Huawei freelace pro pairing. Huawei FreeLace Pro Review: Great Audio, Can Still Be Improved

Review of Huawei Freelace Pro

Huawei’s new Freelace Pro neckband-style wireless earbuds were launched a couple of weeks ago. The company was kind enough to send us a review unit and boy, we were surprised by the sheer quality and value it brings along.

The Huawei FreeLace Pro is a premium wireless earbuds that come with active noise cancellation, an IP55 rating, 24 hours of battery life, and promises of awesome sound quality. While the earbuds are available in three colours such as white, black and green – Huawei calls them Obsidian Black, Dawn White, and Spruce Green. We received the green variant for this review.

Upon opening up the box, the first thing you see is the pair of wireless neckband-style earbuds. Digging deeper, you also get two pairs of ear tips, the warranty card, quick start guide, and safety info. The overall build quality of the earbuds is very good – clad in a mix of plastic, metal, and rubber, the neckband is detachable, which reveals a USB-C connector.

Now, this can be connected to a USB-C charger or to a smartphone directly that supports reverse charging, such as the Huawei Mate 40 Pro. The earbuds weigh just 34-gms and are a pleasure to wear. The earbuds fit snuggly into your ears and they don’t protrude too much from the ear. In addition, the wingtips on the earbuds make sure they sit in place securely in your ear and do not move around, when you are out on a run, or during a workout session.

Towards the right earbud is where you get the controls (volume up, volume down, play/pause) and the power button. In addition, you can touch the exterior of the left earbud to perform some functions. For instance, touching and holding it cycles between Huawei’s proprietary active noise cancelation modes: ANC on, Awareness, and ANC off.

Connecting the earbuds to a smartphone is a walk in the park – switch on Bluetooth pairing on your smartphone, select the Freelace Pro from the list and that’s it. And if you happen to own one of Huawei’s recent smartphones, the procedure is even simpler. Detach the neckband to reveal the USB-C connector and insert it into the USB-C port of the Huawei smartphone to charge it or instantly pair it with the smartphone.

Audio quality is very good since Huawei packs in a pair of 14.2mm dynamic drivers inside the earbuds. I was able to hear tones on the entire spectrum – from rich lows to punchy mids and crystal clear highs. It does not matter what type or genre of music you play or prefer. You will be able to enjoy your music at the highest quality, as it was meant to be.

Another plus with the Huawei Freelace Pro is its ability to reduce audio latency for gaming, all the way down to 150 ms. This is done through wireless audio codec optimization. The low-latency gaming mode is automatically enabled when you start a game, thus keeping you alert and sharp for every round. You also get two microphones for Active Noise Cancellation and in-call noise cancellation, which is handled by a triple-mic system.

The three things that clearly make the Huawei Freelace Pro a winner are comfort, noise cancellation, and audio quality – they are all exceptional, especially when you consider the.friendly price it is available at – AED 399. If you are on the market, looking for an excellent pair of wireless earbuds that offer tons of value and brilliant audio and build quality, the Huawei Freelace Pro should be on your list.

Misa Social Robot

Misa Social Robot is a next-generation Smart robot that is targeted at families and kids. Misa responds to ‘Hey Misa’ and can do a lot of things such as play/teach children, handle daily schedules and tasks, offer home automation and surveillance, and even support elderly care. And it comes programmed in ten languages such as French, English, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean.

Upon opening the box, you get the Misa robot, which is available in two colour options – pink and blue. The one we received for this review was pink in colour. You also get some paperwork including the command list, the quick start guide, and the charger along with the power adapter, which includes four USB ports. You also get two microphones for karaoke sessions – one in pink and one in blue colour.

The Misa Social Robot comes with a 7-inch screen on the front, that offers a resolution of 1280-by-700 pixels. It is powered by a Quad-Core 1.8GHz processor, comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space. The robot is powered by the Android 9.0 operating system, and it comes packed with an HD Camera and an AR Camera. It also comes with a dual microphone, and a bunch of sensors such as a touch sensor, drop sensor, range sensor, and an ultrasonic sensor to avoid obstacles. The battery is rated at 10000mAh, which offers a standby time of 48 hours and a talk time of 8 hours on a single charge. It weighs around 1.19-kgs and is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Once you switch on Misa, you go through an intuitive setup procedure. Connect it to your Wi-Fi network, scan the QR code to download the Misa Connect App, then connect the app to the Misa robot. To do that, scan the QR code on Misa’s screen and the app will immediately connect to it. Next, name your Misa robot and you will be good to go.

