Huawei FreeBuds 5 Pro Review

Design

• Similar design, but thinner and lighter
• Touch, tap and squeeze controls
• IP57 dust and water resistance

If you were expecting a total redesign for Huawei’s long-standing premium earbuds, you’ll be disappointed – but you won’t hear any complaints from me. Huawei’s older FreeBuds were among the comfiest around to wear, with a snug fit that didn’t feel too bulky in the ear – and it’s very much still the same story here. 

In fact, they’re 10% smaller and 6% lighter than the FreeBuds 4 Pro, and have been squeezed and reshaped based on the modelling of over 10,000 ear shapes to make them more comfortable than ever. 

I’ve long been an AirPods Pro 2 user, even after switching to Android, as I find them the most unintrusive and comfortable to wear during longer listening sessions, but I think the FreeBuds 5 Pro are on par – or maybe even a little better – than the Apple alternative. That did require me to spend a bit of time truly testing the multiple ear-tip sizes (XS to L) to find the right fit for me, but it was well worth it.

Of course, the two sets of premium buds share plenty of similarities, including the same overall stemmed design, but Huawei’s buds separate themselves in several ways. 

First off, Huawei’s ‘star oval on a stick’ design – Huawei’s words, not mine – allows the stem to double up as an antenna, which not only boosts the overall range of the buds but reduces that annoying Bluetooth interference you sometimes get in signal-congested areas. 

They’re also available in more shades than Apple’s famously white-only earbuds, available in sand, white, grey and blue, with a matching carrying case. 

The oval-shaped carry case is as sleek as ever, with a hidden hinge that keeps it clean, even when open. It sports a new excimer film coating that somehow makes the plastic case feel of my white sample almost like satin in my hand – a very premium feel, indeed – though it’s also available in a vegan leather finish if you opt for the blue finish. 

There are also various ways to control the buds, including various combinations of taps, swipes, and pinches. You can swipe and tap the outer panel of the buds on a separate glossy surface, while pinching is reserved for the sides. 

Pinching is the most reliable of the bunch, both quick pinching and pinching and holding, and the volume control via a swipe works well most of the time. I had to disable the tap-and-hold input however; it activated seemingly at random, summoning Gemini when I didn’t want/need it. It’s not like I have long hair to blame for the accidental activation, either. 

You’ve also got head gestures, allowing you to nod or shake your head to accept or decline a call without touching your phone, but like with Apple’s alternative, I always feel like a bit of a lemon randomly nodding or shaking my head in public. Maybe that’s just a me thing though…

The good news is that all the gestures can be customised or, in my case, completely disabled in the companion app – but more on the app shortly. 

Durability is pretty much par for the course for high-end wireless buds too, with IP57 protection on the buds and a slightly lesser IP54 from the case. That should make them fine for use in the rain or particularly sweaty gym sessions, but I wouldn’t get in the pool with them.  

Features

• Support for 2.3Mbps lossless audio, but only with Huawei phones
• Solid connectivity, even in congested areas
• App is a faff to install, but well worth it

As Huawei’s flagship earbuds, it should come as no surprise that the FreeBuds 5 Pro feature the very latest in connectivity. Headed by Bluetooth 6.0, the buds offer true high-res 2.3Mbps Lossless Audio support, ideal for Tidal playback and the like – though that’s only available if you’re using a Huawei phone and, let’s be honest, not many of us are these days. 

Outside the Huawei-exclusive sound profile, support for most of the (non-Qualcomm) staples – LDAC, AAC, SBC – are all present and accounted for, though which you’ll get depends on the device you’re connected to. Different manufacturers prefer different codecs, and there isn’t much you can do to force it to the highest-quality codec if your phone, tablet or laptop doesn’t support it. 

Regardless, the combination of Bluetooth 6.0 and the redesigned antenna module delivered superb connectivity, even staying connected and playing music while wandering through the main concourse of London Liverpool Street station – something that, seemingly, only a few wireless earbuds can manage. 

When connected to an iPhone or Android device, you’ll have access to the new Huawei Audio Connect app. It’s easy enough to install on iOS, as it’s on the App Store, but you won’t find it on Google Play. Instead, you’ll have to rely on your phone manufacturer’s oft-neglected app store (it’s available on both Samsung’s Galaxy Store and Oppo’s App Market, in my experience) or download it directly from the Huawei site. 

It can be a bit of a pain, especially for the less tech-savvy among us, but it’s only something you’ll need to do once – and it’s well worth doing, as the app provides access to a wealth of optional features and functionality. 

It’s a rather clean app despite being packed to the rafters with extra features. The staples of the companion app are front and centre, providing a quick glance at elements like battery life, connectivity and the ability to toggle elements like ANC and transparency, along with more advanced options.

That includes a range of EQ options, both preset and custom, with the latter designed in conjunction with the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. The default balanced profile provides the best all-around experience, but as somewhat of a bass-head, I opted for the bass profile, and the jump in bass presence is immediately noticeable. 

