Xiaomi is best known for its line of smartphones sold in China and other parts of the world, but they also do other consumer electronics. Roidmi is backed by Xiaomi and together they’re in the midst of an Indiegogo campaign for the Roidmi 2S, a smart car charger that is really affordable if you snag it at the early bird Indiegogo special. Check out our review of the Xiaomi Roidmi 2S smart car charger.
Design
The Roidmi 2S is made of durable metals and plastics and the housing is fireproof. It has a solid build and has a decent amount of weight to it for such a small device. There are two fast-charging USB ports, and one external microphone at the top and a built in Bluetooth 4.2 chip inside. The design is nice, it looks similar to many other car chargers, but the combo of metal and plastic really give it a nice sleek look to it.
Ease Of Use
Using the Roidmi 2S is really fairly easy. Just download the Roidmi app on your Android or iOS device, plug the Roidmi into your car and pair it via Bluetooth. Once you’re paired you can use the included app to play Google Play Music and choose which FM frequency you’re going to stream your music to. Right now it seems Google Play Music is the only music service that works through the app but you can still stream through the Roidmi 2S from any streaming app. You don’t have to have the Roidmi app open to take advantage of playing Spotify, Apple Music, Waze or Google Navigation through your FM car stereo. Overall the Roidmi 2S is very easy to use.
Performance
With Bluetooth 4.2 on board I kept a solid connection to my car stereo 100% of the time. I have had other Bluetooth FM streaming products before and there have always been connectivity issues. With the Roidmi 2S none of that was there and the music quality was really impressive on top of it. This little device also has two fast-charging USB ports which will charge your devices twice as fast.
The small microphone on the Roidmi 2S gets the job done but I did have some issues because my accessory outlet is pretty far away from my voice range. I’m thinking if your outlet is up closer to your voice range it will work better. It wasn’t horrible but the callers on the other end did ask me to repeat myself a few times. The Roidmi 2S also has LED lights embedded inside which lights up the USB ports making finding the charger easier at night.
The Roidmi 2S also monitors your device’s battery through the Roidmi app and will alert you if you start to get low, I always just plugged in while using it. The Roidmi 2S also has a shake to skip tracks and answer phone calls feature. Simply shake your phone when an incoming call comes in and the call will be answered keeping your eyes on the road. You can also shake to skip tracks in your music app, though I did have a few instances where a heavy bump on the road was mistaken for a shake and the track skipping was activated.
Overall the performance is great, especially the Bluetooth connection and sound. There is that annoying rare occurrence of tracks being skipped when hitting hard bumps.
Price/Value
The early bird pricing as of this review starts at $29 and the final retail version will be $65. At the $29 price tag this is really a super buy. Xiaomi also knows that not all cars accessory ports will support the Roidmi 2S and have a special perk tier that will include an adapter for incompatible vehicles.
Wrap Up
Get in at the early bird pricing and you’re getting a great buy. Don’t wait until the retail price of $65, while that’s a decent price, getting it early is your best savings and value.
[rwp-review id=”0″]*We were sent a review sample of the Xiaomi Roidmi 2S for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
