Huawei Freebuds Pro 2 Reviewed

Huawei reach a high note with the FreeBuds Pro 2

I was at the launch of Huawei’s latest product unveiling in Berlin on June 29th of the year. Huawei gave us Journalists a sample of the Freebuds Pro 2, which is the subject of this review.  

Given my frustrations around ear pods falling out of my ears whilst jogging and inner ear sensitivities that don’t respond well to inserts acting like plungers, I was wary of this new product from Huawei. Thankfully, my courage was rewarded with a surprising experience around the Freebuds Pro 2. The set is not only comfortable to wear for everyday life, but it’s also adjustable and sets firmly into your ears.

I had zero trouble with them over a month of jogging and was able to comfortably relax into my running cadence. Whilst cycling, I did see them fly out of my ears on two occasions. The stems caught in the helmet straps when in motion that pulled the unit out of my ears, so careful adjustment of the pods for your bike ride is advised.

The product comes with 1 stylish Freebuds case, 2 ear pods fitted with small-sized rubber plugs and a card of 3 sets of spares with 1 small-sized and 2 large-sized sets. This is in addition to a USB-2 to USB-C charging cable, and brief instructions on set up with warranties. On set up, the use of the stems comes with hand swipes that are very handy. I was at a loss as to how to control my set and reviewed the Huawei instructions.

It is a well-written instruction manual that surmises what you need to do to set up and control your Freebuds Pro 2. I found the swipe down and up on the Freebuds stem for volume control hard to master. A useful update would be a ridge on the Freebuds stem to guide the user in easier volume control. On stem control overall, the manual above provides insights into the wide range of actions available, which I find to be a real plus in using my set.

The hardware-based click by pinching either stem to turn on and off my iTunes library music is a real treat. On the Bluetooth dual connection feature between computer and phone, I note this works well in computers with Intel i7 chips. That said, machines with modern Ryzen chips like my Mac did see a slight delay going back to my iPhone XR so be patient. Give it a few seconds and the chip will catch up. I noted a near real-time switch in the same test but in a reverse direction.  

Performance for me was in two areas, battery and sound quality. I compared both to my older Air Pod 2 setting a high bar. The initial sound was more treble in pitch, which I found was due to the default setting of awareness mode. Noise cancellation is turned off by default.

I registered the unit with my new Huawei app on my iPhone noting a subtle increase in sound quality over about 2 weeks. It was not long before noise cancelling mode enabled by a prolonged stem pinch offered a wonderful base sound. It easily rivals if not exceeds the sound quality of my Air Pod 2 set. Calls are comfortable to take indoors with no testing done by me on calling someone from a busy street. I am confident that it is good given my experience listening to music whilst out and about.

The big winner for the Freebuds is battery performance. I took notes over the month and noted Huawei’s claims of 8 hours for the stems and 18 hours for the case. Not only could I substantiate these claims, but I also noted 22 hours and 7 minutes of charging time over 4 days and 11 partial recharges of stems with 18% remaining on the case. I found the case recharges to a ‘green’ state within the hour.

The price of Eur199 for this product from July this year is what you will pay for your set. After testing it extensively over the past month, I think it’s a very reasonable price point given the obvious quality noted during this period. I was planning to use this set for jogging only given how my existing pods were falling out of my ears. A month later, I am using the Freebuds Pro 2 as my primary set for daily living. 

John Mulhall @johnmlhll is a writer with Irish Tech News for over 5 years and also a DevOps and Infrastructure Engineer specialising in cloud-related technologies. You can learn more about John at https://maolte.ie

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