You can tweak the level of ANC depending on your environment, customise the range of controls available, enable optional features like conversational awareness and adaptive volume, and if you’re struggling to find the right ear tips, the ear fit test can guide you in the right direction.

There’s also support for multi-point connectivity, and while it’ll automatically switch between connected devices depending on playback, you can manually switch between devices in the app – and even specify a priority connection if you like.

You’ll also find a Find Device option, which helps you locate the buds if you’ve misplaced them by playing loud tones from the buds. It doesn’t offer anything like Apple’s Find My support for wider coverage though, and nor can you find the case if you’ve misplaced that. 

Battery Life

• Up to 9 hours of battery life
• Drops down to 5 hours with ANC and LDAC playback
• Case holds up to 38 hours of charge, but no wireless charging

Despite being smaller and lighter than their predecessors, the FreeBuds 5 Pro offer better battery life. Huawei claims that they can last up to nine hours with ANC disabled or six hours with it enabled, matching the likes of the second-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra buds but behind Apple’s AirPods (eight hours) and the JBL Tour Pro 3 (10 hours). 

In testing, which consisted of listening to a Spotify playlist for around an hour with ANC active and using the highest-quality LDAC sound profile I had available to me, the buds drained around 20%, suggesting battery life of around five hours, just under Huawei’s numbers – though that improves if you drop down to AAC, and even more if you disable the battery-sucking ANC when it’s not needed.

Of course, the accompanying carry case boosts overall battery life, holding a charge for up to 38 hours of use, depending on the modes you use.

Rather disappointingly for premium earbuds, there’s no wireless charging here, just USB-C – though you’ll get the buds from flat to full in 40 minutes, with a full charge of the case in around an hour in my experience.  

Sound Quality

• Dual-driver system
• Isolated airflow between woofer and tweeter
• Bass doesn’t overpower the highs at all

Huawei’s flagship buds sport a dual-driver system sporting an in-house developed 6mm diaphragm Planar tweeter, which the company claims can deliver two times brighter treble, along with a more precise woofer that reduces distortion by 45%. 

That alone would be a pretty solid upgrade, but the Huawei boffins have worked out a way to isolate the airflow for the woofer and tweeter separately, allowing for better sound separation – essentially preventing the bass from overpowering the highs, as with many small in-ear buds. 

And, connecting the buds to my Oppo Find N6 and using the LDAC codec with Spotify Lossless, I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. The default profile is well-judged, offering a pretty wide soundstage paired with punchy bass, great vocal separation and a nice, smooth treble. 

However, even with the bass-focused profile enabled, the thumping bass still doesn’t have much detrimental effect on the high end. It’s more present, for sure, but it feels well controlled and, more importantly, distortion-free at high volumes, ideal for the old-school D&B and Dubstep tracks I listen to on my morning commute. 

I don’t think it has quite the sharpest resolution of any wireless earbud on the market – that award goes to the excellent WF-1000XM6 – but for much less than Sony’s buds, it’s not a bad showing at all. 

Noise-Cancellation

• Impressive ANC capabilities in most scenarios
• Transparency mode really lets you hear the world around you

Huawei has done something interesting when it comes to ANC; rather than simply using standard ANC capabilities, the FreeBuds Pro 5 uses both the tweeter and woofer for noise cancellation, which the company claims can boost the cancellation frequency from 4kHz to 6kHz and provide a more robust overall experience.

Compared with a boosted sample rate – up to 400,000 times per second – Huawei claims that there’s a 220% increase in noise cancellation performance compared to the FreeBuds 4 Pro.

That all means that the FreeBuds Pro 5 aren’t another pair of your bog-standard noise-cancelling buds – they’re pretty phenomenal. I keep harking back to the AirPods Pro 2, but for me (and likely many others), these are the baseline of what to expect from wireless ANC, and it’s a high bar. But one that Huawei just matched.  

Enabling the ANC with maximum effect (something you can do in the app), the world around me quietened noticeably. Even without anything playing on the buds, irritating noises were reduced to more of a whisper, and with music playing, the wider world effectively vanished. 

Some particularly loud noises, like the hiss of a bus (that gave me quite a jump) and particularly loud segments of the London Underground slipped past Huawei’s guard at times, but for the most part, it was a distraction-free experience. It’s just as effective on planes too, getting me to and from Barcelona without needing to crank the buds up anywhere near maximum volume. 

Now these aren’t the very best noise-cancelling buds around – that crown has passed to the Sony WF-1000XM6 – but they’re not too far off. 

Transparency mode performance is similarly top-notch. Some brands try to blend environmental noise into the sound of the music so they don’t stand out too much, but really, I want the opposite; I want to hear the environment over the music so I can truly stay aware of my surroundings. 

That’s what the FreeBuds Pro 5 do, and they do it exceptionally well with clear directional audio – so well that I’m usually able to have a full conversation with someone without needing to take the buds out. There is a conversational mode that automatically turns down the audio and toggles on the transparency mode when you speak, but I prefer to control it manually.

Should you buy it?