Huawei is going strong in the world of smart wearables, bringing some amazing TWS products. Freebuds 5i is its latest product which was introduced in China last June and arrived on the international scene just in time for the holiday season.
We spent some time with a pair of Huawei Freebuds 5i and tested claims of better noise cancellation, longer battery life and faster connectivity. Here’s what we found out.
We have the Freebuds 5i in blue, which we think is the prettiest color of the three (the other two are black and white). Regardless of color, you get a smooth finish that looks and feels like a pebble. There’s a button on the side for resetting the earbuds and a USB-C port for charging. The back side is flat, allowing you to lay the case on a flat surface without wobbling.
The buds inside the case have a glossy finish, but are quite resistant to fingerprints. The stem is relatively short and the buds have rubber tips, with two more sizes included in the package. The USB-A to USB-C cable is the other element in the box of the €100 earphones.
We loved that the magnets, which hold the buds in the case, aren’t as strong as they were in the Freebuds 4i, making them easier to pop out. Each bud supports touch gestures and, for the first time ever, they also have volume control by swiping up or down the stem.
The Huawei Freebuds 5i support the Bluetooth 5.2 standard and you can pair them without any additional software. However, the Huawei AI Life app is required to access their extra features. We suggest you get it from the AppGallery as the latest updates take their time to arrive on the Google Play Store.
Huawei promises a quick pairing with an automatic prompt when you first open the box, but it only works as expected within the Huawei ecosystem. By simply opening the case, a Huawei smartphone will display a connection request. Any other smartphone has to take the scenic route and visit the app, but the process is still quick and painless.
Screenshots of Huawei AI Life
Huawei managed to reduce the weight by 18%, but kept the overall design and even increased the battery capacity by around 60%. Each bud has 55mAh, and the case adds an extra 410mAh, which the company promises gives you 28 hours of music playback.
Playing AAC music on a single charge is claimed to be 7.5 hours at 50% volume, but our tests fell slightly short of that number, barely hitting 7 hours. Endurance with ANC enabled then should be 6 hours on a single charge, and here we were closer, just 10-15 minutes below the mark. It’s still solid strength, and you can easily get through even the longest flights if you pop the Freebuds 5i back into the case every now and then.
Huawei Freebuds 5i
When it comes to recharging, Huawei has promised 15 minutes of buds in the case to get you back four hours of playback. We found that charging is as fast as advertised, meaning refills feel almost instantaneous.
The entire 410mAh battery in the case and the two 55mAh batteries in the buds charge from 0% to 100% in just 90 minutes, even faster than the advertised 110 minutes for the case alone. However, the Huawei Freebuds 5i case doesn’t support wireless charging, so plugging them in is a must.
The Huawei AI Life app lets you turn on or off the three noise canceling options: Noise Canceling, Off, and Awareness. The former has three different modes: Cozy, for places with some noise, General, which is the default option, and Ultra, for maximum ANC.
We found the Freebuds 5i’s ANC to be as good if not quite up to par with the best out there. The Galaxy Buds2 Pro and Freebuds Pro 2 would be better flight companions, but they’re in a completely different price category.
The app also provides basic sound quality presets: Default, Bass Boost and Treble Boost.
The 10mm dynamic driver and its polymer composite diaphragm do a decent job in the mid and high frequencies, but the Freebuds 5i hardly fall short when it comes to reproducing deep bass.
This makes the Freebuds 5i a great choice for pop listeners and conferences. They are also suitable for casual training with an IP54 rating. We tested the buds in extreme conditions, including racing in cold winter rain, and sound and fit weren’t compromised in the slightest.
The Huawei Freebuds 5i is a solid step up from the Freebuds 4i, which were announced over 18 months ago. Bearing in mind the £90/€100 price point, we were impressed with the ANC performance, speedy connectivity and gesture controls. Battery life is also impressive, and while the audio quality isn’t the best out there, it’s not bad enough to be a deal breaker.
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