- The FreeBuds Pro 5 have landed, touted as offering Huawei’s ‘best ANC’
- 10% smaller; 6% lighter; all-new dual-speaker acoustic system
- …and after four days with them, I really like them for £179 (overall price TBC)
After a 16-month hiatus – Huawei unveiled its FreeBuds Pro 4 in November 2024 – the brand is back with the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5.
It’s too early to give a full verdict, but my first impressions should be good news for the company, whose lineup with the Pro suffix dates back to September 2020 with the first Huawei FreeBuds Pro (followed by the FreeBuds Pro 2 in summer 2022 and the FreeBuds Pro 3 at the end of 2024) but which has so far failed to exceed the four-star rating.
My hunch is that this is about to change.
Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5: what you need to know
So some key information. There’s a new “diamond engraved star oval” on the bar (or stem) that has a touch sensor, but you can also squeeze the stems and slide your finger up or down. interior edge of said rods, to control the volume. Pinch, tap or hold gesture controls can be changed and adapted in the new Huawei Audio Connect app, which I found to be both sleek and intuitive, with easy menu access to quickly find what you want to change.
Huawei also tells me that the new internal antenna offers a 38% improvement in Bluetooth range and is twice as effective at eliminating Bluetooth interference. I haven’t tested them in a really harsh or built-up area yet, but, given what I’ve heard so far, I’m inclined to believe this claim.
Your color options are white, gray, a blue vegan leather finish, and sand (my set), and the slim case is a real highlight. It closes with strong magnets and features a light ring on the front that can glow red, green, or white to let you know about battery life, pairing status, and more.
One thing about pairing: there is a small button on the right side of the case when you look at the halo light, which you need to press during initial pairing. However, once I visited the quick start guide and app to figure this out, the connection to both Bluetooth and the companion app never faltered.
According to Huawei, the earbuds are 10% smaller, 6% lighter and their “comfort has evolved” thanks to more than 10,000 ear profiles. I can confirm that they seem smaller above the antitragus and are not tiring, even for my small ears.
Despite their smaller and lighter dimensions, the audio output would be greater, thanks to an all-new dual-speaker acoustic system. It uses a redesigned 6mm planar magnetic tweeter and woofer circuit that delivers 45% less distortion and promotes independent airflow between the drivers, in the headshell. According to Huawei, this means clearer and more precise sound across all frequencies.
If you’re using a Huawei phone (I’m not), the company tells me you’ll have access to 24-bit/48kHz audio, which is definitely high-res, but even without one, the brand claims you’ll still have access to 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality audio.
Something Huawei calls “unlimited spatial audio with head tracking” is also listed as integrated, which essentially means immersive device-agnostic audio that doesn’t require a Huawei source device. At the time of writing (i.e. before they launched) I can’t find this in the app, but it may be incoming.
Better noise cancellation, exceptional battery life? Yes, and yes
You get three mics per earbud in the FreeBuds Pro 5 to help with what Huawei calls the “world’s first earbuds with dual-engine ANC architecture.” Basically, the dual-driver system works in unison, but as independent noise-canceling engines, where the low-frequency driver tackles persistent rumbles while the high-frequency driver manages to eliminate those sudden, high-pitched sounds.
A new MIMO AI Sensing model is in charge, processing noise data up to 400,000 times per second. And the result? That’s a big claim: Huawei says the FreeBuds Pro 5’s noise cancellation has improved by up to 220% compared to the previous generation.
Specifically, because effectiveness differs depending on the environment (i.e. the specific noise the algorithm and audio architecture is trying to eliminate), I’m told your improvements can be as high as 204% in a gym or 220% in an airplane cabin. ANC can also reach higher frequencies than before, up to 6 kHz (compared to 4 kHz in the old model).
I haven’t taken a flight with them yet, but I have to tell you that from my short time with the FreeBuds Pro 5, the ANC is very good. I unfurl it and the loud noises in my house (the neighbors, the cars outside, the headlines we keep on loop because my partner is also a journalist) simply melt away. Are the AirPods Pro 3 good? I’ll need more time…but like I said, it’s good!
One last thing on ANC before we move on to endurance: alongside your usual ‘Noise Canceling’, ‘Awareness’ and ‘Off’ toggles in the app, deploying noise cancellation allows you to choose between ‘Dual-engine’ (the solution described above, which I really like), ‘Cozy’ (for low-noise places), ‘General’ (your everyday noise) and ‘Ultra’ (for very noisy places). noisy). In Awareness, you can also select “Standard,” “Vocal Awareness,” and “Adaptive Awareness.” And refreshingly, I discovered that none of these made my music sound tinny or filtered way too much ambient noise into my poor shells, but allowed me to hear my surroundings well.
Okay, what about battery life? It’s also good on paper, at nine hours (without ANC deployed) or 38 hours including case. While this is initially comparable to the AirPods Pro 3, which offer eight hours with ANC enabled or 6.5 hours with additional whistles and bells like the heart rate sensor enabled, Apple’s product only offers 24 hours with the case.
Obviously I have to test these claims, but as someone who takes long train journeys and has a very poor gadget charging game, I appreciate the extra endurance in my listening gear.
Other benefits
In no particular order, the menu also includes multi-point for two devices, eight EQ presets for prioritizing certain frequencies such as “Voice”, or for specific use cases including “Movie Mode” (all developed by experts at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music, no less), or the ability to create your own using a 10-band EQ tab.
Conversation awareness is also present (although somewhat hidden behind the “Adaptive Audio” tab, next to Adaptive Volume) which is similar to Sony’s Speak to Chat, and while I found it didn’t reduce the volume level of my music as much as the recent Sony WF-1000XM6 rival, I still like it.
You also get the option to answer and reject calls by nodding or shaking your head, wear sensing to pause playback if you remove an earbud and resume it when you put it back in, an eartip fit test, and a toggle to optimize the fit if you’re using memory foam eartips (which is nice because only the silicone options are provided, although you get four in total and the average set pre-installed suits me very well).
There’s also a nice ‘Find’ feature that plays a sound from the earbud you’ve dropped under the couch to help you find it, a low-latency toggle for gaming, an option to get ANC in a single earbud, and finally, the choice to turn on or off case sounds.
It may sound silly, but the tones of the case are superb! And I stand by that statement. Once activated, you can choose from a range of tones such as “Fontaine”, “Pixies” and “Dewdrop”, but “Whistle” is my favorite. It’s a good thing to turn off if you’re trying to surreptitiously put music in your ear to make classes go a little faster, sure, but it cheered me up every time I opened that little case and received a cheerful whistle for my trouble.
And the sound?
There are no hearing tests here to create custom sound profiles or increase your hearing, but I found the sound punchy and assertive while still being clear, neutral, and able to uncover detail on frequencies that other headphones for this money struggle to achieve.
The bad rabbit INoLVIDABLE BAILE was expansive, but featured female backing vocals in my right ear that were rarely polished and celebrated by buds at that level. The trumpets sound textured and real and the timing is precise, with leading edges of the notes all delivered diligently in zealous mixing. It was a similar story with Perfume Genius’ Glorywith rhythmic percussion faithfully supporting Michael Alden Hadreas’ central, emotive vocals, while playful, high-pitched glockenspiel notes resonate in the high register.
For £179 (that’s about $240 or AU$340, although these are estimates, as official prices for the US and Australia have yet to be announced), the sound value per pound is strong, for me.
Come back soon for a full review…
The best wireless headphones for every budget
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