Besides smartphones and tablets, Huawei is also getting increasingly known for their audiophile-centric product range which not only includes portable speakers, but also high-end TWS earbuds that are able to stand toe-to-toe with some of the best models the market.
The recently announced Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 is one such devices that impresses in all aspects, be it design or audio quality. However, does it really have everything that you’re looking for in your next listening companion? Let’s find out in our Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 review!
A Simple & Yet Elegant Design
Huawei’s TWS earbuds has always been known for their standout design such as the lipstick-inspired Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick (Review) that we saw at the beginning of the year. It’s therefore not surprising that the new FreeBuds Pro 2 continues to excel in this aspect.
The exterior design of the FreeBuds Pro 2 is a departure from the earlier generation’s FreeBuds, featuring a flat boxy stems rather than a rounded ones. Likewise, the stem itself is pretty short and is slightly less noticeable when wearing it on your ears as compared to other models like the FreeBuds lipstick.
This time round, the FreeBuds 2 Pro continues to adopt a silicone ear tips that completely seal your ear canals, providing excellent passive noise cancellation. To ensure a comfort fit, Huawei had included silicone ear tips of three different sizes out of the box. Also, there’s an intuitive feature within the Huawei AI Life companion app known as ”tip fit test” that helps user to pick the right size.
Speaking of comfort, each earbud weights merely 6.1 grams which does felt weightless in the ear, so much so that you’ll hardly notice it’s presence once you got accustomed to it. Most importantly, each of these earbuds feature IP54 rating which allows the earbuds to survive minor splash of water or even light drizzle.
Accompanying the earbuds is a pill-shaped charging case that looks simple and yet elegant. Handling-wise, it’s small and ergonomic design makes it pleasant to hold and also easy to carry around in the pocket.
In the local market, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 is offered in three different colorways such as Ceramic White, Silver Blue, Silver Frost. The Silver Frost variant we had for review features a more stealthy outlook as compared to the Silver Blue variant with a catchy iridescent finish.
Intuitive Gesture Controls
The Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 comes with an intuitive set of gesture controls. Rather than relying on tapping, the FreeBuds Pro opted for pinch gestures (along the stem) for music controls. For instance, pinching once allows you to either play/pause a music or answer/reject a call.
Otherwise, you can also pinch twice to skip a music and trice to have it repeated. Finally, there’s also an option to maneuver through the different ANC modes by doing a pinch-and-hold gesture. This definitely works better than those tapping gestures which may cause discomfort or the earbuds to dislodge.
Besides the aforementioned gesture controls, user can also do an upward swipe and downward swipe to increase or decrease the volume of the earbuds. Just in case you want to turn off any of the gesture controls, you can do so easily within the AI Life app.
Amazing Audio Experience
Coming to the audio side of things, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 brings along a reliable noise cancellation starting off with the passive noise cancellation offered by the silicone ear tips which effectively block out great amount of unwanted noise from the outside.
To sweeten up the deal, there’s also a much improved active noise cancellation onboard featuring a groundbreaking tri-mic ANC system with 3 highly-sensitive microphones that boost the average ANC depth by 15%.
Depending on the amount of noise you’re intending to block out, the FreeBuds Pro 2 features four distinct ANC modes with varying levels of noise cancellation for different scenarios.
Take for example, transparency mode allows users to remain aware of their surrounding when crossing road or cycling along a busy road, while ultra mode eliminates low frequency noise considerably when you’re on public transportation.
However, you don’t actually need to manually toggle between the different ANC modes thanks to the new Intelligent ANC 2.0 feature which automatically switch your earbuds to the optimal noise cancellation mode in real time.
This feature make use of advanced algorithms to analyze your ear canal structure, wearing status, and environmental noise. It does work like a charm in real life, allowing me enjoy music at the same volume even in different environment.
Backed by an 11 mm quad-magnet dynamic driver, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro is able to offer an amazing listening experience with well-articulated mids and trebles along with booming bass. In fact, it sounds good for a wide range of genre be it English Classic, Jazz, pop or rock music.
Enduring Battery Life
The Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 is able to support around 6 hours usage with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) turned off, and roughly 4 hours with ANC toggled on. If you take into account it’s charging case, you can expect an additional 23.5 hours and 16 hours of music playback respectively.
As far as charging is concerned, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 can be recharged quickly via it’s charging case. In fact, a mere 10 minutes charge is enough to recharge a completely flat battery from 0 to 50%, while a full charge takes only around 40 minutes. This basically means you’ll get to enjoy around 3 hours of listening time (without ANC) with a short 10 minutes charge.
To help you better keep track of the battery level of the charging case, there’s a tiny light indicator on the outside of the charging case which shows three colors, Red, Yellow and Green, each depicting different levels of battery remaining in the charging case. Otherwise, you can also track the battery level of both the earphones and charging case within the Huawei AI Life app.
Verdict
Priced at $299, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 shapes up to be a compelling alternative to some of the hottest earbuds from Apple and Samsung. It’s doubtlessly one of the best listening companion you can get in the market, featuring an outstanding ANC and sound quality courtesy of a well-balanced audio profile developed in partnership with audiophile specialist Devialet. That’s not forgetting that it also scores highly in other aspects such as design, comfort, durability as well as call clarity.
For those who’re interested, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 can be purchased through Huawei’s Official Store at both Lazada and Shopee, as well as all Huawei Authorised Stores.
