Design & Build Quality
Mivi Collar follows a design pattern which makes sure that it stays around the collar/neck. The two ends are semi-cylindrical in a structure which houses the battery, volume knockers on the right, charging port, and a one-touch button on the left. These can also house the earphones using magnetic contact. They are made up of toughened plastic.
The first advantage you get is that it doesn’t fall off even when you are running fast or lean out of balance. Second, you don’t have to keep the earphones hanging on your chest. You can slide them in the compartment, and it becomes almost invisible.
The wires have good length, and they can be adjusted using a small round plastic slider. However, adjusting them while walking or even when they are on your neck, would be difficult. Also, be careful if the wires get stuck, don’t rush else you will lose the slider.
The connector between those cylindrical structures looks like plastic covered wire. It’s not very strong, so be careful while handling it, and when using the sliders with which you adjust the length.
When it comes to drawbacks, there are two major points, and that’s solely when you workout earing it. First, it may feel heavy at times during the workout. It worked fine for me during rest of the day, but after an hour or so it was little annoying. If I compare this with Jabra, Mivi is not balanced throughout. That’s why the feeling of heaviness becomes prominent, but with Jabra, which is more balanced, I was annoyed because it kept falling, and getting out of balance. This is where Mivi excels. Second, the plastic connector which goes around the neck isn’t pleasing when you sweat. However, for rest of the day, I had absolutely no issues.
Audio & Microphone Quality
Mivi Collar Bluetooth Earphones offer True-to-Life HD Stereo sound. I used it both for music, and calls. When it comes to Music, it’s absolutely fantastic. It has deep bass and clear sound. I usually had the volume set at 75%, and it was enough. It’s in fact so high, surrounding noise won’t be a problem at all. When it came to calls, while the sound was clear, the bass sometimes was annoying. At times I felt it was too high, but when I lowered the volume, made it little difficult. You might have to get used to this. I used it for long calls and took feedback from people about it. The sound on the other side was clear. Note that it has CVC 6.0 Passive noise cancellation technology on board. In simple words, it means that the noise isolation usually isn’t a lot, but enough to muffle the surrounding sound somewhat. One thing I particularly noticed is that the Bluetooth (4.1) never failed on me, and the comparison comes again with Jabra. I watched movies with these on and connected to my laptop. The connection stays on all the time compared to Jabra which used to disconnect every now and then. Mivi claims that it works with Bluetooth enabled devices up to 30 feet away.
How many devices can you connect?
Sadly, only one. So if I am using my phone, I cannot connect it to my laptop which really annoyed me, and is probably the biggest drawback. However, Mivi offers Double connection mode to compensate this. If you have two phones, you can pair both the phones with it. To switch the call between them, you need to press the answer button on the earphone, and it will automatically switch to the second phone while keeping the other on waiting. When you want to switch back, double-click the button again. To use this feature, you will need to enable the pairing mode by short pressing volume up and down button. Then connect the second device. While it worked nicely with a phone, it didn’t work with my laptop.
Battery life
It delivered 8 to 9 hours of battery life. I used it constantly for 2 hrs every day during a walk, and regular breaks to listen to audio workouts. Rest of the time it stayed connected, and I had used to only receive calls. Mivi Bluetooth Earphones cost Rs 2,999 which is just right for its category. Though it has its drawbacks, the design and audio quality are something which impressed me a lot, especially when it comes to music!
