Huawei FreeBuds 4 test | Geeks.hu

Recently, Huawei has been quite focused on the development of accessories, which is not surprising, since since the American ban, it has not been able to win many laurels on the phone market. In the field of completely wireless earphones, the company represents itself with two product series; with the “smooth” and “i” series. The fundamental and important difference between the two is that the former is open and the latter is closed. Although there are advantages to both solutions, the majority tend to prefer the closed design – simply because of the sound quality. It is pure physics that the bass sounds are fuller with these products; and although this does not necessarily equate to better sound quality, it has been proven time and time again that people love bass. The Huawei FreeBuds 4 therefore starts against a headwind – despite this, it performs well! But let’s see the details!

Design

The external characterization of the FreeBuds 4 could be arranged very quickly if we wanted: it is an Apple AirPods clone, only not in white, but in a shiny, bluish-gray “packaging”. But we are not that lazy! The earphones are a representative of the completely wireless category, meaning that there is no cable between the right and left speakers. It is an open design solution, which means that the earphones do not burrow into the ear canal, they simply sit on the auricle. This version is not preferred by the majority, but it also has its advantages. Since it leaves the ear free, it is more comfortable for many to wear, and on the other hand, the passive noise filtering is only minimal – and there are certainly situations when this is not a disadvantage. For example, it may be a better choice for a child, as it is safer when outside noises reach the ears unhindered while walking.

The FreeBuds 4 look almost exactly the same as the current AirPods: the part containing the battery and the antenna are also completely similar, with a pin design and facing downwards. Although it doesn’t exist, the outer half of this part is a touch-sensitive surface that we can use to control the earphones. The configuration is done from the mobile app. The color of the earphones was different: despite the shiny design and the plastic, the gadget does not look like a cheap mass-produced item, of course, this is a basic expectation for earphones costing HUF 55,000.

Due to the design conforming to the IPX4 standard, the earphones are moderately resistant to moisture, but they are by no means waterproof – they will be fine in light rain and will not be damaged by sweat either.

During use

Next to the earphones, Huawei also provides a round box, the closing mechanism of which seems to be more durable than the mechanism used in some previous earphones, including the much more expensive FreeBuds 3i. What’s more, it is not only durable, but also demanding: it can be opened and closed with one hand, it is precise, it does not squeak and it is also quiet. A barely visible button has been placed on the right side of the case, and the USB-C connector for charging is located at the bottom. Thanks to the magnetic fastening, the earphones will definitely not fall out of the case, but they are still easy to take out: to do this, you just have to reach behind the earphones and gently lift them up and turn them. There is a 410 mAh battery in the case, but unfortunately we don’t get any information about its charge level, because although there is an indicator LED, it only shows whether the case is still suitable for charging the battery or not – it is not revealed, that the energy in it is enough for even more full charges or just a few minutes. (You can check the charge in the app, more on that later.) Charging the battery takes 1 hour.

Pairing the earphones is quick and convenient: after opening the cover, you only have to press and hold the side button until the indicator LED starts flashing white. From here, we can continue the pairing process in the normal way, on the phone screen. For owners of Huawei mobiles, the procedure is even simpler: for them, it is enough to open the cover: the mobile automatically recognizes the earphones and we just have to press a simple OK.

The AI ​​Life app must be downloaded for treatment; if we download this from the Play Store, it will not be the latest version, so the app must be updated immediately after the first launch. FreeBuds 4 can be managed after adding.

After selecting it, the app shows the charge level of the earphones and the case as a percentage, and you can also see the phones to which the FreeBuds 4 has been connected at least once. The app marks in blue the devices to which the connection is currently active. The plural number is justified because the headset can be connected to up to two phones at the same time. Active noise filtering can also be switched on in the app, you can request audibility improvement (emphasis on speech sounds), you can search for the earphones, and you can also turn on or off the smart wear detection function. Unfortunately, the latter does not turn off the earphones, so if you simply take them out of your ears and forget about them, you are guaranteed to drown them. This function is best for stopping and restarting the music playback, if, for example, we take the FreeBuds 4 out of our ears during payment.

FreeBuds 4 with Huawei mobile phones also provides several extra functions: some settings are also available in the BT menu, for example. However, it is much better than this that it is possible for the earphones to be connected to several devices at the same time and active with all of them (that is, to hear the sound of all connected devices), or if there are several FreeBuds 4 at home, then several people can watch on one tablet at the same time movie: one tablet can play several FreeBuds 4 at the same time. A small flaw is that this feature only works with Harmony OS, so there are hardly any devices to use it with.

For control, we can use the touch-sensitive surface, which recognizes three types of touch: double touch, long touch and smoothing. Nothing happens when touching the earphones smoothly, so that problems arising from accidental touches can be eliminated. With the help of the phone app, all movements can be customized, and the following functions can be associated with the gestures: receiving and ending a call, rejecting it, starting and stopping music playback, next track, previous track, voice assistant, turning ANC on and off, volume adjustment.

There is a 30 mAh battery in the earphones, which means that the earphones can be fully charged six times with the help of the case (you have to calculate with some losses). The Freebuds 4 provide 4 hours of operation time in normal mode and 2.5 hours with active noise filtering, so the total “playtime” is somewhere between 28 and 16 hours, depending on how regularly ANC is used. The operating time is not tragic, but it is not particularly good either: it is mainly the 2.5-hour limit available with active noise filtering that we have a problem with, since if we start with the earbuds not fully charged, then it is not even certain that a slightly longer than average we can watch a movie until we drop. And there’s no fast charging either; if the earphones are discharged, they will be recharged in 55-60 minutes.

Sound quality

The earphones are comfortable to wear, and despite the open design, you don’t have to worry about the gadget falling out of your ear while walking or even running. The common feature of open earphones is that the degree of passive noise filtering is very limited, and as a result, the deep sounds are not usually too strong either. The designers of the FreeBuds 4 seem to have forgotten to be informed about this – at least we were completely satisfied with the fullness of the deep sound. Of course, it’s not on par with – let’s say – a FreeLace, but the lag is quite minimal, much smaller than we expected, just like the FreeBuds 3’s performance. Here comes the fine print: this statement is only true until the headphones move from their optimal position, which, unless you’re watching movies lying in bed, will happen sooner or later. And of course, it doesn’t hurt if our ear shape matches the FreeBuds 4 exactly.

Basically, the sound is not bad, but not outstanding either; you have to play a bit of magic with the phone’s equalizer to completely balance the low and high sounds – if you have this, then not only watching a movie or talking, but also listening to music can be a great experience. Balance also requires some self-discipline; it is worth limiting the volume to around 80 percent, because above that, the high notes easily drown out the low ones.

Active noise filtering is an interesting extra-open device: manufacturers tend to leave it out by chance, because if the noise enters our ears freely next to the earphones, then any magic tricks are useless. In a quiet environment, technology can help something, but outside it is as if it is not there.