Huawei has revealed that it’s launching the FreeBuds Lipstick in Malaysia next week. As the name suggests, it’s their new wireless earbuds that come with a lipstick-looking case. The brand claims they are making a new trend in ultra-chic design and the earbuds are innovatively equipped for a superior and smarter audio experience.
According to Huawei, the new FreeBuds Lipstick will be launched on the 20th of November 2021 and it will be sold on their online store as well as Lazada and Shopee. According to the teaser, it appears that the cosmetic-inspired product will be priced above RM1,000 which is almost double the price of the Freebuds 4 (RRP: RM549). In the United Kingdom, it is priced at GBP 199 (about RM1,108).
In terms of design, the earbuds which come in red look virtually identical to the Freebuds 4. Instead of having a tooth floss puck design for the case, the FreeBuds Lipstick gets a rather upmarket-looking case in black with gold highlights.
The buds use an open-fit hard tip design with producing stems that support swipe, press, and tap gestures. Each bud has a rather large 14.3mm dynamic driver which boasts a frequency rate of up to 40 kHz and a bass-enhancing power engine for deeper bass. To optimise your listening experience, it also gets an adaptive ear-matching mode to tweak the sound based on the shape of your ears.
Besides listening, the FreeBuds Lipstick claims to offer HD recording at 48 kHz sampling rate with its built-in mics. For mobile gamers, it also boasts a lower audio latency of 90ms when paired with EMUI phones.
On a single charge, the 30mAh battery on each bud offers a rather short 2.5 hours of music playback with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) turned on or up to 4 hours with ANC disabled. The lipstick case which has a 410mAh battery offers up to a total of 14 hours of music playback with ANC or up to 22 hours with ANC turned off. It takes an hour to charge the case via USB-C and an hour to charge the earbuds.
It also supports sound transfer where you can switch from your phone to your Huawei Vision smart display with a single tap. The FreeBuds Lipstick can be connected to two devices at a time for seamless switching.
Overall, the FreeBuds Lipstick looks like a repackaged FreeBuds 4 in a slimmer-looking case. For the hefty premium, you’re basically paying for a unique design that will blend in with other cosmetic products.
Almost 20 years ago, Nokia had introduced the “lipstick phone” with the Nokia 7280. Instead of a keypad, the slim device had a scroll wheel for you to navigate the on-screen keypad. It had a tiny screen and it still has space for a VGA camera.