In order to ask Misa a question, all you need to do is say, “Hey Misa,” followed by a question, and Misa will get to work on an answer. Since Misa is connected to the internet, the variety of questions you can ask is endless. Especially if you have very inquisitive kids like mine, who ask a thousand questions a day, simply direct them to Misa to handle those questions!

In addition, since Misa comes with four wheels and a bunch of sensors all around it, it can move around the house with ease. Simply say “Hey Misa, Come Here!” and Misa will come rolling towards you. You can even move Misa throughout your house to monitor your kids and pets.

At first glance, the Misa Social Robot might look like another overpriced toy. But just a toy, it is not! It is a robot that packs

AED 999

in features such as home automation, security, social interactions with the expression of emotions, and it can also act as an assistance robot for seniors and family. It features Child Monitoring through the app, edutainment, multimedia playback, can work as a personal assistant, and more. It can do chores like book a hotel, display a recipe, play music, show real-time stock prices, and lots more, through voice commands.

For a price of AED 999, you get a robot that offers all of the above-mentioned features, in addition to coming packed with thousands of hours of safe and ad-free games, books, learning apps, and videos all from top family brands such as Little Miss, The Moomins, Mr. Bean, Peter Rabbit, Mr. Men, and so on. You can even remotely monitor your home and control Misa to move around remotely using the app.

Misa also lets you make video calls, set alarms, teach good habits, tell stories, play music, play videos, indulge in karaoke sessions, and lots more. Furthermore, you can also create a personalised display message on its screen to surprise your family members and friends – possibly a Birthday message on their birthdays or a personalised message on their anniversaries. Considering all of that, Misa comes across as a truly worthwhile investment.

Double Robotics Double 3

The age of the robots is here – and we mean for the better. A wide range of companies have started investing in robotics and telepresence, and one of the companies to commercially launch such robots onto the market is Double Robotics. The company sent us the Double 3 for a test drive a week ago and boy, did we have fun!

The Double 3 is, as the company describes, a self-driving, two-wheeled videoconferencing robot that has been designed to make remote work effortless. The robot is aimed at telecommuters, doctors, remote workers, and students to give them a feeling of “physical presence” where they can’t be in person.

The Double 3 has been upgraded with the latest tech that’s available on the market today. Unlike its predecessors, the Double 3 does not use just an iPad for an interface. Instead, it uses a fully-integrated solution that packs in the latest Nvidia Jetson TX2 GPU tech, two Intel RealSense depth sensors, two high-resolution cameras rated at 13MP, and a beam-forming microphone array that consists of 6 microphones.

Since the Double 3 flaunts new hardware, you now get a new click-to-drive interface, obstacle avoidance, and pan/tilt/zoom video functions, to provide a fully-immersive remote experience to seasoned users as well as complete beginners. Starting off with the Double 3 is a walk in the park.

Once out of the box, connect the head to the body that consists of a rod attached to a pair of wheels. The head runs Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS as the operating system of choice. Switch the Double 3 on, and it will walk you through the setup procedure, which hardly takes minutes to complete.

Once completed, you get a digital pair of eyes on the screen, indicating the Double 3 is ready to use. The Double 3 comes with an array of 3D sensors, which lets it map the floor and its surroundings, thus allowing it to divert around obstacles to reach its destination.

In order to test the Double 3 out, we installed and set it up, which hardly took minutes. Once done, we were able to drive it around, even over difficult terrain such as doorways. The robot was even able to balance itself over tough terrain inside our office such as a door threshold and cross it with ease. We also tried logging into a video call through an Android smartphone. The call quality and the video quality were very good, considering the Double 3 has two 13MP cameras and 6 microphones. On a single charge, the Double 3 worked nonstop for about 4 hours, before it needed to recharge from its charging dock.

