A little more than two years have passed since the announcement of the Apple AirPods wireless headphones, which (as usual), on the one hand, have not revealed any new laws of physics and new technologies, on the other, have created a new user experience for millions of customers around the world. Suddenly it turned out that there were only a few hours who wanted to use wireless headphones (and even use them while running) more than could be imagined. Like any successful product on the market, the AirPods immediately had some counterparts. Some companies have gone some way: Sony has added comfortable holders – their headphones never fall out while running. Samsung added memory by aligning the headphones with the player. Chinese companies have taken the traditional path, deciding that there is nothing to reinvent the wheel if you can use “hidden reserves” and offer customers “the same, but cheaper.” Huawei unveiled a model of its FreeBuds headphones in the spring, along with the announcement of the P20 smartphone. At the same time submitting six months later another version of such headphones under the brand Honor and calling them FlyPods. The omnipresent Xiaomi is not far behind its competitors – the market is already frozen in anticipation of Mi AirDots. Huawei FreeBuds have been sold on our market for a couple of months and cost exactly one and a half times cheaper than AirPods – 4,000 hryvnia against 6,000. We’ll now talk about their capabilities, advantages and disadvantages.
What is Huawei FreeBuds and why they are interesting
Huawei FreeBuds is a pair of wireless headphones with battery life up to 3 hours. They come with a charging case that allows you to charge the headphone batteries twice more without connecting to the power supply. The technical feature of such a device is that both headphones must not only be paired with smartphones (computer or tablet), but also synchronized with each other. When both headphones are wired, this is easy, but when they have to work autonomously, this creates additional technical difficulties. Add to this the miniaturization (in addition to the batteries, there are two more microphones and a touch-sensitive panel in each headset, and you need to place contacts for charging, and an infrared sensor that detects that the headphone was taken out of the ear, and you need to stop playing music) and you will understand why such devices are a small technological miracle.
What’s in the box with Huawei FreeBuds
The beautiful box contains a charging case, a USB-C cable (special thanks to the owners of modern smartphones), two sets of extra ear cushions, a warranty card and a user manual. Let its volume not scare you – it is duplicated in a dozen of languages, the text itself takes only a few pages. I fit perfectly complete ear cushions, the rest did not even have to unpack. It is also worth knowing that the headphones are sold in black (glossy plastic) and white (matte plastic) variants. To upgrade the firmware, it is still worth installing the FreeBuds Assistant application, it does not have other functions.
How to connect Huawei FreeBuds
On the headphones themselves there are no buttons for pairing (only the touch sensitive surface). Therefore, for pairing, you need to install the headphones in the case and (non-obvious action) to open the cover. After that, press and hold the button next to the USB connector for two seconds. After that, the headphones activate the standard pairing procedure via Bluetooth, familiar to all users of wireless headphones. If the headphones were idle for a few minutes, they will turn off (it is logical, why waste energy). In order to reconnect FreeBuds to a smartphone / computer, you need to install them in the case and immediately remove it. If after that the headphones do not connect automatically, then the batteries are completely dead and need to be charged.
How often should I charge Huawei FreeBuds
At maximum volume, the headphones can work for about 3 hours. Full charge in the case takes an hour and a half. According to my subjective feelings, repeated charges from the battery built into the case do not give the same effect as charging from the power source. In other words, charging in a case that is not connected to a power source gives less than three hours of work, and the third derivative is even less. In general, I could not listen to music without charging for 10 hours (even if they were separated by time). But in general, the FreeBuds use scenario does not imply the use of headphones throughout the day. Rather, these are headphones for listening to music while traveling around the city – for such a scenario it’s quite realistic to listen to them for no more than 2-3 hours in a row, and in pauses, recharge them in a case. He, by the way, allows not to lose the headphones in the pockets of clothes or bags, but this is a feature of all such devices since the time of the flagship Bluetooth headsets like Plantronics Discovery 975.
How does the Huawei FreeBuds sound? Fall out of your ears?
