I just tested this AirPods 4 alternative and they actually sound better

Audio Personalization isn’t a recent thing, but it has seen considerable attention from some of the biggest earbud manufacturers recently. Apple added it to the AirPods Pro 2 and Sony has it built into the WF-1000XM5. It’s the smaller brands that are really going all-in on the idea, however — and it looks like none are going harder than Creative.

The Aurvana Ace Mimi ($129/£129), bring audio personalization that seems like something you might expect from something with a greater price. They also pack in some top-shelf features for what isn’t an enormous price.

There’s ANC on board, along with some great Bluetooth connectivity tech in the form of Bluetooth LE and surprisingly well-represented aptX lossless. You'll notice that's more features than the similarly priced ANC-less AirPods 4 ($129) — which makes for an interesting value discussion.

Does it all add up to a must-buy pair of buds, or one that doesn’t quite match up to the competition? Time to find out if they rank in the best wireless earbuds.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? Mid-priced buds featuring sound personalization
• Who is it for? Those looking for an alternative to the established brands
• What does it cost? $129/£129
• What we like: Lovely fit, solid sound, great app
• What we don’t like: The sound personalization could be better — but for the price, these are very solid earbuds

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi: Price and Availability

The Aurvana Ace Mimi are actually launching for $20 less than the original Ace 2 earbuds, making them a much more interesting value proposition. They cost $129, which makes them the same price as the non-ANC variant of the AirPods 4. For the price you get more Bluetooth Codecs, better sound, and the addition of noise canceling.

You can, of course, pay $50 more for the likes of the ANC equipped $179 AirPods 4 or the Sony Linkbuds Fit, but there is a substantial saving here over the competition. It also makes them a better bet than some of the other options at this price, with some great sound for the price and inoffensive ANC when compared to similarly priced options.

There is a hitch though — they're currently only available from the Creative website.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Design and Build

• Attractive color
• Lightweight and portable…
• … but they feel a little cheap

Following the same kind of design language as Samsung’s latest Galaxy Buds, the Ace Mimi feature AirPods-like stems and silicon ear tips. I think they look pretty good, especially in the classy blue color you can buy them in. Unfortunately, if you were a fan of the see-through look of the old model, that is gone. Blue only, with all of its shiny accents and chromed case interior.

The case is well-shaped though, and slips easily into a pocket. It’s very slim, which makes sure that it doesn’t dig in when I pop it in my skinny jeans. It's a bit bigger than the AirPods 4 case, but it's the thinness that makes it pocketable. It is very light though, which raises some of my build quality concerns with the earbuds.

The Aurvana aren’t expensive buds, so you can’t expect something that feels expensive — but the Ace Mimi don’t feel amazing in the hand. They’re almost alarmingly light, and while that makes them disappear when you get them in your ears, it also makes them feel cheap. The case plastic doesn’t feel amazing, and the weird chrome on the interior doesn’t do much to bring a premium feel. The OnePlus buds do feel better than these, with a stiffer hinge and nicer feeling materials. However, I do like the matte coating, which does go some way in making them feel like something that costs over $100.

All of those concerns do evaporate the moment you put them in your ears, though. They’re very well-shaped, and they feel super comfortable if you want to wear them for a long time. That fit is secure as well, so they aren’t going to fall out when you wear them out and about.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Controls

• Solid touch controls
• Easy to accidentally activate
• Customizable

When I yanked the buds from their cardboard prison, I was expecting the controls to be something akin to AirPods 4, using their stems as a control method. But you can actually tap them anywhere on the enclosure for the reasonably responsive touch controls to react. They’re simple — tap once to pause on either bud, twice on the left or right to skip or go back a track, and then a long tap on the left or right to turn the volume up or down.

My general complaints about touch controls are present, though. They frequently activate when you don’t want them to while you’re adjusting the earbuds, which makes for annoying accidental track skips and pausing among other things. That’s about par for the course with lower-cost headphones and their touch controls, but it’s no less annoying.

On the plus side, you can customize the controls in Creative’s app. Once connected there, you can change how the controls work with a couple of different functions available. That could be turning the ANC on and off with a tap on the right or left, or activating a voice assistant. It’s a nice feature, and makes the controls a bit more useful beyond their default settings.

Ultimately, the Aurvana Ace Mimi offer a more useful control scheme than their competitors, especially the more restrictive AirPods 4 — those can only control play pause and skipping.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Features

• Plenty of codec support
• Great app
• Sound personalization does little

When a pair of earbuds costs $129, there are a couple of things you expect. The Ace Mini brings everything you’d really want, but misses out on Spatial Audio, something that’s starting to appear in lower-priced earbuds. Now, given that most Spatial Audio offerings at this price are at best “not very good” and at worst “abject horror”, I’m not too bothered that the feature isn’t available here. There’s excellent codec support though, including aptX lossless. There’s Bluetooth LE on board as well, ready for when the standard becomes more commonplace.

The app is impressive as well, with plenty of options available. There are the aforementioned customizable controls, along with a slightly restrictive 5-band EQ customizer. You can also control the ANC from here, and double-check the battery life of your buds. Then there’s audio personalization options, thanks to Mimi.

These personalizations work just like all the other options available on the market. There’s a big button on your screen, and you hold it down and let go when you stop hearing a series of beeps and boops around the frequency range. Sometimes, these work well, and make a good custom EQ that helps you hear your music better, boosting certain frequencies that your ears might not be able to hear as well. Sometimes it’s downright useless, or even makes your music sound straight-up not very good.