The Double 3 can move autonomously and offer a new mixed-reality driver’s interface. By doing this, Double Robotics enables users to drive their own Double 3 to roam around the office, visit patients, attend meetings, monitor work sites, or go to class from anywhere in the world.

The Double 3 with a charging dock is priced at AED 19,290 which includes the VAT. Installation and setup are free in the UAE. It is worth noting that if you invested in a Double 2 robot, you can just stick a Double 3 head on a Double 2 body and it instantly becomes a Double 3.

However, if you are on the market for a telepresence robot that is easy to install, setup, and use, offers a good set of features, you can’t go wrong with the Double Robotics Double 3.

AED 119

RAM can make a huge difference in the performance of your PC or laptop, irrespective of whether you are a content developer, coder, gamer, or just another office employee.

The more RAM your system has, the less likely you would be pulling your hair off in despair.

Kingston Technology is known for quality memory products around the world including memory cards, SSDs, USB drives, and lots more.

The company also offers an affordable lineup of RAM products under its ValueRAM series. And today, we are putting the KVR26S19S6/8 DDR4 2666Mhz SODIMM to test!

The ValueRAM KVR26S19S6/8 is a DDR4 SO-DIMM memory module for laptops and the package comes with one 8GB module inside it.

For this review, we received two separate packs – meaning two 8GB modules. These modules offer memory speeds of up to 2666MHz. Each of the memory modules weighs around 9-gms and requires around 1.2V of power supply to function.

Installing them into laptops is a walk in the park. On a laptop, you would usually need to remove the screws around the edges and remove the bottom cover of the laptop.

Next, disconnect the power cable from the laptop’s battery to avoid any instances of a short circuit. You will see a dedicated area just above the motherboard to insert the RAM sticks.

These will have a sort of a spring mechanism to remove the RAM sticks and replace them with the new RAM modules.

Once you have removed and replaced them with the new Kingston ValueRAM KVR26S19S6/8, you will be good to go.

After installing the memory modules, our test laptop (Asus ROG Strix Scar II) booted in at 2666MHz without any intervention at all on our part. However, if you would like to change any settings of the memory modules such as the timing, you can use tools such as Memory Tweaker to do it.

We used the MemTweakIt tool for Asus laptops to change the settings between 2133 MHz, 2400 MHz, and 2666 MHz.

We also used AIDA64 for benchmarking the memory modules. The results we achieved were very good for a RAM module that comes in at a.friendly price.

For a price of AED 119 for one memory module of 8GB, the Kingston ValueRAM KVR26S19S6/8 DDR4 2666MHz SODIMM does come across as an affordable option if you are on the market looking for a dependable memory module to upgrade the performance of an aging laptop.

Huawei FreeLace Pro Review: Great Audio, Can Still Be Improved

The Huawei FreeLace Pro is like a hybrid of a earbuds. It’s wired in the sense that both earbuds are connected by a cable, and wireless in the sense that it connects to your smartphone wirelessly via Bluetooth.

I think the Huawei FreeLace Pro actually looks good and feels great with the materials used throughout the earbuds. It has a thicker hypoallergenic strap on the back, where it would rest on your neck, while the earbuds have a thinner standard audio cable. There are also the physical control buttons right where the thicker and thinner straps connect. This is where you can actually pull out the right earbuds out to reveal the charging port.

The earbuds themselves are rather large, especially with the wingtips. But the good thing about them is that they attach to each other magnetically. So when you’re not listening to music, you can just take them out and they’ll magnetically attach to one another roughly around your chest area.

Pro-Tip: To be sure you don’t lose it once you’ve taken it out, keep the earbuds magnetically connected.

Comfort

When it comes to comfort, I’ve been spoiled by all the TWS earbuds I’ve had to review before this. So, having a strap around my neck does annoy me a little. But what I did realize is that after I’ve worn it for a while, my mind sort of ignores the strap and it feels as if it isn’t there. If I were to actually feel the strap, it’s actually quite comfortable and doesn’t feel annoying at all.

