Fewer and fewer users can remember Huawei smartphones, which have virtually disappeared from the European market due to sanctions imposed by the US government. However, the manufacturer's accessories, such as smart watches, fitness bracelets and headphones, can still be found on sale. And judging by the number of reviews and ratings in various online stores, they are still popular. So we became interested in what Huawei now offers in terms of audio and whether the company's flagship headphones can compete with other models in this class. The manufacturer has just updated its top-of-the-line wireless headphone offering, introducing the FreeBuds Pro 4. Let's take a closer look at their features and capabilities.
Specifications
Package contents
Huawei is trying hard to show that despite the hardships of the last six years, it is capable of producing high-quality products. That is why the packaging of the FreeBuds Pro 4 is appropriate, they come in a rather voluminous box, inside which you can find the headphones themselves in a charging case, documentation, a charging cable, and two types of ear tips: traditional silicone ones, as well as foam ones for better noise isolation.
Design and functionality
The FreeBuds Pro 4 have teardrop-shaped emitters that smoothly transition into rectangular legs. The latter are quite massive when compared, for example, to the AirPods Pro 2.
This design choice is explained by the fact that they feature not only traditional touch controls, but also a sensitive panel on the side that allows you to control noise cancellation and playback by lightly squeezing the legs or squeezing and holding.
In total, the FreeBuds Pro 4 offer three control options: touching the outside of the legs, a touch panel on the side, and head gestures. For example, you can answer a call by nodding from top to bottom, and reject it by shaking your head from side to side. All control options can be active at the same time, they can be turned off completely, or leave only what is more convenient for you.
It is worth noting that having several control methods at once is quite convenient. The accelerometer built into the headphones allows you to quite accurately determine head movements and answer a call, but doing this is quite unusual and even a little comical in public places. Therefore, traditional touches to the outer part of the headphone stem and squeezing seem more convenient.
You can also do sports in the FreeBuds Pro 4, they have IP54 water resistance, so they should withstand intense workouts.
The headphones are made of plastic, weigh 5.8 grams, and are available in three colors: black, white, and green. The latter is not yet officially sold in Ukraine.
All color options feature gold accents, like the edging on the outside of the earphones and the gold-plated Huawei logo.
It is unlikely that everyone will like such an accent color, after all, the previous generation (FreeBuds Pro 3) was more restrained. But the manufacturer specifically chose such a design, calling it Silver String Design. It was supposedly inspired by musical instruments, so in addition to the gold accents on the legs of the headphones, you can see thin lines representing strings. The legs themselves are covered with several layers of varnish on the outside. That is, such an allusion to a classical musical instrument.
The case design has the same gold accents: the lid trim, USB-C port, and gold hinge. The case itself is made of matte plastic, which resists scratches quite well, and on its back there is a ceramic insert, again with "strings" and a gold-plated Huawei logo.
To connect to smartphones or laptops, the headphones use the Bluetooth 5.2 protocol with support for AAC, LDAC, and SBC codecs, so there are no compatibility problems. However, if you need to configure them, you will have to install the AI Life application, and paradoxically, it can be downloaded on iPhone from the App Store, but for Android it is not available on Google Play. You will have to download the APK file from the manufacturer's website and install it manually. The program will be updated automatically, but, again, not through Google Play. So you will have to install at your own peril and risk.
The AI Life app itself is pretty simple and offers all the necessary settings for the headphones. Here you can control noise cancellation, choose a sound profile or create your own, and configure gesture and head movement controls. In addition, AI Life will be needed to update the FreeBuds Pro 4 firmware.
Like most flagship TWS earbuds, the model supports simultaneous connection to two devices with the ability to quickly automatically switch depending on where the audio is playing. In addition, you can manually select the priority device.
Sound, noise cancellation and microphones
The headphones have two speakers: a dynamic and a planar. In addition, they are Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified and can play higher quality audio via the LDAC codec with a bitrate of 990 Kbps. They also support Huawei's own Hi-Res codec, called L2HC 2.0, but it is only supported on the company's devices.
Even when listening to streaming services like Spotify or YouTube Music, the FreeBuds Pro 4 provide sound at the level of top headphones, in particular they can compete with AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5. The model from Huawei also forms a very wide imaginary stage with good detail and tangible bass. At the same time, the emphasis in the sound can change depending on the selected profile and your own equalizer settings, you can shift the emphasis to high, medium or low frequencies, according to your preferences.
Another "feature" of the FreeBuds Pro 4 is the active noise cancellation system (ANC) , which is worth dwelling on in more detail. The headphones have three levels of noise cancellation: comfortable, balanced and maximum. But by default, the dynamic mode is used, which automatically switches between them depending on the level of ambient noise.
The ANC system works really well, you can comfortably listen to music in the subway, and even if you don't like the music in a cafe, and you're sitting next to the speakers. Foam tips allow you to block out noise even better due to a tighter fit. But it's worth noting that if you also use the headphones as a headset, your voice will also be muffled. So talking through headphones with foam tips will be less comfortable.
If the sound quality and noise cancellation in TWS headphones today are no longer surprising, because the choice of top models is really very wide, then not all models cope well with voice transmission. As a rule, the software in the headphones tries to separate the voice from the background noise and makes it too “metallic”. Another problem is the wind blowing into the headphones, which also creates unfavorable conditions for the operation of the microphones. In FreeBuds Pro 4, they tried to solve this by using three microphones on each headphone and a bone conduction sensor. And it is worth noting that the voice transmission in this model is really very good. Even in conditions of strong noise, the headphones manage to effectively isolate the voice without distorting it too much. That is, your interlocutor will hardly feel the difference between whether you are in a quiet or noisy room.
Battery life
The headphones' built-in batteries have a capacity of 55 mAh, which is enough for 4.5 hours of music playback with noise cancellation via the LDAC codec, as well as up to 5 hours with AAC. Without ANC , you can count on 6.5 and 7 hours of playback, respectively, which is less than in some flagship TWS headphones, but this is still enough for comfortable use.
Especially since the case has a 510 mAh battery, providing an additional 22 to 33 hours of music listening, depending on the selected codec and activation of noise cancellation. Especially since the headphones only need 40 minutes in the case to fully charge, and the headphones themselves are fully charged in 60 minutes with wired charging and 150 minutes with wireless charging.