Huawei FreeBuds 5i review
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i are earbuds with active noise reduction. They cost 99.99 euros and you can read what else you get for this amount in addition to active noise reduction in the review of the Huawei FreeBuds 5i.
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Huawei FreeBuds 5i
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i succeed the FreeBuds 4i and are still in the same price range, just under 100 euros. This new model features IP certification, an additional audio codec for Bluetooth and an extended frequency range for the two drivers. In addition, the active noise cancellation (ANC) of the True Wireless Headphones (TWS) has been improved, reducing ambient noise by up to 42 dB. In this review you can read everything you need to know about the earplugs.
Build quality and design
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i are in-ear headphones. I found the earplugs to be very comfortable. You can adjust them just right with the supplied caps. Sometimes the earphones slide out of my ears after a long time. As a result, the noise canceling sometimes worked less well. Of course that could also be my ears.
The design of the earphones is very sleek and modern. The box looks nice and sturdy. I therefore think that the build quality of the earphones is very good. That is something I really like, because if you accidentally drop them, they are not immediately damaged. It is a bit more difficult to remove the earphones from the case if you have smooth fingers, for example. The ears are firmly attached and because they are made of plastic you lose grip faster. An advantage of this is that you can easily click the earphones in. The design of the charging case is very nice, especially because it is a kind of matte black. There is also a button on the charging case to connect the box to your phone and a light. The earphones themselves are IP54 dust and waterproof.
Sound
I was quite pleased with the sound of the earbuds. The sound is clear and the bass is good. I often listen to music with a lot of bass in it. These are, for example, ‘All the Stars’ by Kendrick Lamar and SZA or ‘Alone’ by Kim Petras and Nicki Minaj. It is very pleasant to listen to the songs with these earphones. Classical music, which I listened to a lot while learning, can also be played well. This is mainly because the low, medium and high tones are well balanced. The sound also sounds good at high volumes.
I did think that the bass was a bit less than the earphones I have myself. On the other hand, the sound of the Huawei earphones is a lot better. Huawei itself does have an equalizer in the accompanying app, but you can only choose between bass or treble amplification. So you can only choose pre-set presets in the app and not set the sound to your own taste. You can do this with an external app.
The connection of the earphones has always been stable during the test period. In Huawei’s app you can choose whether you want to emphasize the best music quality or the most stable connection.
Pair and use the app
Unfortunately, the Huawei FreeBuds 5i do not support Fast-Pair from Google. They do connect quickly with your phone or laptop when you take them out of the box. It is also possible to pair them with two different devices. Huawei also has its own app called ‘AI Life’. You can set various things in the app. For example, you can turn on the noise canceling and transparency mode and also set the strength of the noise cancelling. It is also possible to set the gestures on the earphones and to assess the fit. This allows the app to show whether the earphones are in the correct position. This is very useful when you want to make optimal use of the earphones. I found the app very clear and useful.
So only the equalizer has few options. I don’t use that often myself, but I understand that some people also want to set the tones themselves. This is of course possible in music streaming apps themselves. Another drawback to the app: AI Life is no longer in the Google Play Store due to the restrictions imposed by Huawei. This means you have to download the app from Huawei’s website.
The connection with the earphones is very good when the option ‘Give priority to connection quality’ is on. The sound and the image of a video are then completely equal. When “Prioritize sound quality”, the sound lags slightly.
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Operation and calling
It is possible to use different gestures on the earphones. You can tap once, press and hold the earbuds, or swipe on the earbuds. By default, one tap is answer/end a call or play/pause a song, press and hold is default to reject a call or noise control (noise cancelling/normal/transparency) and swipe is default to adjust the volume. For me, these options are enough. If you want to arrange it differently, you can still adjust the gestures yourself in the app. The microphones of the earphones are fine. It is true that you can still hear background noise quite well. That can be detrimental when you are on the phone.
Battery life
According to Huawei, the earphones last 7.5 hours when noise canceling is off. When noise canceling is on, this is only 6 hours. According to them, the cover should ensure that you can listen without ANC for 28 hours and with ANC you can listen for 18.5 hours. I have not had any issues with battery life. You can listen to music for quite a long time with the earphones until you have to charge them. What Huawei itself indicates therefore does correspond to the battery life in practice.
You can see the battery status of the earphones at the top of your screen, but of the box only in the Huawei app. So that’s a little less convenient. The earphones also have fast charging. According to Huawei, you can listen to music for 4 hours after putting your earphones in the box for 15 minutes. Very nice that you can use the earphones again quickly after you have had them in the case.
Active noise cancelling
The earphones have active noise canceling (ANC) or active noise reduction. Huawei itself indicates that the sound is filtered out by 42 decibels. I think the ANC of the earphones worked well. My own earphones, which according to their manufacturer also filter noise up to 42 decibels, are slightly better at filtering out the noise. This may also have to do with how you wear the earphones. They have to sit well in your ears to fully use ANC. Sometimes they slipped slightly out of my ears (maybe because of the plastic material), so the noise canceling didn’t work very well anymore. If I then pressed them, the noise canceling worked a lot better.
So noise canceling on the Huawei FreeBuds 5i is generally good, but not the best and certainly not the worst. Loud sounds were a lot softer and I could often still hear soft sounds. There are several options for noise canceling in the app. You can choose between the options: ‘Cosy’, ‘General’ and ‘Ultra’.
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Additional features
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i have several additional functions that make it even more convenient to use. Additional features they have are: multipoint connection, ambient sound, wearing detection, equalizer, ‘Find my earphones’ (works better on Huawei phones) and a fit test. The ‘Find my earphones’ function is useful in itself if you lose your earphones while they are still connected to your phone. Unfortunately, you cannot find them in the box via this option. You must have a Huawei phone for this. I found the wearing detection very useful, because when you have to take off your earphones, the music also pauses immediately. I mentioned the rest of the functions earlier in the review.
Conclusion
I am very satisfied with the Huawei FreeBuds 5i. They perform better than I expected. The price is also reasonable when you look at the sound quality and the functions that the earphones have. Most earbuds that have these features are in this price range.
The earphones are most suitable for people who are looking for good, stable and reliable earphones. The build quality is also very good. In any case, you know for sure that the earphones are of good quality and that they last longer. The strong points for me were the build quality and the sound. These were both very good.
I found the weak points to be the app and the equalizer. The app does have some major drawbacks and the equalizer has too few options. The fact that the app is not in the Play Store and must be downloaded via the internet is not convenient for most people. I think this prevents people from downloading the app more quickly, while the app is actually essential for using the earphones. If I were looking for earphones myself, I would mainly look at what I think is most important. Build quality and good sound are very important to me. These earbuds certainly do.
Buy Huawei FreeBuds 5i
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i are available in different colors for a suggested retail price of 99.99 euros. You can already buy the earplugs for less.
Buy Huawei FreeBuds 5i
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i succeed the FreeBuds 4i and are still in the same price range, just under 100 euros. This new model features IP certification, an additional audio codec for Bluetooth and an extended frequency range for the two drivers. In addition, the active noise cancellation (ANC) of the True Wireless Headphones (TWS) has been improved, reducing ambient noise by up to 42 dB.
99.99 euros
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