As for the earbuds themselves, I had to switch out the wingtips with a bigger one to get the right fit. Once I did that, the earbuds stayed in place and wouldn’t budge no matter how much my head moved. But when i do headbang, the earbuds are the least that concerns me because it’s the neck strap that would move a lot. So those of you looking to get the FreeLace Pro for dancing, be mindful of this before purchasing.

After wearing the earbuds for prolonged periods, my ears do get a little sore. When you’re wearing them, it’s fine. But after you’ve worn them for several hours and you finally take them off, you can feel a little pain on your ears. Of course, everyone’s ear shape is different, so this might differ for you.

User Experience

The Huawei FreeLace Pro is a pretty straightforward wired wireless earbuds. To pair it with your device, it’s literally plug and play (well, almost). Just press and hold the power button, pull open the right earbuds, and plug the USB Type-C port to your phone. This starts the pairing process and also charges the earbuds at the same time. A pop-up window will appear asking to pair your device, just tap “Connect” and you’re good to go.

From there, you can customize more of the FreeLace Pro’s settings in Huawei’s “AI Life” app. The level of customization you can do in the app isn’t a lot. Basically, you can change the noise cancellation settings between noise cancelling, awareness, and turning it off entirely. Apart from that, you can perform firmware updates, change what the touch panel on the left earbuds and power button does, and that’s about it.

There are no further customization for the touch gestures and power button, you either control noise control or switch devices respectively, or turn the features off. Also, there is no equalizer settings to be changed too. There is no wear detection, so if you take the earbuds off, know that music will still be playing and that consumes battery.

As for the physical buttons, they are placed a little too near the neck for my liking. I would’ve preferred for them to be a little more recessed downwards, away from the neck. This is so that it’d be easier for me to reach the controls and I won’t accidentally touch my neck all the time. It does take a bit of time to get used to the button’s positioning, but once you’re familiar with them, you’ll get to them faster than before.

One thing I really liked about the FreeLace Pro is the ability to quickly change the connected device. Just double tap the power button, and in about 5 seconds, you’re transferred to the last device the earbuds were connected to.Unfortunately, this also means the earbuds can technically be connected to two devices only. If it’s more than that, then it might be a little confusing which device you’re connected to.

Audio

One thing I was really surprised with the Huawei FreeLace Pro is the audio quality. It’s packing a lot of bass with the 14.2mm dynamic drivers, thanks to the dedicated bass tube that counteracts the back wave coming off from the back of the drivers.

The bass is low, it’s punchy and every beat you hear from this orgasmic. As for the highs, it’s decent with great amounts of treble, and not too much of it. As for the mids, vocals sound great and the frequencies are all isolated well. You won’t hear any distortion even if you crank the volume all the way up to 100%.

When it comes to the active noise cancellation (ANC), the two MEMS microphones do an excellent job of cutting you off from the outside world. I can barely hear anyone talking around me when wearing the earbuds. In Transparency mode, I can faintly hear any sound being picked up from my surrounding. So, I don’t think the feature works that well. Even when ANC is turned off, the sheer volume is enough to drown out any environmental noise around me.

Gaming

When using the Huawei FreeLace Pro for gaming, the low-latency Gaming Mode automatically kicks in when you start a game. So, there is no need for me to press any button before I head into a game.

The latency is lowered to as low as 150ms. But, I can still notice a very, very slight delay from the game’s audio. When it comes to movie or video watching, the audio delay is less notice-able.

Call Quality

As for call quality, the Huawei FreeLace Pro actually sounds really decent. Calls are crystal clear, on both my end and the receiving end. The receiving end says the call is both loud and clear enough to perfectly make out every word I am saying. But, if you were to use the FreeLace Pro for long conversations lying down, it might get a little annoying around the neck.

Battery Life

When it comes to battery life, the Huawei FreeLace Pro has a built-in 150mAh battery that powers the earbuds. According to Huawei, with ANC off the earbuds can last up to 24 hours. In my test, I managed to get 23 hours and 36 minutes of use with the volume level set at 50%. With ANC turned on and 50% volume, I could get about 15 hours and 34 minutes of use.