The Mimi personalizations here don’t do the latter, thankfully, but they don’t really do much of the former either — any changes to the sound profile of the buds are imperceptible as far as I can tell. I didn’t notice any extra high-range stuff, which are the frequencies that these systems usually boost for me, and I didn’t find they ‘enriched’ my audio experience.

I wondered if this was just me, but I tried it on my Dad and his 70-year-old ears destroyed by years of gigs in the Seventies — and they did little to help him hear frequencies that his ears struggle with. Now, it could be that for some it works well, but I found the Mimi hearing test didn’t do much to enhance my audio. That, or I’ve got perfect hearing.

While the personalized sound from the Aurvana Ace Mimi doesn't work all that well, they still have a well-rounded feature set for something that costs $129. They're more feature-rich than the stripped-back AirPods 4, that's for sure.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: ANC

• Fine for small noises
• Not amazing for louder environments
• Solid for this new, lower-price

When tested at $150, the previous Creative model's ANC left a little to be desired. The same would be said of these, but there’s a lower price here that brings things more into perspective. The ANC, for $129, is perfectly fine.

Sure, the Aurvana Ace Mimi struggles a little with some of the more obtrusive noises like screaming children and noisy cars and buses, but for quiet offices and making your commute at least a little more bearable it's going to be fine — and surely that’s the most important thing.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Connectivity

• Bluetooth 5.3
• Multipoint

Connecting the Aurvana Ace Mimi buds is as easy as most Bluetooth devices. Slip them out of the case for their initial pairing, find them in the Bluetooth settings, and get them connected. If you want to make use of the multipoint connection, then you click them back in the case and initiate pairing mode with the little button on the bottom of the charging case.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Call Quality

• Clear mics
• Solid sound on the callers end

As always, I gave a friend a few quick calls while out and about to test the call quality, and I can happily report that the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi performed quite well. My voice came through on the other side crisp and clear, and they could hear me without any problems at all. Cars driving past did upset things slightly, but they’re about as good as anything else at this price point for calls outside. They faired excellently inside though, with no noises causing issues.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Sound Quality

• They’re good!
• Energetic and fun
• Good low-end punch

At this price, you cannot expect something ‘audiophile’ grade. That makes the surprisingly effective sound of the Aurvana Ace Mimi even better in my eyes though, because they sound great for their relatively low outlay. Is this down to the lauded xMEMs drivers that live inside their plastic shells? Perhaps, but I really like the way the buds sound.

They give surprising bass response, while retaining some detail in the highs. The soundstage is solid, if not slightly restricted. There’s plenty to enjoy here, particularly if you’re a fan of the low stuff. That’s generally a struggle for in-ears, so it’s nice to see the lower register get some attention here. They sound better than similarly priced buds, like the OnePlus buds and the AirPods 4.

The ever-recognizable plucked intro to Yes’s Roundabout sounds great, with plenty of attack to the strings that give way to the jumping bass lines. The vocal line isn’t overshadowed by the rest of the ensemble, and the drums keep time accurately beneath the layered soundscape. There’s little to complain about here, that’s for sure.

The Carpenters easy listening classic We’ve Only Just Begun is a smooth way to enjoy some of the more subtle facets of the earbuds. Karen Carpenters’ effortless vocals are clear and concise, while the orchestral stabs are delivered with clarity. The bassline dances, and while you can’t quite pick up every nuance in the strings, they sound lovely. It’s a fun one, that’s for sure.

Hellrippers’ I, The Deceiver brings the blistering, devilish tremolo guitars and harshly screamed vocals, and the Aurvana make it loads and loads of fun. There’s some lovely bass on offer, but the mid-heavy distorted guitars make the most of the rest of the frequency range. On some cheaper earbuds tracks like this can get lost and confused, but it’s loads of fun here.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Battery Life

• “Up to 24 hours”

This is where things get confusing. The original earbuds were rated for 6 hours of use, and 24 hours with the the charging case. This Aurvana Ace Mimi, I’m told by Creative, also gets 24 hours. I’m not told how much the buds get though, and to compound my issue, the time given on the box says 28 hours. Now, that may be because my box is an early release, but it’s still confusing.

Either way, the 6 hours of the old model seems to be the case here, and it's fine, and the 24 hours is about par for the course for earbuds these days. I’d like more, personally, but I don’t know how easy it would have been to eke more battery out of something so small with ANC. My testing found the 6 hour mark to ring true when timed at mid-volume.

Wireless charging is a nice bonus, though.

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Verdict

I’ve come to enjoy my time with the Aurvana Ace Mimi more than I thought I would. The buds themselves are comfortable; they sound really good; and the app, while simple, has plenty of options available to change and dial in. They’re a worthy addition to the mid-range to budget price bracket, and I reckon they’d make a great addition to your pocket if you’re looking for something that doesn’t have a more established earbuds maker's stamp on it.

I do wish their headline feature worked better, which is where a large part of their score comes from. If it worked better, there’d be something more to set them apart from the rest of a very busy segment — at the moment though, while they sound excellent, there’s little that makes them unique. The Ace Mimi are a good pair of headphones for the price, but so are options like the OnePlus buds, and the Sony WF-C700N, both of which cost slightly less.