Xmowi "Gaming" Headphones Review : A Flexible Mess!

The word "gaming" is so overused, it isn't even amusing anymore. From gaming mouse to RGB chairs to frigging gaming sandals, it's a pretty weird genre of graphics enthusiasts.

I am no hardcore gamer by any means. Heck, I haven't even played PUBG for more than a few hours! But that doesn't mean the whole realm of RGB gothic gear doesn't excite and entice me. 

Hence the review. I decided to check out some inexpensive "gaming" headphones from a brand whose name is as futuristic as the players themselves; Xmowi.

Banter aside, the headphones are actually not that bad. Or are they?

Unboxing and Impressions:

The packaging was pretty below average at best. I suppose they're skimping out on the packing foam due to environmental mindfulness, in which case, full points for Eco-friendliness.

The product itself is made out decent quality plastic and seems durable enough to survive a few months of moderate wear and tear.

However, the flexibility of the headband quite honestly surprised me. It was depicted in the amazon product pictures, but it also shows a stock photo of a guy with these headphones photoshopped on his head, so that speaks something about reliable representation!

Something interesting that I noticed was that this headphone terminates into a separate microphone jack and headphone audio jack. It's geared more towards older PCs and laptops which had a separate port for microphones.

Thankfully, did you provide a dongle in the box which unified these two connectors into a single 3.5 mm connector for modern devices. You will have to carry that dongle with you or leave it plugged into the headphone at all times if you are planning to use this primarily with your smartphone.

However, connecting it to your smartphone and using it may not be such a good idea because the impedance on the microphone is pretty high. This neatly brings us to the next section:

Sound quality and Usability:

Let's talk about usability first. The 40 mm drivers and relatively large ear cups fit pretty comfortably around most ear sizes. The articulating mic on the left side sits about 2 inches away from your mouth and is pretty easy to swivel.

However, the mic demands of a pretty high impedance which smartphone struggle to deliver. As a result, you end up with very distant sounding audio input despite speaking get your normal voice volume.

To be honest, you're better off with any simple wired earphone when it comes to microphone output. But as I mentioned in the video, you can't really blame the company for the underwhelming my performance with smartphones.

There is a reason this thing comes with two separate audio jacks out of the box. It's meant for PCs and laptops with a vastly more powerful amplifier.

Even then, the microphone sounds pretty tiny and muffled because they are trying to reduce background noise by reducing the sensitivity of the mic altogether.

But you won't be having calm, civilized discussions during gaming, so I guess this would not be much of a problem when you're all crying and shouting together.

The audio quality from the 40 mm drivers was satisfactory. These drivers with 32 ohms of Impedance can easily create a vast and rather immersive sound stage around your ears.

Your voice may not sound good to others through this headphone, but you will surely have a great time listening into the game audio.

Comfort wise, as long as you are not wearing glasses, you should be fine with this. If you are, like me, you will have to adjust one or the other thing every few minutes. The headband can sometimes be a bit tighter than I like, so there's that.

Final verdict:

Alright, that's enough. That's wrap this up. For the price of under 1000 rupees, should you be looking into unconventional brands of gaming headphones like this one? Probably not!

You will have some much better experience with literally any other budget wired earphones that you are probably already using by now. Spend a little higher and go for other popular options in the market, or stick with the budget ones which are coming from well established brands.

Also comes in Ugly Blue Variant!

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Have a better day than mine, cheers!