High-tech earbuds with excellent sound and ANC
Huawei FreeBuds Pro: Improvement on previous version.
Each new Huawei FreeBuds I’ve tested has been an improvement over the previous version. The new Huawei FeeBuds Pro is by far the best they’ve produced and in my opinion, one of the best true wireless earbuds currently on the market today.
They come with three different size ear tips, which combined with the oval-shaped earbud speakers form a secure and solid fit that enables excellent passive noise isolation.
A similar feature to AirPods Pro uses the AI Life app to find the best ear tip size for the perfect fit. To achieve this, Huawei Audio Lab collected and analysed ear canal data from over 1,000 real users around the world. As with any earbud, a good fit will improve sound quality, bass, and noise isolation.
The short stems are square rather than round and have a sleek and distinctive look. The charging case is a little larger than the AirPods Pro case but has a matt finish instead of glossy which doesn’t scratch as easily. The lid has a satisfying snap when you close it and the buds are held in place magnetically, so there’s little chance they will fall out easily.
The short stems are designed to be wind-proof which is ideal for walking, running, or even cycling. They feature two 11mm drivers that deliver decent volume levels along with impressive bass. Mids are warm and highs are reasonably detailed with a spacious sound stage that’s great for both music and movies. While watching videos, I didn’t notice any lag which would be a dealbreaker for me.
To further improve sound Huawei’s audio engineers came up with a mechanical audio stabilisation system to reduce vibration and the result is a cleaner, clearer sound.
The stems contain sensors that allow easy access to playback controls including intuitive controls such as swiping up or down for volume, a basic feature the AirPods Pro lack.
Gently squeeze and hold the stem to change active noise cancelling modes from on to off and awareness mode. The latter is sounds natural and great for when you want to be able to listen to your music but also hear what’s going on around you. You can also squeeze once, twice and three times to perform functions like skipping a track, answer calls, and so on.
ANC is excellent and coupled with the already good passive isolation it can minimise most unwanted sounds. Huawei takes ANC to the next level by using the onboard chip to intelligently adjust levels according to your environment. This intelligent dynamic noise cancellation uses the dual microphones positioned inside and outside the earbuds to quickly identify your surrounding noise environment and automatically switch between three noise cancellation modes — Ultra Mode, Cozy Mode, and General Mode automatically. This works seamlessly with no intervention required by the user however, you can change these manually in the AI Life app if you prefer.
Performance isn’t class-leading but it is on par with AirPods Pro. With ANC active you should get 4.5 hours, seven hours with it off, and up to 30 when you include what you can get out of the charging case. They do charge pretty fast and also support Qi wireless charging.
The Huawei FreeBuds Pro offers excellent sound quality and comfort in a sleek and premium design. They’re also one of the best TWS earbuds I’ve tested for ANC and have good gesture controls that just work.
Pre-order the Huawei Freebuds Pro (€179) from carphonewarehouse.ie or did.ie and get a FREE Band 4 Pro and a ticket to Gavin James ‘Boxes EP’ launch streamed concert on October 3.
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