Xiaomi is teasing clip-style open earbuds, and after testing its previous open earbuds, there’s a little feature that could make them must-buys

Xiaomi presents its first open clip headphones
Launch date unknown, presumed imminent
Previous Xiaomi open earbuds featured sound leak prevention technology

By 2025, it seemed like every tech company felt the need to release open-back headphones, and recently, brands have been outdoing themselves to release clip-on headphones, ranging from Anker, Bose, and up through Alphabet to (now) Xiaomi.

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has revealed its first open-back earbuds, sharing a graphic on social media platform Weibo of a half-open case, with the slogan “New Shape”. You can see enough of the earbuds bundled to suggest that these are clip-on earbuds (and that’s basically the only earbud form factor the brand hasn’t tried yet).

There’s not much to know about the headphones yet, but Xiaomi is expected to launch a new smartphone sometime in May, called the Xiaomi 17 Max. It’s likely that the earbuds will get some screen time during the same launch event.

No noise

The Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro in a sunny outdoor setting.

(Image credit: Future)

In 2025, Xiaomi launched the OpenWear Stereo Pro, open-back hook-style headphones with five audio drivers. I tested them and, although I didn’t like the fit or the audio quality, they had a unique and really useful feature.

One of the speakers was not intended for music, but was designed to reduce sound leakage. It basically worked as noise cancellation; it wouldn’t stop you from hearing people around you, but it would stop people around you from hearing You.

One of the big problems with open-back headphones is sound leakage. Since the speakers are not in your ear and the sound must pass through the gap between the earpiece and your ear, the sound will invariably be audible to those around you.

Don’t expect your guilty pleasure playlist to stay secret if you listen to it with open headphones; my partner is permanently hum my music when I use them. This didn’t happen with the Xiaomi, though, and the driver did wonders in keeping my private playlists…well, private.

It’s hard to say whether Xiaomi will resurrect this technology for its clip-on earbuds, and it’s certainly not guaranteed: these types of earbuds have less space for drivers in the bud, compared to hook-on ones, since the driver is in your ear.

That said, the Shokz OpenDots One had two drivers, so clearly there is room for a well-designed clip-on to accommodate several. It’s just a matter of whether Xiaomi decides it’s a good choice (so to speak).