HUAWEI brings its most unique-looking ANC earbuds to global markets

Earbuds come in all shapes and sizes these days, to the point that most are indistinguishable from others. To stand out, you need to have a really strong talking point. We’ve seen some great earbuds like the Nothing Ear 2 use their unique design to their advantage. HUAWEI also sees design as a big win, and the new FreeBuds 5 are proof that the company is very comfortable with experimenting. If you like what you see and want to hear what the fuss is all about, the FreeBuds 5 are now available for purchase in Europe and UK.

Design

The HUAWEI FreeBuds 5 take the conventional stem earbud design and round it up, quite literally. The company calls it the “waterdrop design” that is seemingly inspired by the shape of Prince Rupert’s drop. HUAWEI claims it has done a lot of experimentation, analyzing thousands of ears to arrive at this design that will fit in your ears comfortably and weightlessly. The result is an earbud that feels familiar but is unlike any we’ve seen before.

The charging case for the earbuds has an oval design that should fit into pockets very well. The cap opens up at an angle, and the earbuds are proudly on display. It is indeed unique.

Features

As for the rest of the features, the HUAWEI FreeBuds 5 come with 11mm dual magnetic circuit dynamic drivers. There are three mics on board, enabling hybrid ANC capabilities. The earbuds can also dynamically switch between ANC profiles. For the cherry on the cake, they also offer noise cancelation for calls, so your voice sounds clearer even if you have high background noise.

There’s a triple adaptive EQ on board that enables real-time sound optimization, though as usual, you’d need the companion app. The earbuds support Hi-Res Audio with LDAC support, as well as L2HC, which is HUAWEI’s proprietary HD audio codec, so you obviously need a HUAWEI smartphone for the latter. You also need HUAWEI smartphones to enable dual-device connectivity with Bluetooth 5.2.

The individual earbuds have a 42mAh battery each, while the case has a 505mAh battery. HUAWEI claims you can get five hours of run time on the earbuds without ANC and 3.5 hours with ANC, while the charging case will extend the totals to 30 hours without ANC and 20 hours with ANC. There’s quick charging on board, so you can get two hours of playtime with just five minutes of charge. The earbuds case supports both wired and wireless charging. They also offer spatial audio on HarmonyOS 3 smartphones

And to round things off, the earbuds have IP54 water resistance, although the case does not have any IP rating.

HUAWEI FreeBuds 5: Pricing and availability

The HUAWEI FreeBuds 5 will be available for purchase in Europe and the UK starting April 17, 2023, for €159/£140 (~$174). You can get them in Coral Orange, Silver Frost, and Ceramic White colors.