Huawei FreeLace Pro is head and shoulders above the rest
Huawei FreeLace Pro.
Over the course of the last couple of years, I have reviewed tens of wireless earphones but the Huawei FreeLace Pro are the first neckband style Bluetooth earphones I’ve tested. While I’m a big fan of truly wireless earbuds, I can now see the advantages of what a set of earphones like the FreeLace Pros have to offer.
The FreeLace Pro earphones have a flat and flexible soft rubber neckband that rests on your neck. This then extends out to a control system on the right and a similarly shaped hard case on the left which I assume is either for the 150mAh battery or just aesthetics and balance. Each earbud extends on each side with a soft round rubber cable. At 34g, the neckband has substance but doesn’t feel heavy when worn.
The FreeLace Pro comes in three colours: graphite black, spruce green and dawn white. The FreeLace Pro has the advantages of a wired headset in that you can’t lose an earbud. However, unlike wired headphones, you won’t drop your phone off the desk when you get up for a cup of coffee forgetting that you’re still tethered to your phone.
Overall fit and comfort is excellent and I was able to use the default ear tips and wingtips. You get an extra two sizes if the standard ones don’t fit you. The wingtips provide an extra layer of protection, and they never fell out of my ears, even during strenuous activities.
Most of the controls are on the right side including volume up and down as well as pause/play/answer/reject. The power button is on the side, and the USB-C charging port is revealed by pulling away two-thirds of the way from the control section.
There is no power adaptor included in the package, but if your laptop, PC, or power adaptor has a USB-C port, simply plug the FreeLace Pro in for quick charging. You also get a USB-A to USB-C adaptor, so you can charge them with any charger you have.
The outside of the left earbuds provides touch controls for ANC on/off and awareness mode. You have to press and hold it for a couple of seconds to activate the different modes.
Dangling earbuds can snap together when wearing the FreeLace Pro, thanks to magnets that hold them together when they're not in your ears. This also puts them into sleep mode, which is useful since there are no wear sensors to automatically stop the music when you take them out of your ears.
Double-tapping the power button switches between the currently connected and previously connected device. I found this handy when switching from a finished Zoom call on my laptop to playing music on my phone.
You can use the Huawei AI Life to upgrade the firmware, show battery percentage, set shortcuts on/off and change ANC modes.
Huawei says you should be able to get up to 24 hours of playback at 50% volume and ANC off. The FreeLace Pro charges fully in less than an hour in my experience.
The large 14.2 mm drivers produce impressive sound with a well-balanced sound signature with clear vocals and instrumental details. There’s lots of body to the sound with well-controlled bass and overall, I really enjoyed the sound I was hearing.
Call quality is also excellent with no complaints on the other side of my calls.
Active noise cancellation works well and is further assistant by really good passive sound isolation. I wouldn't call the ANC world-class, but it's much better than most earphones in this price range, and it was able to silence my PC fans to a minimum hum when gaming.
Awareness mode helps to hear sounds around you but is not as good as transparency mode on the AirPod Pro.
I really enjoyed using the Huawei FreeLace Pro, especially for cycling or other energetic activities. They’re super comfortable and have a lot of great features, battery life and excellent sound quality.
Available now at €119 from Huawei
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