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Wednesday, September 15, 2021

HUAWEI Freebuds 4 Review: Comfortable wearing experience and amazing audio quality



While I’ve tried quite a few wireless earbuds and headphones, this is actually the first time I’m going to review a pair of Huawei ANC buds. And--spoiler alert, I was impressed from the very note of the first song I listened to—“Beggin” from Maneskin, my current fave song.

But the Huawei Freebuds 4 delivers more than great sound and that’s what we’ll talk about in this review—as well as a few things that I didn’t like.

 

The Huawei FreeBuds 4 is the brand’s latest open-fit ANC earphones. It has been getting praised for its enhanced open-fit ANC 2.0, comfortable wearing experience and amazing audio quality. It’s bass enhancement combined with the 14.3mm large dynamic unit, allows the headset to maintain a consistently high level of sound quality. Does it live up to its promise?

 

WHAT’S INSIDE THE BOX?

The Huawei Freebuds 4 comes in a white box with the Huawei branding in gold and a photo of the Freebuds 4 on front. Included in the box are paper documents, (quick start guide, warranty card and safety information) the Freebuds 4 unit inside its charging case and a USB A to USB-C charging cable.

 


DESIGN AND BUILD 

The FreeBuds 4 look very similar to the FreeBuds 3, the main difference is that the case is now slightly smaller and lighter. A smaller case also means that the earbuds are smaller and a millimeter or two shorter.  


As far as the design, its simply beautiful and pretty much in line with what we’re used to getting from the brand’s premium products. The Freebuds 4 adopts an open-fit design, so if you’re someone who doesn’t like those in-ear canal earbuds, this is the one you should check out. And because they don’t plug into your ear canals, they don’t get uncomfortable to wear after long listening sessions—as long you can get a good fit with them.


Compared its predecessor, the Huawei FreeBuds 4 is revamped with 13 size optimizations, further reducing the size of its body and stem for a lighter weight. It only weighs 4.1 gram1 per earbud, achieving an ethereal design on ANC earphones. In addition to size optimization, the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 brings three enhancements to its overall curvature for a better fit.  Thanks to the ergonomic simulation system grounded by 10,000+ human ear models, and the extensive stress simulation test on eight parts of the ear, the comfort assessment of Huawei FreeBuds 4 is conducted objectively to guarantee optimal wearing comfort for every user.

 

All that means that whatever size of ear you have, the Huawei Freebuds 4 should fit quite nicely and comfortably. After a couple of minutes, you’d forget you’re wearing them. They’re comfortable and due to their “Air-light” weight, you easily get accommodated to wearing them. Surprisingly, they never fell out of my ear while I was doing my walking exercises or while riding the bike around our neighborhood.

 

The FreeBuds 4 are available in ceramic white and silver frost colorways. We have the ceramic white version which is clean and classic. Those who want a more daring, shiny finish should check out the silver frost version instead.  The case has a smooth finish but can be slippery so if you could find a pouch or case, best to get one.

 

PAIRING AND CONTROLS 

Pairing the FreeBuds 4 with your phone is pretty easy. All you have to do is turn your phone’s Bluetooth on and simply open the case to put it into pairing mode immediately.

 

If its already been paired it with another device, just press the side button on the case for around two seconds until the LED light starts blinking, then can pair it as normal.

 

For those using Huawei smartphones, pairing is almost automatic and it will recognize the FreeBuds 4 right away when it enters pairing mode. I was also happy to discover that the FreeBuds 4 can maintain up to two active Bluetooth connections so you don’t have to manually switch from your phone to your laptop or tablet.

 


Then there’s Ai Life, Huawei’s all-in-one app which you could download from the Huawei APPGallery to unlock more features of the Freebuds 4. 

 

As for the controls, I love that I don’t have to reach for my phone to pause or change the volume. Double-tap on the earphone stem to pause/play whatever you’re listening to or watching, do a long press to answer an incoming call and long press on either earbud turns ANC off or on. To adjust the volume simply slide up or down on the earphone stem. It also has wear detection which means it will automatically stop when you remove it and resume one you put it back on.

 

SOUND AND ANC

The FreeBuds 4 boasts of an “all-new” adaptive noise-cancelling feature, open fit ANC 2.0, which is supposed to adjust noise cancellation to suit the unique size and shape of your ears. 

