The first lossless Wi-Fi buds are here, but there's a catch

The new Wi-Fi earbuds from Xiaomi deliver sound quality that's way better than even the best Bluetooth earbuds.

With 4.2Mbps of bandwidth, they're capable of streaming lossless audio at up to 24-bit/96kHz – and they do it with even better battery life than over Bluetooth. There's just one little problem: hardly any phones support them at present.

The Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi are based on Qualcomm's S7 Pro chip and its Snapdragon Sound system, and they take advantage of a feature called XPAN.

As we reported back in January, XPAN (eXpanded Personal Area Network) uses Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth where available, giving it much faster data transfer speeds. But, you'll need a compatible Snapdragon chip in your phone (so no iPhones any time soon), and right now Xiaomi says that the only two phones that currently work are its own Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

Don't be too disappointed though, there's also a Bluetooth version that lacks the Wi-Fi smarts but still delivers high-quality aptX streaming.

Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro: key features and pricing

Both versions of the Buds 5 Pro have good specifications. They come with 11mm dynamic drivers, a PZT tweeter and a planar driver. And each of the standard and Wi-Fi versions have Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless.

There's built-in ANC too, which is capable of removing noise up to 55dB, and they come with the obligatory AI – which in this case includes real-time translation.

Battery life is not what you might expect. The Wi-Fi versions run longer than the Bluetooth ones, delivering 10 hours of playback rather than eight, and rising to a decent 40 hours via the included charging case.

The Bluetooth-only Buds 5 Pro are £159.99 (about $200 / AU$325) and the Wi-Fi versions are £189.99 (about $240 / AU$385).

These are intriguing earbuds and there are plenty more to come – including even higher spec models from a myriad of manufacturers and of course, more phone compatibility.

According to Qualcomm the tech is capable of 24-bit/192kHz, and the connection delivers exceptional low latency as well as vastly improved range. I suspect our chart of the best wireless headphones is going to look very different later this year.