New Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 now feature Hi-Res Audio Wireless support
Huawei FreeBuds 2 Pro. Picture: Noel Campion.
The Huawei FreeBuds Pro are one of my favourite earbuds and I’ve been testing their successor the FreeBuds Pro 2, which features a new dual-speaker design that the company claims will produce superior audio. There’s also a new partnership with Devialet and an improved app that works well on Android and iOS.
Comparing the old and the new there are only subtle differences I could see in both the charging case and buds. One obvious difference on the case is the new Devialet branding, which is etched beneath the Huawei logo on a chrome plate that camouflages the metal case hinge. The pebble-like case is larger and more round compared to the AirPods Pro, but there’s no getting away from their similarities.
The new buds have slightly shorter stems with a flat outer area with chrome trim around the edge. The updated design is more streamlined with no sharp edges and they look a little smaller overall, compared to the originals.
On the right side of the case is a Bluetooth pairing button that sits flush with the surface of the case. The FreeBuds Pro 2 come in three colour choices — Silver Blue, Silver Frost and Ceramic White.
The silicon ear tips snap in and out of the buds easily, which isn’t always the case with many other brands. This makes trying all three different-sized ear tips much easier. The medium size tip was the best fit for comfort for me, but the large ear tip provided the best ANC performance and sound quality.
I found them a little more comfortable than the originals, but not by much and think this is down to the smaller speaker opening. Looking at both speaker grilles side-by-side, the original buds are much larger in this respect.
The waterproof rating has been improved to include an IP56 splash resistance, which makes them more practical for sweat and some light rain.
The pinch touch controls are the same as before, which I love, especially the way you can slide up and down the stem sides to adjust the volume. This is so intuitive and works flawlessly.
The other pinch gestures provide playback and call controls, but it takes a little getting used to since it requires a certain amount of dexterity and finesses to control the pinch on the small stems, especially for the double and triple pinch gestures.
You can customise the gestures in the AI Life companion app, but I found the default controls more than adequate for my needs. Additionally, you can set up your voice assistant of choice, be it Google or Siri with a long squeeze of the stem.
Like the original, you still get both USB-C wired charging as well as wireless charging. It takes an hour to charge the case on its own and about 40 minutes for the earbuds in the case. Wireless charging is slower and takes about two hours for the charging case without the earbuds.
Playback is up to 6.5 hours with ANC off and four hours with ANC on. Expect up to 30/18 hours with ANC off/ANC on. Battery performance is also affected by higher volumes and by using the Smart HD feature which applies high-definition audio decoding and adjusts the bit rate adaptively. High bit rates will drain the battery on the buds faster but if you’re like me, I will always choose audio quality over everything else. However, there are times when battery performance is more important.
The FreeBuds Pro 2 come with Bluetooth 5.2 and support for simultaneous and consecutive connections. This means you can be connected to your phone and laptop at the same time. You could be watching a movie on your laptop and then if your phone rings, you can take the call without having to remove the buds. Using the app, you can use the Audio Connection Centre to switch between paired devices or turn off dual connect if you’d prefer to be only connected to one device at a time. This is one of the best implementations of this I’ve seen of dual connect on any earbuds.
The FreeBuds Pro 2 feature two drivers: a dynamic driver and a planar diaphragm driver. The combination of these two driver technologies can achieve a staggering frequency response range of 14Hz ~ 48Hz, which is good enough for the FreeBuds Pro 2 to achieve a Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification. Most headphones are in the range of 20Hz ~ 20Hz.
To ensure maximum audio fidelity they also include LDAC, which is capable of streaming audio up to 990kbit/s. To be clear, even using Spotify’s highest quality setting, you’re only streaming at about 320 Kbps. Compare that to the 990kbps capability of LDAC and you are not getting that output. This means you’ll need a Hi-Res streaming service like Tidal, Qobuz or Apple Music to get the most from these buds. Also, Apple doesn’t support LDAC only AAC (264 kbps), so you’ll need an Android phone or dedicated audio player that supports LDAC. That being said, I tested the Pro 2s using Spotify and on an iPhone and they still sound amazing.
Right out of the box, with no break-in period, the FreeBuds Pro 2 sound incredible. The bass is off the charts, so much so that I had to tune it down a little using the AI Life apps built-in graphic equaliser. I found the mids and treble required a little tweaking too for my liking but the soundstage is warm and exciting.
More complex tracks tend to show some weaknesses of the dual driver system, but I found I was able to tweak most of it in the EQ with my own custom EQ settings.
ANC performance is excellent and you get a choice of Ultra, Cosy and Dynamic — dynamic automatically switches between Ultra or Cozy. When I use ANC I want maximum performance, so I always use Ultra. There are also three mics to help with Awareness mode to amplify the sounds around you. This works well but isn’t as good as the AirPods Pro which are the class leaders for this feature.
The AI Life app works just as well on either Android or iPhone and the FreeBuds Pro 2 outperform the AirPods Pro in audio quality and offer a real alternative to the most popular earbuds in the world. Android users with a Hi-Res streaming service and a device that supports LDAC will gain the most from the FreeBuds Pro 2s audio quality. These are easily one of the best sounding and feature rich buds I’ve tried this year and come highly recommended.
Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 €199 consumer.huawei.com/ie
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