W. In terms of size, they are pretty much identical. The Oraimo consumes a bit less space with how rounded it is at the ends but it’s not much.
Oraimo goes for a pill-shaped design whilst Mi goes for a box shape. Both have extensive use of fabric in their design with Oraimo going for plastic on their button segment and Mi going for rubber.
Now it’s worth noting that the Mi’s box design allows it to either stand in a horizontal or vertical position which is a luxury that the Oraimo cannot enjoy, so the Mi is more versatile on that one. I’ll give it a tie in this category. The Mi’s design doesn’t look as ergonomic to me as the Oraimo but the Oraimo’s design makes it less versatile than the Mi. Let me know which one you prefer in the comments.
Features
Looking at ports we have 2 on the Mi and 4 on the Oraimo. The Mi speaker only comes with an aux port and a USB-C port for charging. The Oraimo, on the other hand, has a MicroSD slot, full-size USB port, aux port, and MicroUSB port to charge it.
As for battery life, the Oraimo is quoted at 5 to 7 hours whilst the Mi sits at 13 hours but at 50% volume. And in terms of battery size, the Mi has a 2600mAh battery which is bigger than the 2000mAh battery in the Oraimo.
The Mi speaker also has a truly wireless stereo mode where you can pair 2 speakers together for more pronounced left and right audio separation. It’s very good for immersion.
The Oraimo speaker does not have this feature but it does have an FM radio receiver that uses the aux cable as an antenna. A feature that is not there on the Mi bluetooth speaker.
The Mi speaker is IPX7 water and dust resistant whilst the Oraimo speaker is IPX4 making the Mi speaker more resilient in harsh conditions than Oraimo.
Regardless, I think Oraimo wins on 2 fronts that I feel matter to most of the people in Africa. It offers a lot more flexibility in terms of ports and also it is more Africa-ready when looking at the FM receiver and the fact that the full-size USB can be used to charge another device. Features that the Mi smart speaker omits on its spec sheet.
Performance
The Mi speaker is heavier for a reason. It has beefier stuff inside. A bigger battery and also 2x8W speakers which give it the 16W in its name. As for Oraimo, it makes do with 2x5W speakers and a 2000mAh battery.
In terms of sound performance, these are both pretty good speakers. The Mi bluetooth speaker has more bass and goes much louder than the Oraimo but at high volumes, it has a bit more distortion than the Oraimo.
The Oraimo has a slightly brighter sound stage whilst the Mi has a warmer one thanks to the added bass. It makes the Mi speaker capable of delivering good sound on a wider range of genres of music than the Oraimo.
Overall I’ll give it to the Mi speaker. It sounds better and goes louder making it more usable in a lot more scenarios than the Oraimo. The charging port is also USB-C on the Mi speaker which I personally prefer over the micro USB on the Oraimo. A win for Mi here.
Value
The Mi speaker is going for US$55 whilst the Oraimo is going for US$40. So naturally, you are all wondering if the US$15 difference is worth it. What is going for the Mi speaker is battery life, brand, and better audio quality. And what Oraimo has going for it is a lot more versatility with the ports and consequently more features than the Mi speaker.
Looking at this alone the Oraimo is definitely better valued, especially for the majority of the African community because it’s cheaper and can do more stuff. To some like me, the difference in audio quality could be worth spending the extra 15 bucks to get the Mi speaker but I can bet for the majority of you, the difference in sound quality is not big enough a motivation to give up on the power bank feature, FM radio, and selection of ports.
Thoughts
If you didn’t know about Oraimo then you should now. They have definitely come to play and they have the better overall package here. The Oraimo Sound pro has the right sort of boxes ticked for customers in these parts. It’s a bluetooth speaker worth buying and you can check out other speakers we have tested here.
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21 comments
Too expensive, why going for that much. Kudhura kutokwikwidzana nehombe randinaro pama.features. I have an 8″*1/80 magnet woofer speaker which has 20w power, karaoke, FM, remote control, digital display, aux, battery 5000mah last upto 10 hours at full blast sounding perfectly it also has TWS function for left to right sound.
Plus it cost him one US dollar. 😂
That is miraculous! So small a battery lasting so many hours at full blast with the mentioned loudspeaker drivers!
I’m love with oraimo products
l Bet Garikai Dzoma would choose the Xiaomi one 😂
Ha!ha! You are right. I already have the Mi Soundbar which is going for 115 at the Mi Store. I am a shameless Mi fan there is no doubt about it.
Come back my Guy
😅 of course. Besides it’s got some specs there
What are you guys still doing with the Camon 19? How long does it take to review a phone? It’s not a Star wars spaceship for Christs sake
I have a little experience in production. Believe me, it can take that long. They announced that they got the phone so you start the clock there. They then have to use it for real for at least a week to give the thing a fare shake and try all the features. Tests and comparisons have to be planned, researched, executed and results captured. Now that they know what the deal is, scripting has to begin, shots have to be planned/storyboarded. When the revisions are done, its time to shoot. They rig up the sets for lighting and sound, and then shoot A roll and voice overs. Depending on the locations and sets, B roll might get done a day after. Then they get into post production. They’ll have to chop down all that extra footage, grade it, maybe add some effects, throw in some motion graphics, browse music libraries and review the first few cuts. All done? Time to render, and depending on the vintage of the machine, they’ll either have enough time for anything between a tea break to a full nights sleep. Finally, they have a file that could be several gigs in size ready to upload because they know Youtube is going to compress the ever loving life out of the file. They get the thumbnail ready to go and initiate the upload to the channel. Fingers crossed they have steady fibre or can go to a nice cafe next to a 5G tower.
Not saying they actually do all this, but from the Mate 40 video, they do a fair bit of it and that takes time.
I would pick the Xiaomi one 😅
Xiaomi is my imaginary money’s pick. Its not my fault I was brought up around music lovers and musicians 😂
The Xiaomi just sounds better, can make a stereo pair come bonus time and has better durability and battery life. I wouldn’t be able to swap SD cards on the fly, but my phone could handle what media i have better, same for radio. Aux is nice, but I can live without it. For charging, I can make do with my Mi power bank. Some things I can live with ‘good enough’ but when it comes to sound, I’m a sucker for nice things😅
For a Bluetooth speaker I expect only a charging or power port. I expect the speaker/s to be out of the way and even out of reach. Almost all radio stations are now on the internet and a phone can take care of radios and also of sound, which can all be played on the paired Bluetooth speakers.
re$55 ronetsa cause vanogona kushaya change futi
Xaomi products are underrated
I definitely agree with you. I am using speakers and smartphone made by Xiaomi. It’s good quality. quordle
I like Xiaomi products and their speaker is dope
This Mi Soundbar, available for $115 at the Mi Store, dordle is something I already own. There is no denying that I am a rabid Mi fan.
I bought the Oraimo sound bar iya for $40, was not too impressed it’s not loud enough and after a while it just cuts the volume in half and it won’t even pair with my MiBox4k. It’s really not the best. I’m a huge fan of Xiaomi after Huawei hot shafted by Trump so personally I would pay the extra $15
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