Huawei may not be selling their phones in the UK any more, but their Freebuds Pro 4 earbuds aim to dominate the premium wireless audio market, promising an immersive experience. This review explores if they deliver on that promise, examining sound, noise cancellation, comfort, and value to see if Huawei has achieved the perfect balance.
Look and Feel
The earbuds come supplied in a very small and neat and tidy case. The black earbuds that I reviewed came in a case that features a gold trim around the USB C port at the bottom as well as at the hinge that opens to show you the earbuds.
And just for those who would like to use the dual connectivity feature, the side of the case to the left of the Huawei logo features a small button which needs to be pressed to go into pair mode.
Inside are the Huawei Freebuds Pro 4, and they come with just enough magnetism to jump into their slots.
The earbuds themselves feel just a bit bigger than the AirPods Pro, which is probably their main competitor. However, the fit in the ear as well as the weight doesn’t really show the increase in size there.
For comfort, they come with different sizes of ear tips, both in rubber as well as silicone.
This means that they can be worn for a long time before you get tired.
And while they have never popped out, sometimes I do feel like they may find it easier to slip out of my ears if I was subjected to more rigorous movements.
Ease of use and dual connectivity
Like pretty much all Bluetooth headphones, they generally just connect as soon as you turn them on.
There are some very simple controls that are accessible from the stems, like deciding between Noise Cancelling On, Off or Ambient. Play can be paused or played again, and calls answered, as well as volume adjusted and songs skipped.
However, where they really shine is the dual connectivity aspect. I have an iPhone and a Windows PC. The best experience generally comes from AirPods in this regard. However, I am pleased to say that the Huawei Freebuds Pro 4 absolutely nail it when it comes to this experience.
You can have them connected to your phone, and as your focus drifts to your PC and as you start browsing something or watching a video or taking a call, they just connect there. If you move back to your phone, the connection just moves back seamlessly.
Side note:
My iPhone (and quite a few others if Reddit and support forums are to be believed) suffers from a Bluetooth connectivity issue where sometimes Bluetooth items don’t connect easily until Bluetooth is disabled and enabled again. While I had to do this a few times with this, it wasn’t a hassle, and most of the time it does seem to work seamlessly.
Sound Quality
Now, let’s look at the business end. We have Noise Cancellation, Ambient and ‘off modes’ when it comes to external sound isolation. This means that the headphones are able to deliver quite true sound. I also like how it doesn’t push with a heavier bass to drown out the noise. In fact, the noise cancellation seems to have an interesting vibe about it, as if you don’t even have headphones in. I quite like that.
This also means that they are worthy competitors to the Apple AirPods Pro range, giving a great sound quality.
Calls and external sound isolation
The noise cancellation goes as far as the microphones as well. The headphones pretty much blank out external noise when a call is being made, and people on the other side definitely hear your voice above any background noise.
Battery Life
With ANC off, these claim to offer up to 7 hours on a single charge and up to 33 hours with the case being used. Numbers for Noise Cancellation are not offered, but I found that in a typical day of say around 4 hours of meetings or usage, they perform well, and a charge every 3-4 days keeps them going quite well.
More information
More information on the Huawei Freebuds Pro 4 can be found on the Huawei website.
They can be bought directly from there, and come in black, green and white.
They are also available at various other online retailers such as Amazon.
At the time of writing, they were £179.99 on Amazon, but at a great price of £129.99 on the Huawei website.
Verdict
What I love about these is that if you don’t want to be tied down to an Apple infrastructure, these earbuds, or Freebuds as Huawei rightly calls them, frees you from them, but still offers pretty much the same experience. All at a good price too!