MIVI

Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones are follow up of the Mivi Conquer Wireless headphones. And Mivi promises a lot with this updated product. It claims that apart from delivering decent sound quality, the Collar also has good build quality. This is a claim I don't particularly agree with. The headphones are extremely light weight, and comfortable to wear, says Mivi. The battery performance is another factor that Mivi highlights for this product.

In this review I am going to talk about several aspects of the Mivi Collar, but before that a few points about the product.

-- Mivi Collar is extremely light weight, to be specific the headphones weigh around 30 grams -- The headphones have a pretty simple design, but they aren't very sturdy -- The neckband sits very well, and you can wear it for hours --The Mivi Collar Bluetooth headphones come with a competitive price tag --The earbuds fits well in the ears (another claim I find a bit on the dubious grounds). -- It features 4.1 Bluetooth Wireless technology, CVC noise cancellation and APTX codec support

Comfortable but no X-factor

The Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones are lightweight and comfortable to wear. I could carry the headphones anywhere and everywhere I travelled and I could use them in office, doing all my work comfortably and without having to feel the headphones around my neck.

The Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones come with rubbery neck band which connects both earbuds. Following the neckband are the metallic earpieces which fit well into the ears. But, the fit could have been better. The earbuds often need to be pushed in after a while. They come off if you quickly moving from one place to another and you surely can't run or jog while using them.

The earbuds are connected to the rubber neckband with a rubber string, which feels a bit flimsy. I often had to be careful while handling the Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones. You get two additional pair of earbuds along with a little case to keep the earphones in.

The Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones come with a power button and the USB port on the left side, while on the right side there are the volume buttons to control the sound. The buttons are well placed. I didn't have to make extra effort to reach out to them while using the product. Overall, the design of the Mivi Collar earphones is simple, but it could have been better. And it could have been built better. But, considering the competitive price tag that the headphones come with, I suppose it is asking for too much.

Overall, if design is what matters to you in a headphone, there are better options available in the market in the same price segment. You can go for Mivi Conquer wireless headphones (read our review) which are available at the same price of Rs 2,999. They are sturdier. Then there are other Bluetooth earphones like the 1More iBFree (read review), which looks a lot more premium and attractive for the same price point.

Good for bassheads, simple to use

Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones connect to smartphones easily and quickly - in just a matter of seconds. All I had to do is, power on the headphones, switch on the Bluetooth on my phone, and it was done. One thing I didn't like about the headphones is that they are difficult to connect to PCs or laptops. I had to go to settings menu, set up the headphones to connect it to the laptop or PC, which was time consuming.

The Mivi Collar Wireless headphones come with Qualcomm APTX support, which means you will get a seamless and lag-free connectivity with APTX supported phones like that of the OnePlus 5T. The headphones also come with Bluetooth 4.1 support which offers decent connectivity even when you are almost up to 30 feet away from your connected device.

As for the sound performance, the Mivi Collar Bluetooth headphones are decent. Neither bad, nor great. The headphones are good for bassheads, but aren't very pleasant to listen to in high volume. It becomes extremely screechy at loud volume. Every time I increased the volume level, I had to lower it the next minute. This happened most of the time.

Although Mivi claims the Collar delivers "super-sonic bass", I say, it doesn't really match up to the claim. I used the headphones for over a week and found that although there is always bass, it doesn't play that well with heavy mids and highs, especially at higher volume levels.

I tested a few songs like the Boba Tunnel by Anupam Roy, Shape of You by Ed Sheeran and Lose Yourself to Dance by Daft Punk. In all the three songs the bass was sweet and the sounds produced were decent. But in busier songs, where there are more instruments playing in the background, the Collar fell -- and sounded -- flat. In such situations, it delivered a punchy bassline, arguably the biggest draw for this headphone, but that is usually at the expense of mids. The treble most of the times got high to a point that it can be screechy, while vocals on occasions drowned out, especially in songs like Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran. Soundstage was minimal. In songs like Boba Tunnel by Anupam Roy, I didn't find a lot of detail in various instruments.

I found that the Mivi Collar Bluetooth headphones were best suited for Hip-Hop genres because of the prominence of bass. While in genres like Rock and Jazz, these aren't the what you need. The Mivi Collar comes with passive noise cancelling technology.

Verdict in a sentence: If you are looking out for a headphone that delivers good bass, Mivi Collar is the one for you. And that's about it.

Decent battery life

The Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones promise to deliver almost 10 hours of battery life. After using the headphones for over a week, I can very well say that Mivi lives up to its claims. For me, the headphones lasted for around 8 to 9 hours of playback time with around 70 per cent volume level, which is decent for a headphone that is so budget friendly. Another good bit about the Mivi Collar headphones is that it didn't take too much time to charge fully -- it took around 2 hours.

You can also take voice calls and talk for hours on the Collar and not much battery is consumed in it. The quality of the voice call is decent and I could talk for hours with it.

Should you buy it? Yes, no

To get it right off the bat, if you're looking out for headphones that are simple to use, pocket friendly and delivers decent sound quality - especially good bass - then Mivi Collar Bluetooth headphones are definitely one to consider. The build quality too is something we wish could have been better.

But if you don't mind lower bass, and will prefer better sound quality, there are headphones like 1More iBFree in the market that are better choices. It all comes down to what you want from your Bluetooth headphones. If you want a good bass - Mivi Collar is the one for you. Another factor that works in favour of Mivi Collar Bluetooth is the battery life. It delivers a pretty good battery life than most headphones in this price segment can't.

Also Read: Jabra Evolve 75e review: Excellent battery life, perfect for use in office

Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones 7.5/10

GOOD STUFFGood BassDecent battery lifeGood pricingBAD STUFFBoring designLacks clarity and soundstage get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from more and more smartphone manufacturers are ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack, the demand and importance of Bluetooth wireless headphones is rising. After spending a hefty amount on buying a new smartphone, we usually look out for wireless headphones that deliver decent sound performance and are also pocket friendly. But as the saying goes, "everything good comes at a price" and similar is the case with wireless headphones. But, there are exceptions too.
Like Mivi's new Collar Bluetooth earphones that are available at a price as low as Rs 2,999. The Mivi Collar Bluetooth earphones were launched at a price tag of Rs 4,999 initially, but the company has now reduced the price by Rs 2,000 and the headphones are now selling at a competitive price of Rs 2,999.