Note:
 
I bought these off mi.com, which is the official site for Xiaomi. However, it is only available for certain countries and hence the price is much cheaper for me. So obviously this product is not a fake and I get a white box with an English manual.    New account so can't post pics yet though.
 
 
The Review 
 
 
Design
 
When you do get the box you will find your earphones wrapped around a piece of chocolate-smelling rubber, which doubles as a carrying case for your earphones. The simplicity of the box is unbelievable and much better than your average plastic retail packaging. 
 
There are supposedly Kevlar fibres inside the cable and the bottom half of the cable before the Y-split is braided. The top half of the cable seem to be made of your typical plastic. In short, the design is excellent and much better than earphones which are 3-4 times more expensive.  
 
 
Sound quality  
 
Obviously a good looking pair of earphones is nothing with a terrible sound quality, but thankfully the Pistons do very well in this aspect. The sound is V-shaped, with the mids taking a backseat compared to the bass and treble, but it is still mostly present. The earphones are definitely designed for the average consumer in mind, so unless you are looking for an analytical response, the sound quality should be good for most people.
 
I personally find the bass slightly overpowering and the soundstage a bit too small for my liking, but the price is unbeatable for me at least, since we don't have many cheap and good quality earphones in my country (Singapore)
 
 
Other features
 
The remote works on all my mobile devices, including my iPad, Xperia SP and Xiaomi Redmi. There is NO volume control for iOS though. I presume it uses the CTIA port standard, so unless you have a older smartphone the earphones should work rather well.  
 
I guess that is the end of my review. No TLDR for you lazy folks.