Because the earbuds support the fast charging feature, plugging it into your phone also charges it simultaneously. 5 minutes of charge will give you 5 hours of music listening, and in my test, I only got 4 hours and 48 minutes – close enough.

To charge it, you need to pull out the right earbuds to reveal the charging port. And, you will need to use the adapter cable to allow charging. One problem I can see is, if you lose this adapter cable, you’ll need to plug it into the wall charger directly and it has to be a USB Type-C female port.

Conclusion

Honestly, for someone who has fully transitioned to TWS earbuds, it was hard to accept the Huawei FreeLace Pro at first. Despite it not being a TWS earbud, the Huawei FreeLace Pro is actually still a decent pair of earbuds. Priced at RM399, the neckband is comfortable, there are physical controls onboard, and the audio quality you’re getting is absolutely amazing.

It is best suited for commuters, frequent travelers, or people who do a lot chilling and easy listening at home. It would be great for businessmen/women too if they don’t mind the earbuds sticking out of their neck.

Huawei FreeLace Pro review: great value for money

If you’re looking for a sporty pair of wireless headphones, or just don’t want to take your high-end headphones or earbuds to the gym, Huawei has you covered. The company has a product portfolio that offers something for everyone, for every taste and basically for every wallet.

Today we take a look at the Huawei FreeLace Pro, which has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Not only is it wireless, but it also offers active noise cancellation, IP55 rating and 24 hour battery life.

We take a look at all of this in our Huawei FreeLace Pro review below.

Design, materials and fit

There are three color options to choose from: Obsidian Black, Dawn White, and Spruce Green which we are using for this review. Huawei chose the neckband style for the FreeLace Pro, which means you wear the base around your neck, with the two earbuds connected to the bracelet by a cable each.

They weigh 34 grams and except for the two metal parts in the middle (housing batteries and other tech) they have a nice rubber feel.

The controls (volume up, volume down, play / pause) are on the right metal part, along with the power button. This is also where you charge them: you can remove the bottom part of the metal part to reveal a USB-Type C connector. You can plug it into a USB-C charger or use the supplied cable adapter to the inside the box.

If you have a recent Huawei smartphone, plugging the headphones directly into the smartphone will not only charge the FreeLace Pro, but also pair it to the phone, if you choose to do so.

Small, Medium and Large are the three sizes of heads supplied with the FreeLace Pro. Once you’ve identified the right size for your ear, it’s a great fit, which not only fits snugly, but will stay inside your ears when you do any activity without a problem. They won’t fall off unless you remove them manually.

There’s another way to control the FreeLace Pro. the outside of the left ear cup doubles as a touch surface. Touching and holding it cycles through Huawei’s exclusive active noise cancellation modes: ANC on / Awareness / ANC off.

Home

I’ll be completely honest, I love the sound of the FreeBuds Pro. I think these are the best ANC compatible wireless headphones. That’s until I started listening to FreeLace Pro. No wonder they sound so good (more on sound in a segment below), as Huawei is packed with a pair of dynamic 14,2mm drivers, as opposed to the 11mm ones in the FreeBuds Pro.

With an overall length of 862,4mm, you might think they are a bit too long, but we don’t think you should be worried about it as it doesn’t interfere with your activity or movement.

They also contain two microphones for active noise cancellation and in-call noise cancellation is handled by a three microphone system.

That 24-hour playtime is made possible by the rather large 150mAh battery, which takes roughly an hour or so to fully charge.

As mentioned earlier, if you are using a relatively new Huawei smartphone model (on EMUI 9.1 and above), you will also benefit from Huawei HiPair and its fast charging.

The Bluetooth radio is compatible with BT 5.0 standard and the whole system is rated IP55 for splash, water and dust resistance.

Experience

We used the Huawei FreeLace Pro paired with both a Huawei Mate 40 Pro and an iPhone 12 Pro Max. We didn’t find any difference in the experience, except that when paired with a Huawei smartphone, the entire user experience is seamless. This, of course, should come as no surprise.