 

The FreeBuds 4 features a staggered wind-proof structure that prevents wind noise from being generated at the source. In-turn, this design effectively blocks strong winds from blowing directly into the microphone for better wind-proof effects.

The internal microphone is designed to pick up internal noise more effectively. There is a sound pick-up tube installed next to the microphone, so the noise in the ear can go along the tube and reach the microphone for better noise pickup. This way, the headset can eliminate inverted acoustic waves more precisely for even better noise-cancelling outcomes.

 

Because noise cancellation performance may be affected by user’s ear size and wearing position. To address this, engineers need to design multiple sets of parameters to achieve optimal noise- cancellation under different conditions. Based on the ear canal size and wearing condition, the earphones can automatically switch to the optimum parameters for the best noise cancellation experience.


HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is the first open-fit earphones in the industry to feature Adaptive Ear Matching (AEM) technology. When users turn on the noise cancellation feature, the headset automatically detects the ear canal shape and wearing conditions, and then assigns the best suited noise cancellation parameters from multiple data sets. The closer the fit of the earbuds, the greater the noise cancellation effect. Smaller ear cavities allow the earbuds to achieve a greater noise cancellation effect than larger ear cavities. 

 

I didn’t pay much attention to ANC, that was until I experienced it on the FreeBuds 4, which made watching movies even more immersive. No more rewinding multiple time  to hear what the characters were whispering or talking about. 

 

As for the bass, the Huawei FreeBuds 4 adopts an upgraded 40kHz3 wide-range dynamic unit and bass enhancement engine to achieve enhanced sound quality. The 14.3mm super large diaphragm makes the amplitude larger and the bass more powerful.  

 

I’m not much into very loud music so the bass is just right for me, though other users might find it a bit lacking especially those who love to listen to dance hiphop music. 


BATTERY LIFE

The Huawei Freebud 4 can last up to 4 hours on a single charge without ANC and that goes down to 2.5 hours with ANC enabled. So if you are on a long trip you might want to turn off ANC to make it last longer. Music playback with charging case can last up to 22 hourse with ANC disable and charging time takes about 1 hour via the charging case. Sadly the FreeBuds 4 no longer support wireless charging unlike the FreeBuds 3.

 

Another feature I almost forgot is water resistance and you can safely use the FreeBuds 4 in the rain, thanks to the IPX4 water resistance certification.

 

CONCLUSION

The Huawei Freebuds 4 is another great addition to Huawei’s ecosystem. It looks good, and sounds even better—as long as you like the open-fit design. I like how easy it is to pair with my phone and the touch controls are very easy to get used to. ANC 2.0 does a good job but again that depends on how snug it fits your ear. Battery life is okay, although I wish it could last longer than 4 hours like other earbuds

 

Still if you are in the market for a good pair of earbuds the Huawei FreeBuds 4 is worth checking out.


What I liked:

Stylish looks

Comfortable

Very lightweight

Dual-device connectivity

Good battery life 

Touch gestures

 

What I disliked 


No wireless charging

A bit expensive



Get massive deals and discounts on selected HUAWEI products with Audio and Wearables Festival.


Add to cart your favorite HUAWEI FreeBuds and WATCH, then make sure to those checkouts on Sept 15!


Shop more products via the online HUAWEI Store where you can enjoy great benefits like free delivery and more. 


The Huawei FreeBuds 4 is priced at Php 7,999. You can get it on Lazada, Shopee, or Huawei’s own website. 


6 comments:

  1. What a nice and honest reviews! How it was recommended to us consumers! Great experience for a wonderful product

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your honest review Ms.Lou. The Huawei FreeBuds 4 is the brand’s latest open-fit ANC earphones is really amazing and truly highly recommended.
    It is the high quality earphones that we can bring anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like everything about it. How I love to experience this Huawei Freebuds 4. ☺️

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very great review and HUAWEI Freebuds 4 is very nice and Comfortable. Its good to know that huawei will have discounts on selected HUAWEI products with Audio and Wearables Festival.Must have

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow great review tlga nman npaka ganda nitong huawei freebuds 4 , ganda ng quality niya šŸ˜ highly recommended tlga ❣️

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thankyou for your honest review. Sarap naman po magkaroon nitong Huawei Freebuds 4. Napakaganda pa naman po tlaga ng quality nito at talaga namang kamangha mangha . Very recommended po talaga ito.. šŸ’žšŸ„°

    ReplyDelete

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