Following on from my Soundpeats Air 3 Earbuds review back in December, today I have been sent the Soudpeats Mini Pro earbuds to test out and scrutinise so you can get the low down before you purchase!

Unboxing these earbuds one thing is apparent, the size is dramatically smaller than the majority of Bluetooth buds out there both in terms of the rechargeable storage casing and the buds themselves. The size of the case is a svelte 57mm x 42mm x 25mm which is microscopic considering they bang out 7-8hrs of playtime at a nominal volume and last up to 2 additional charges, thanks to the case, with an average time span of around 21-22 hours of musical pleasure all told.

The buds themselves are also relatively minuscule with just an 18mm x 18mm x 28mm profile that plugs into your ears like a dream and snappily magnetise back into the case for storage and battery replenishment. With the three sizes of supplied tips, these buds are exquisitely comfortable, were unmovable in my ear canal, and caused absolutely no fatigue across days of testing. This alone makes them worth their weight as I could comfortably rely on them not to fall out at any point during rigorous exercises or bike rides.

Technical Specifications:

• Bluetooth: Bluetooth®5.2
• Profiles: HSP, HFP, A2DP, AVRCP
• Chipset: Qualcomm® QCC3040
• Supported Bluetooth® Codec: SBC, aptX, aptX-Adaptive
• Wireless Range: 33 ft
• Battery Capacity: 300 mAH (Case)
• Battery Capacity: 45*2 mAH(Earbuds)
• Earbuds Charging Time: 1.5 hours
• Charging Case Charging Time: 1.5 hours
• Charging Port: USB-C
• Playtime Time: 21 hours
• Single Earbud Weight: 4.97g
• Charging Case with Earbuds: 37.5g
• Control Type: Touch
• Waterproof Rating: IPX5
• Tips: 3 sizes included
• USB-C Cable: included

The buds have one built-in button on each for touch control, and each one harbours a plethora of features depending on which one you touch, whether you single, double, or triple-tap them, or if you hold your finger on them for certain durations. You have standard button features such as volume increase and decrease, skipping forward or backwards a track, answering or rejecting calls, turning on or off active noise cancellation (ANC), or switching it into game mode for less than 80ms latency on mobile or gaming devices, effectively ensuring solid synchronicity between action on screen and the SFX you hear in your ears. It should be noted that these do not pair directly to PS4/PS5 consoles without an intermediary dongle device, but they do directly and easily pair to the Nintendo Switch for wireless gaming.

ANC is a feature that once you have experienced it, you are hesitant to go back to none. On the Mini Pros I'm happy to report that they definitely blot out a lot of sounds once enabled, and testing the passthrough mode you can definitely tell that you can hear the outside world via the built-in mics, which is useful if you don't want to take out the buds to partake in external conversation. The clatter of keys, for example, is massively reduced as the ANC mode seems to nullify mid to lower end sounds, though a few higher-end ones can definitely still be heard, such as the screeching of tyres or external music with higher-pitched SFX in.

The sound quality overall is warm and bassy with a hint of vibrance that lifted each track I threw at it. My standard drum and bass infused playlist sounded absolutely incredible with vocals coming through, rich 35db bass punctuating the tracks and crystal clear instruments throughout. The vibrance of the buds actually surprised me given the 10mm bio-diaphragm driver as opposed to the 14.2mm of the Air 3s. Even for watching films on mobile phone, or playing with them on my Nintendo Switch, the faithful reproduction of sound is very pleasing with no notable tinny edges and no popping or crackling even at ear-drum bursting levels of volume and this is thanks, in part, to the APTX adaptive decoder that determines the best operating mode for the buds depending on the sound profile it recognises. This means it autonomously switches between low-latency mode, high-bit rate mode, low-bit rate mode to provide you with optimum sound quality regardless of what you throw at them.

I should also mention that the microphone quality is also superb with cVc 8.0 noise isolation extremely well implemented here. Background noise is minimised and speech quality is incredibly clean. In the rare instances where I took calls on these, I experienced excellent call quality, no issues whatsoever, and with a solid connection at even 33ft distance: I managed to stroll around and still communicate without breaking connection or any garbling of the sound quality.

The only thing missing really is the ability to detect whether or not they are in-ear or not, as I noticed that they continued to play once I finally had to remove them from my skull for the day. While the Soundpeats Air 3s had this feature but felt slippery to the touch, the Mini Pros feel great, perform fantastically yet seem to lack this one feature which is rather minor, yet still disappointing.

The Soundpeats Mini Pros definitely beat out the Soundpeats Air 3s for my personal favourites from this company. The Mini Pros just feel more well rounded, more compact, and certainly pump out stunning high definition sound for an ample amount of time before requiring an equally compact 1.5hr charge to re-juice them up. The single LED on the front of the case displays 100-50% charge as green, 49-10% as yellow and then under 10% as red, which is handy however it's not nearly as exact as I would have liked to see, as I could pick them up on green at 50%, thinking it could be up there in the 80-90% still and it immediately drop to 49% freaking me out a little.

While the Pros set you back a little more at $47.99 on sale currently ($60 normally), you definitely get what you pay for as I experienced NONE of the clipping issues I had with the Air 3's which means that this was an almost flawless experience throughout my time testing them. I hereby officially certify the Soundpeats Mini Pros as "highly recommended", and they are now my daily driver when it comes to grabbing a set of buds to accompany me anywhere in any scenario.