They are not just others in line

Other “stick” headphones from Huawei, which are based on the original design of Apple AirPods, will offer a decent elimination of ambient noise, below-average durability and quite a nice price. So actually no loud screamwhich should intimidate competitors. Somehow I looked at the new FreeBuds 4 model for a few more days before I started testing it. At first glance, it is not really known that since the last FreeBuds 4i, or perhaps better last year’s FreeBuds 3, change something significant. But that’s really not enough. In positive and negative direction.

Huawei Freebuds 4 Reviews

Packaging and design

In terms of packaging, the appearance of the case and also the design of the headphones themselves, Huawei adheres firmly to established classics (that is, it continues to ride on the AirPods wave). In addition to the seed case, the plain paper box contains only a USB-C charging cable and basic paper instructions. The case has a reshape round shiny pebble, which I must repeatedly praise as the most suitable variant of all TWS headphones. However, this appearance is given by the “rod” construction of the seeds themselves, which I consider to be less nice and practical.

For the case, I have to praise again not only the shape, but also the strength of the hinge. When opened and placed on the table top, it holds reliably, as well as hand movement. Many other competitors can’t do that and it’s a terrible poison when the lid closes very easily all the time. On the contrary, it is very unpleasant that compared to last year’s predecessor wireless charging has disappeared inexplicably. In combination with the relatively small capacity of the batteries, which allow the stones to be significantly lightened, but a few tenths of a gram could have been sacrificed for them, it is definitely a minus.

Technical Specifications

• 14.3mm converters with an upper frequency of 40 kHz
• Bluetooth 5.2
• handset weight 4.1 g
• case diameter 58 mm, height 21.2 mm
• battery
  • 30mAh in the handset
  • 410mAh in a case
• stamina
  • headphones alone 4 h (without ANC) / 2.5 h (with ANC)
  • with housing 22 h (without ANC) / 14 h (with ANC)
• gesture control (including volume)
• IPX4 resistance

There is no “i”, no plugs

As the word “pecks” mentioned several times, it is again a model without silicone plugs. It is also logical because these are Huawei headphones from the classic number series without the letter “i” in the name. Personally, I don’t quite understand why manufacturers are still on stone construction they bet so much and that someone buys it voluntarily, but we can probably leave that to my own contemplation.

At Huawei, however, they took it as a bit of a challenge, and FreeBuds4 equipped it with what they called “ear shape detection.” This can probably be easily interpreted as “we made solid plastic seeds that may not fit completely in your ear, but the software somehow catches up“. I don’t know if the headphones really do just that, but the sound is very good in the basic settings for music and spoken word. There’s really nothing to complain about, which is due not only to the 14.3 driver with decent bass in each headphone, but also to the pleasantly increased maximum frequency with a level of 40 kHz. However, the absence of plugs can also manifest itself in terms of (un) comfort, so be prepared for that.

Lots of new tweaks

The mentioned smart detection is not the only software novelty that the headphones come with. If I wrote about unsuspected changes in the introduction, I mainly meant new interesting items in the Huawei AI Life application, which supports the headphones. For example, active noise suppression alias ANC is new does not have a manual intensity slider. It was replaced only by a more boring and stricter switching between “general” (strong) and “comfortable” (weaker) mode.

On the other hand, a menu appeared Listening improvementswhich brings some news. The most attractive is probably the audio test that every user can perform on themselves. The headphones send sounds of different frequencies to the ear, and the user, by answering the display to his own profile, defines how the software should adjust some listening levels. There is also voice enhancements for calls in the same menu, which is really a bit familiar and will surely find its fans.

I would probably only touch the switch next to Media in an emergency and for a short time if you need to hear the singing better in a song. But be aware that the sound of the rest of the instruments and frequencies will be quite distorted. Get ready for something similar with an “equalizer” or rather high and low frequency cutters, which is also available in a new form in the application. Unfortunately, you will not find out from the application exactly what frequencies it favors through the buttons.

The most pleasant news for me is definitely a new “shuffling” gesture to change the volume. The former FreeBuds 3 couldn’t do this, for which I also wrote them a big red minus. In this respect, the new model is no longer just a slave to a telephone or other transmitting device and a headset she finally became independent. This pull-up / drop-down gesture as well as the long press (answering a call and starting / stopping ANC) have their functions fixed. With double-tap, there are several options to choose from, including jumping between tracks. That would be enough for my satisfaction.