Pairing

Pairing with the Mate 40 Pro was as easy as plugging it into the phone’s USB Type-C charging port. EMUI 11 automatically detects the headphones and asks you if you want to pair them or not. Once paired, you have access to settings and firmware updates, which we received during our review period: 1.0.0.139 and 1.0.0.145.

Huawei announces an autonomy of one day, which we obviously could not test in one go. We used it for about 3 hours a day for a whole week, and we still have battery left on it.

If you own a modern Huawei phone, you can simply rely on it to charge the FreeLace Pro, by plugging it directly into the device’s USB Type-C port.

If you don’t, you can plug it directly into a USB Type-C charger, and if you don’t have it, Huawei bundles a USB Type-C to Type-A cable so that you can easily charge your headphones by using whatever charger you have handy.

Another cool feature is the magnetic back of the headphones. Not only does it keep the two earbuds in place, preventing them from swaying, but it also disconnects from your device’s Bluetooth when they are magnetically connected together, and reconnects once you’ve taken them apart. You can save battery power without having to press the power button on the neck strap.

Phone calls and audio quality

With noise cancellation during calls, thanks to the FreeLace Pro’s multiple microphones, people on the other end of the line will hear your voice loud and clear, without any background noise, no matter where you are. find. You can be outside and the traffic noise won’t pass through, or you can be inside with fans or air conditioning, the other party won’t hear any distractions.

On the other hand, you will hear the interlocutor loud and clear, thanks to the rather large dynamic pilots that feed the FreeLace Pro. If your carrier supports HD voice or if you are on a WhatsApp / / Face Time call, you will hear crystal clear voices.

As far as music goes, as I mentioned at the start of this review, I personally think the FreeLace Pro sounds a bit better than the FreeBuds Pro. That’s not to say the latter sounds bad. They both sound great, with the FreeLace Pro sounding richer, more amplified, and a bit louder. This is due to bigger speakers on the one hand and an independent low frequency sound tube on the other hand.

You can hear tones across the spectrum, from rich lows to punchy mids and crystal-clear highs. Whatever type and genre of music you prefer, as long as it is a high quality stream or encoding, you will be able to enjoy your music with a great listening experience and quality. top notch audio.

Noise cancellation

There’s an outward-facing microphone that picks up external noise (and actively neutralizes it with even noise-canceling sound), and there is an inward-facing microphone that picks up in-ear noise (and generates additional noise-canceling sound to eliminate it).

As with all modern Huawei headphones or headsets (FreeBuds Studio), the company offers its exclusive and innovative noise reduction system. It has three stages. When off, you’ll still get passive noise cancellation due to the FreeLace Pro adopting an in-ear channel design. By this alone, some of the noise will be physically prevented from entering your ears.

Enabling active noise cancellation will take advantage of these two per-button microphones to intelligently measure and cancel detected noise, so you can enjoy your audio content without any distraction, whether you are outdoors, on the go, or on the go. in a car or on a plane / train.

There is also a special mode called Consciousness, which blocks out all noise except the frequencies on which we humans communicate when speaking. It not only lets voices pass, but it amplifies them as well, acting like a hearing aid in a sense. This is useful if you want to have a conversation without removing the headphones, or if you are at the airport and waiting for your flight to be announced.

Conclusion

There’s no way we can’t recommend the FreeLace Pro. Everything works for it, from great battery life and stellar audio quality, to good fit, active noise cancellation and IP55 rating. If you are the active type of person, these should definitely be on your list.

Normally € 119, they are currently priced at € 99,00 in Germany. In the Netherlands they cost € 129,99, but you get a Huawei Band 4 Pro Pink Gold worth € 80 for free. In the UK they regularly cost you £ 119,99, but now you can pick them up for £ 99,99, and also get a free Huawei Band 4 Sakura Pink worth £ 40.

Pros and cons

Advantages: excellent autonomy excellent sound quality convenient charging (if you have a modern Huawei phone) active noise cancellation Protection index IP55

The inconvenients:- color options may not suit all tastes- no wear detection

Huawei FreeLace review: Good-looking workout ready wireless buds that lack a little oomph [Video]

The slow and drawn out death of the traditional headphone port means that even heading to the gym we need a solid pair of workout wireless buds — which is where the Huawei FreeLace earbuds come in.

