Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Good sound, many weaknesses

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating

Pros

Good sound

Smart personalized sound feature

Comfortable fit

Cons

Mediocre noise cancellation

Poor touch controls

Limited and feature-poor app

Our Verdict
Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is stylish, sounds great, and fits comfortably. They also have a clever feature that lets you set a personalized soundscape. However, poor touch controls and weak noise cancellation drag down its rating.

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The Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is a follow-up to the Aurvana Ace 2 earphones. While the Ace Mimi improves upon some things from the Ace 2, some of the weaknesses are unfortunately still there.

One of the major positives of the Ace Mimi is its fit. They sit firmly and comfortably in both large and small ears, not least thanks to the included ear tips in five different sizes.

Unfortunately, its touch controls are poorly implemented. It feels like mistouches are the rule and getting them to do what I want is impossible. It’s not helped by the fact that the ability to reprogram them is limited. It is only possible to change what double and triple touching does. There is no single tap option at all (except for the so-called long tap, i.e. when the touch control is held down for a long time).

The app is still rather limited and function-poor. It does have (in addition to the ability to select functions for the touch controls) an equalizer and the ability to turn the noise canceling on and off, as well as select Ambient mode (ambient sound is let through). The noise canceling can also be adjusted but only has three modes. Same for Ambient mode.




The headphones sit firmly and comfortably in the ears.
Jan Sandbladh

The Ace Mimi’s sound is really good. Clear and crisp in all registers and with a relatively heavy bass for a pair of true wireless headphones. With the Sound personalization function, you can do a test of your ears and then get a personalized sound image. This feature actually works really well and I experienced a clear improvement in the sound with it turned on.

Unfortunately, the noise canceling is not up to the same standard. No matter what level you set in the app, it is mediocre at best. Even the phone calls leave something to be desired in terms of quality. There is noise, crackling, and a grating sound for the person being called.

The Ace Mimi’s battery life has improved slightly over the Ace 2. It is now possible to get seven hours of listening per charge (six hours previously) and 28 hours in total with the charging box (24 hours previously). A small plus also for the support for wireless charging of the box.




The touch controls get a fail.
Jan Sandbladh

Should you buy the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi earphones?

The Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is stylish, sounds great, and fits comfortably. They also have a clever feature that lets you set a personalized soundscape. However, poor touch controls and weak noise cancellation drag down its rating.