For Fanboys: The Xiaomi sunglasses for $16.73

To make things clear at the beginning: yes, we are Xiaomi fanboys. Why? Because in the last few years they have made a new mark on the merchandise trade from China as a brand and have managed to improve the image of the Chinese copying culture, which used to be somewhat negative, by a whole lot. Xiaomi produces top smartphones, a MacBook competitor and develops gadgets to make our home smarter for little money. Of course you can also buy the matching Xiaomi sunglasses!

• Xiaomi sunglasses
  • at AliExpress for $16.73 | Geekbuying for $19.99

Only for fanboys?

Especially in the last few months, Xiaomi products have been appearing more and more often, and our editorial staff has been sometimes somewhat sceptical about them. Obviously, the brand has established itself and built up an image in such a way that gadgets that expand Xiaomi’s range of products appear strange to us for the first time.

The latest coup of the Chinese, however, is now probably the entry into the field of fashion accessories. With the Xiaomi Mi TS sunglasses, the responsible people at Ray Ban will probably tremble their knees from now on. Because Xiaomi relies on a classic pilot’s eyewear design and offers polarized polyamide lenses, whereby 100% UV protection is guaranteed. These are frameless and the frames are made of stainless steel. More wearing comfort is made possible by the fact that the centre of gravity of the glasses is 8mm behind the usual centre of gravity of sunglasses. And that’s not all: the lenses are also explosion-resistant. Then Jason Statham will soon become Xiaomi brand ambassador…

Of course, we are always open to new ideas, but we lack the special something here. Admittedly, we are not experts in sunglasses, but we do not see any innovations here, but simple sunglasses, even if they are presumably well produced. If only they had Bluetooth… In contrast to the comparable Ray Ban model, these are still cheap, but we still don’t quite agree on what to think about them.

How do you feel about it? Can you forgive Xiaomi and just laugh at it, or are you even celebrating the expansion into new product areas? Or do you think it’s a little misplaced?