Having a solid pair of earbuds solely for working out might seem an indulgence, but sweat, strain, and the general rigors of the gym (or any other workout) puts a different wear on your headphones compared to simply listening during a normal day.

That means things like water, sweat, and dust resistance tend to be key and it’s the reason that headphones tend to come in weird and wonderful shapes, sizes and fits. It does mean that we sometimes see gym-goers wearing wireless headphones or earbuds connected via a tether.

That is the design that Huawei has adopted for the FreeLace earbuds. As a genuine everyday user of the Samsung Galaxy Buds, just how does this cheaper, sports-focused option stack up?

Design Hardware

Tethered wireless earbuds

The last pair of wireless “sport” headphones I have personally owned happened to be the Anker SoundBuds Curve earbuds. I simply wanted a cheap and cheerful pair of Bluetooth headphones for the gym and cycling to and from the job I had at the time.

I couldn’t get over the uncomfortable — but secure — over-ear clip style. Luckily, the Huawei FreeLace buds haven’t opted for that awful clip option. I say “awful” as I have particularly large ears and do struggle to find headphones, and by extension, earbuds that fit well in that style.

The simple design is not something I would consider to be a trademark of Huawei. The FreeLace buds are very minimal and are pretty sleek in the black color at least. Not being loud and proud is something I am a fan of with certain tech accessories — headphones or earbuds being one such accessory — so I’m pleased that Huawei opted for a simple design.

You get two extra pairs of bud tips in addition to the standard option that comes pre-installed. I found the pre-installed tips to be the perfect fit, but the sound isolation wasn’t exceptional so settled for the largest of the three pairs to get better audio isolation.

I will say that I am a little disappointed that there is no carry case or even a pouch within the packaging. You’ll have to pick up one of your own to protect the cable from nicks and potential stretching. Stretching might prove to be something you will be wary of, as the cable actually detaches about two-thirds of the way along to reveal a USB-C connector.

This connection is the only way to charge the Huawei FreeLace earphones. You snap the cable apart and then plug the USB-C cable into the bottom of your device to juice them up. It’s a neat way of charging, as you wouldn’t usually be without your device. There is also an adaptor in the box that converts from USB-C to USB-A which does allow you to charge via a plug or PC — but let’s be real for a second — that is nowhere near as cool as charging up via your phone.

Back to that cable, and this is where I think that the design is much better suited to activity in general. As infrequently as I head to the gym nowadays, the ability to remove one earbud and then have it hang down your chest without completely dropping it is especially valuable. Whereas the Samsung Galaxy Buds solve this by using a screw-in style fin, they aren’t quite as comfortable for extended wear as a result.

Plus drop a solitary bud and you run the risk of doing damage to them. That could result in breakage quite easily, but the tethered together nature of the FreeLace earbuds negates this risk altogether.

When worn, I found the cable that runs around the back of your neck pretty comfortable. The inline controls and what I guess is the battery and tech pack both worked well to balance the cable without it feeling weighty or uncomfortable. Naturally, that cable will attract sweat at the back of your neck when you do go and workout.

Pairing Process

Plug and play

I found the pairing process a bit frustrating to be completely honest. I even say that as I have the P30 Pro — which is the easiest device to pair with. I found that with my OnePlus 6T, the device didn’t recognize the buds at first.

Using the USB-C cable you plug into the bottom of a Huawei phone or device and it will instantly pair. That process was finicky and wasn’t foolproof. I still think that OEMs on the Android side of the fence really still have some catching up to do with Apple in this regard.

Once paired though, the reconnection process is absolutely painless. Power on and then your earbuds will connect quickly and easily. The initial process is just not as intuitive for non-Huawei users as it should be. It didn’t help that for some reason, my earbuds came with Chinese as the pre-chosen language and I had a Chinese lady give audio queues that I simply couldn’t understand at first.

There isn’t even an application to manage the headphones for pairing and management. That is technically a pro and a con, but one that is worth noting as it would still be nice to have the option to check, pair, or manage the FreeLace earbuds.

