Xiaomi 3.1 Soundbar: wireless subwoofer & NFC for 249€/$506/£377

Xiaomi has secretly announced their new 3.1 soundbar on social media. It has three speakers with additional tweeters. It also has a subwoofer and Dolby Audio is supported. Cinema sound experience from Xiaomi in the living room?

• Xiaomi 3.1 Soundbar
  • at Amazon.de for 249,00€ ($506/£377) – Currently out of stock

Already experience with soundbars

Xiaomi and also Redmi are no strangers to the soundbar market now. Now they release a new version that should find its way into living rooms. Both soundbar and subwoofer are completely black. On the front of the soundbar we find a metal grille, while the subwoofer is completely enclosed in a matte case.

3.1 speaker system

There are three speakers in the soundbar, which are responsible for the complete sound range and cover the Left, Right and Center channels.

These are each supported by a tweeter. Together with the subwoofer, which provides the bass, they are supposed to reach a power of 430 W.

Various connections, Bluetooth 5 & NFC

In order for the soundbar and subwoofer to work together, they have to be connected, of course. What’s handy here is that subwoofer connects wirelessly, so you don’t need a cable for it. The sound source is connected to the soundbar and offers USB, coaxial, optical, HDMI IN and HDMI OUT connections. Bluetooth 5 is also included, but no low-latency codec is specified here, so you have to see how much this affects lip sync and general latency in practice beforehand.

It is practical that the soundbar has an NFC interface. Thus, you can simply hold a smartphone with NFC to it and connect via Bluetooth. A UWB connection for newer smartphones would of course have been good for the future.

Control via remote control

Somehow, you still have to be able to interact with the soundbar. There are two options here. Once simple buttons on the top or the supplied remote control, which is hopefully even connected via Bluetooth with the soundbar. This way, you could control the soundbar without having to aim at it like with infrared.

So that you know what you are doing, there is a display on the side, which shows the current input, for example. You can turn on the soundbar, change the volume and also change the input via the buttons on the top.

The remote control has even more functions. You can activate different sound modes via the remote, which adjust the sound. These include music mode, but also a gaming mode. An AI sound mode adjusts the settings depending on the audio played, and another night mode that is supposed to ensure that you do not disturb others with the soundbar at night. Two more buttons are there for fine-tuning the bass.

Assessment

The soundbar was announced quietly via social media and can now also be found on the Xiaomi Global site. It is currently already listed on Amazon.de, but not yet in stock. The stated price of 249€ ($506/£377) is already decent and has to offer something. We have had good experiences with much cheaper soundbars recently.

How does it look in your living room? Hi-Fi setup, soundbar or still using the TV speakers?