Despite its tiny size, I liked the sound of Huawei FreeBuds. Good bass, enough (even excessive, but I am the same lover of listening to music at maximum settings) volume, although in some places I almost lacked the volume of the acoustic picture. Talking on the phone is also quite comfortable – Huawei talks about the use of “AAC technology”, which provides good sound. There is no special magic here – the second microphone on the headset has been used in headsets for a long time, and a good sound when talking on a Bluetooth headset is no longer a rarity. But to run, I would not advise them. Headphones are not that bad in their ears (if this happens, you need to try the ear cushion with a different size), but I can not say that they do not fall out of the ears. Anyone who says this about AirPods is more cunning, otherwise where are the selling options for the piece-selling AirPods, which, if desired, can be bought separately – left or right. They can really fall out and even, scary to say, get lost. I am sure that Huawei FreeBuds is also quite realistic to lose. Although, if you do not run over rough terrain, and there is no risk of dropping the earphone into the storm sewage system on your way (there was such a sad case in my life), then there is nothing to worry about. Huawei talks about the water resistance of these headphones, but it’s more likely that it’s not scary to get in the rain, and they’re not afraid of contact, for example, with sweat while jogging. That is, to swim in them just can not. But already dive and even more so.
How convenient is it to use Huawei FreeBuds?
Every time when I encounter such pair of headphones, I subconsciously expect some kind of trick. It seems to me that at some point or the headphones they synchronize with each other. Or they will “fall off” from Bluetooth together or take turns. Or will not respond to any commands. In practice, all the similar headphones that I used behave more or less predictably. If you remove the earpiece from the ear, the music playback automatically stops (the infrared sensor works perfectly). To answer a call, you need to knock on the left earpiece. To stop playback – on the right. Some skill or luck is needed here, because in this way I stopped the music from the first time only half the time. The main thing here is not to fuss, because the command can be executed not instantly, but with a pause per second. As a result, if you rush and double-tap on the outer side of the earpiece, you can get the effect on-off and return to the original playback state. Well, and again, in any strange situation where the headphones can not connect to the smartphone, you just need to insert them into the case and back. If it does not help, it means also to charge. Perhaps these two simple rules eliminate all possible problems with these headphones.
Price and competitive environment Huawei FreeBuds
If you do not take some very exotic variants of these headphones, which can always be found “inexpensive” and “at a discount” in Chinese online stores, then the choice is not very big. There are Apple AirPods that have become reference ones, which cost 6,000 hryvnias, but their use outside the Apple ecosystem deprives some of the functionality. There are Sony WF-SP700N headphones with a price tag of the same 6,000 hryvnia – they make a good impression, allow you to customize sound profiles using the application and are very securely fixed in the auricles – I recommend them for running, but their appearance of two beans loses and AirPods, and FreeBuds. There is also a great Samsung Gear IconX 2018 headphones, combined with the player (they have their own memory) for 5,000 hryvnia. They will be interesting to those who use Samsung fitness applications (and, accordingly, use smartphones of this brand). Against the background of all these models, Huawei FreeBuds have a favorable price tag of 4,000 hryvnia, and this is their most important (and for our market – the key) indisputable advantage.
The bottom line
Despite the lower than the price of all competitors price tag, Huawei FreeBuds do not carry any catch. In addition to the spectacular appearance (by the way, from a distance of 3 meters they are easily confused with AirPods, especially if the headphones are white), FreeBuds demonstrate a really good sound, quite justified for 4,000 hryvnia and their miniaturization level. It is important to understand that it is impossible to listen to them for more than 3 hours – recharging is required, and I never managed to achieve the stated 10 hours of operation when recharging from the battery in the case (although I do not rule out that this is possible, especially if you listen to music at a reduced volume ). Android application does not have any benefit in addition to the ability to update the firmware, and the most important advantage of Huawei FreeBuds is the price. The very case when you can buy Huawei cheaper and not lose its functionality.