Sound Quality Controls

Average sound, exceptional controls

Let’s talk the core portion of the FreeLace earbuds, and unfortunately, it’s arguably not the strong suit of these earbuds. The bass can feel a little hollow even compared to the TicPods Free. The overall clarity and soundstage are acceptable, but not exactly great. For me, the lack of ability to really tweak the EQ settings natively is a bit disappointing too.

Listening to more nuanced tracks and classical music is not something you’ll enjoy too heavily with the Huawei FreeLace earbuds. Firing up Flume’s Holdin’ On resulted in a muted experience with bass that really lacked the oomph I usually look for, although the mids and highs were well-preserved even at high volume.

I just find that music feels a little hollow and lacking in real depth. To be completely honest, for gym wear that isn’t too much of an issue as I use music as a literal soundtrack for working out. If you wanted an everyday pair of earbuds, then it becomes harder to really defend the average audio experience.

Conversely, with spoken word audio — particularly podcasts — the audio is crystal clear and literally zero issues. I do find though that I avoid putting the volume at the very top as it starts to separate and the quality really does suffer.

As for the controls, I am a huge fan of the inline remote. It has a brushed aluminum finish and feels sturdy unlike the cheap, small, and frustrating plastic controls you find on many similarly styled wired and wireless options. I prefer the tactile feedback that you get from physical buttons rather than touchpads that end up not playing nicely with sweaty digits.

Being able to adjust the volume, skip tracks, and launch the Google Assistant is nice and convenient with actual buttons. As for the controls themselves, they are nice and generic. So there are dedicated volume up/down keys and a central multipurpose button. A single tap pauses, double tap skips, and a triple tap skips back. I’ve found that these controls work nine out of ten times in my experience.

Another neat inclusion as part of the hardware is the magnetic buds themselves. That doubles up as an extra control so that when you close them together it will pause the current track or end a call. Simply pull them apart and the music will resume, doing so will also answer an incoming call.

Battery Life

Superb but with caveats

Huawei claims that the FreeLace earbuds can manage 18 hours of continuous playback, but I’m not so sure that I’ve even managed anywhere remotely near that level since owning the earbuds. I tend to pick them up and stuff them in a bag before I go anywhere, charge when I can and then hope that they last for a quick blast in the gym or walking my dog.

The 120mAh battery does well though, I would estimate over 10 hours of usage over the course of a week before I had a warning on my P30 Pro about low battery life. I personally just wish that Huawei hadn’t made such a bold claim about the battery life — it’s even embossed on the packaging — as you feel a tiny bit robbed. 10 hours is still awesome and I have to keep telling myself that.

I mentioned charging already, but it is neat to be able to stick the headphones into the bottom of your smartphone and give the FreeLace earbuds some juice. Plugging them into my Pixel 3 charger had them charged in around 10 minutes — I’m not sure this is really recommended though to ensure extended battery health.

Verdict

Solid but not quite spectacular

At £99 in the UK or around 119, the Huawei FreeLace Bluetooth earbuds aren’t a terrible value proposition. If you happen to own a Huawei device, they are an almost perfect companion. The problem is that the sound quality is only a tiny bit above average at best.

I’m not saying they are bad by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just that for an extra 20 or so, the Samsung Galaxy Buds offer a better overall experience in my opinion. That said, for anyone who would consider themselves extremely active, they are a good option, but most definitely nowhere near the best.

If you simply want a dirt cheap pair of Bluetooth earbuds for the gym with solid bang for your buck audio, then I’d say pick up the Mpow Flame earbuds. Although they have an over-ear clip, at under 20, they are really superb gym-goer earbuds that can withstand a workout and have pretty good audio to boot.

I’m also reluctant to recommend the Huawei FreeLace if you own a non-Huawei branded device. The pairing process was a little bit trickier than it should have been for my other handsets, and that is one thing that really did irk me even despite these earbuds being a solid purchase.

Overall, the Huawei FreeLace earbuds are what I would call a 6.5/10 option. Hopefully, we’ll see the next iteration really improve upon the basic formula Huawei has concocted with the FreeLaces.

on Huawei:

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