Xiaomi’s earphones have long been available and there are newer and newer versions introduced with refined and improved “features-to-price” balance . Let us see if Xiaomi Piston 3 Earphone Youth Edition is a good value for money, under-priced or over-priced as we take you through its features one by one. This will surely be a handy guide for you if you are indecisive of whether to or not to buy this Xiaomi Piston 3 Earphone Youth Edition.
Delivery of Xiaomi Piston 3 Earphone Youth Edition
Xiaomi Piston 3 Earphone Youth Edition comes packed in a cardboard box. With the earphones, the pack also contains three ear studs of dif ferent sizes for variety of purposes. So, at the first impression, it does appear to be a product that is made with users’ different preferences in mind. It is expected that one or the other will certainly suite any user with a personal preferences. All the three buds did sit comfortably in the ears and particularly the smallest sized stud sealed much of the outside noise and gave the best experience during our tests.
Design and Features
The design and look of the Xiaomi Piston 3 Youth Edition is very similar to the Basic/Colorful versions. The design is elegant and slim. It is available in two colors to choose from – black and white. The cable is of flat designed to prevent from tangling and made tougher to avoid breaking easily. The cable length too is kept at 1.25 m long, good enough that users will not find short of length and the resulting uncomfort while connecting to a laptop kept on a table and using it while sitting on an accompanying chair or with a phone. During the test, the cable length was still limited, though workable with some adjustments, while trying to use with a desktop that is kept on the ground level. But with a laptop and phone, it was quite enough for all set-ups.
Xiaomi Piston 3 Youth Edition is usable In-Ears with the help of those additional rubber studs that serve as guides. Without the rubber guides the earphones look pretty stripped and will surely be very uncomfortable to use.
There is a control that is attached to the right-side cable. There are three buttons and a microphone on the control. Through the buttons, users can control volume (up and down) and play/ stop buttons the media that is played. The feel of the buttons were comfortable and above average to use. The responsiveness does depend on the player/app and the device to which it is attached and not much with the earphone. Xiaomi Piston 3 did respond well and compatible/ comfortable while using with laptops, smartphones and other average phones. 
Only one thing worth mentioning is that its microphone seemed not to do its work while connected to laptop, although listening was not a problem. The same issue was faced while using with desktop. Laptops and desktops mostly have to be connected with different jacks for microphone and earphone/headphone, except few of the newer models that has a combined 3.5mm jack.
Need for a Converter Cable
If you intend to use Xiaomi Piston 3 Earphone Youth Edition with a laptop, or in the rare case with a desktop (we have mentioned about the cable length above!) that has two separate ports (female) for the microphone and headphone then you will need to have a cable converter. The converter which you should look for is a 3.5mm “two male (one for microphone and one for headphone) to one female”. The converter makes the transition from the two separate microphone and headphone ports into one port that can be connected to the earphone’s 3.5mm jack.
There are many converters available online from which you can choose. One of cheapest is available at gearbest for just $1.17 which you can buy straight away. They are available easily and not costly but may come very handy for similar purposes.
Sound and Call Quality
The sound is different and upgraded from the other models in this series. The sound is balanced and brings out the details fairly, but lacks a little here and there especially at increased volumes.
While playing classical music, for instance , the Youth Edition is probably better than the Basic versions. Call quality is good, noise is not transmitted to a disturbing degree.
Conclusion and Price
The sounds were detailed and balanced at mid-volumes, but lost the subtlety at increased volumes and the microphone had an average performance. In short this is not the best, but overall performance is fairly good at its price. Xiaomi Piston 3 Youth Edition is adequately featured which is at par with the costs of $8.22 for the black color and $8.30 for the white color version.
