Huawei FreeBuds Pro: Everything you need to know about the AirPods Pro clone

Huawei has announced yet another device that looks “inspired” by Apple products: the Huawei FreeBuds Pro. As you can see, the FreeBuds Pro takes on an almost-identical look to the AirPods Pro, although Huawei’s new earbuds feature sharp edges along the stems—as opposed to the round finish of the AirPods Pro.

Regardless, the FreeBuds Pro have some decent specs, including noise cancellation technology, so it might be worth having a look. Let’s get into it.

Price & availability

Huawei says that the FreeBuds Pro will be available sometime in October 2020, with retail pricing as follows:

Huawei FreeBuds Pro – EUR 199 (~RM978)

If you’re keen to ensure that your new pair of FreeBuds Pro doesn’t get confused for AirPods, there are two additional colours besides Ceramic White: Silver Frost and Carbon Black. For now, we don’t have official word on local pricing and availability, but keep your browser locked onto SoyaCincau.com for any new developments.

Specs

The headlining feature of the FreeBuds Pro is, of course, its noise-cancelling capabilities. Huawei says that Intelligent Dynamic Active Noise Cancellation technology can recognise ambient sounds, and switch between noise cancellation modes accordingly: Ultra Mode, Cozy Mode, and General Mode.

Huawei says that environmental noise can be reduced up to 40dB as well—an improvement over Apple’s own AirPods Pro, the Chinese company claims. If you want to manually switch between modes, you can switch between “awareness mode” and ANC mode, while Huawei talks a lot about a “voice mode” within the awareness mode that reduces ambient mouse while ensuring that “human voices stand out”.

Battery life is disappointing, however. Along with the now-familiar Kirin A1 chip, each earbud has a 55mAh batery which provides up to 4 hours of playback with ANC enabled, although you do get an extra three hours without ANC. A few extra charges are provided out of the charging case: Huawei says that total promised battery life goes up to 30 hours with ANC off, and 20 hours with ANC turned on. Wireless charging is supported via Qi-certified chargers, or you can opt to charge the charging case via USB-C.

Like some of Huawei’s other FreeBuds headphones, Huawei has included a bone voice sensor which supposedly “strengthens” human voices based on vibrations detected—along with the help of a trio of microphones. Additionally, two of these microphones are designed with anti-wind noise-cancellation tubes to help eliminate any potential wind noises.

Finally, the earbuds are controlled by squeezing the stems. Long press to switch between ANC and Awareness modes, swipe to adjust volume, and pinch to switch between tracks. This is a pretty comprehensive set of controls—even compared to the AirPods Pro.

Until we get our hands on a pair, it’s a little hard to make a proper judgement on the Huawei FreeBuds Pro. From first impressions, battery life figures are slightly disappointing, and I would personally have preferred it if Huawei stepped away from the Apple-inspired design.

We don’t have official details for the Malaysian market just yet, so remember to keep SoyaCincau.com bookmarked on your browser for the latest updates. For more information, click here.

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