Huawei Freebuds Studio
Ben sinHuawei’s consumer business has been expanding beyond just smartphones over the past years, with laptops, tablets, smartwatches, earbuds and even smart sunglasses, and now comes the company’s first ever over-the-ear headphones.
From its 299 euro ($362) price to its premium build and design, it’s obvious the Huawei Freebuds Studio are meant to take on established names like Bose and Sennheiser. Those who are familiar with Huawei’s smartphones will find the Freebuds Studio’s design familiar: there’s an emphasis on symmetrical curves and minimalism, without the bright colors or giant garish logos of a Beats headphones or the hard edges of the Sennheiser Momentum 3
Huawei Freebuds Studio
Ben SinBlack protein leather wrap around the aluminum bands and ear cups, with headband length adjustable via a sliding mechanism hidden inside the leather. The cups are rotatable up to 90-degrees into a flat position for easier storage in the included carrying case, which has a slot housing a USB-C charging cable.
In terms of comfort the Freebuds Studios’ highly flexible band (which can stretch up to 150 degrees) are more comfortable than previous over-the-ear headphones I’ve owned, such as the Anker Soundcore Space or the Beats Studios, thanks to its highly flexible band, which Huawei says can stretch up to 150 degrees.
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The Freebuds Studio's design
Ben sinUnlike my Anker or Beats headphones, whose band would creak if I stretch them too far apart, the Huawei ones felt sturdy and secure even as I pulled the band to far beyond any human head’s width.
Stretching the Huawei Freebuds Studio's bands
Ben SinThe leather cups provide a nice seal around the ear, which by itself already provides a form of noise cancellation, but really what makes these headphones worth checking out is that it features some of the best noise cancellation tech around, too.
The Freebuds Studio are a comfortable fit
Ben SinThe Freebuds Studio has what Huawei advertise as “Dynamic Active Noise Cancellation,” which means the headphones can identify sounds from the environment and provides the right amount of noise cancellation. For example, in a room with a loud fan or air conditioning, it may focus on tuning out the low frequency whirrs. In a noisy environment like a packed Starbucks, it focuses on drowning out human voices.
The headphones pull this off with a combination of AI smarts—the Studio features Huawei’s own chip built in-house—and six microphones built into the two ear cups, four of which are used to actively identify surrounding noise.
But here’s the thing, nice looking/feeling headphones with active noise cancellation aren’t exactly rare these days, especially for anyone willing to pay over $300. What sets the Freebuds Studio apart for me are these two additional features: the first is an excellent transparency mode, and the other is volume control directly via the headphones.
Let’s go over the transparency mode (which Huawei calls “sound pass through”) first. This essentially allows certain sound to pass through to the headphones on purpose—it’s sort of like the opposite of noise cancellation.
Most headphones or earbuds with transparency mode I’ve tested have been hard to use in Hong Kong because they merely let in all sound, and Hong Kong has one of the worst levels of noise pollution on Earth. With Apple’s AirPods Pro, for example, having transparency mode on in Hong Kong’s city streets actually hurts my ears as the AirPods Pro are letting in everything—including the buzz of air conditioning, construction site drilling, car engines revving.
Huawei’s transparency mode is dynamic, in that it tends to focus on the sound that matters, such as human voices. In fact, Huawei has a companion app in which you can further tweak settings to highlight just human voices. This means I can wear the Freebuds Studio outside with transparency mode on, and instead of being blasted with every noise from the streets, I’m just getting human chatters and other sharp noises like cars honking. For me personally, I like that I can wear the headphones while working, but if someone were to ask me a question, I can conduct a basic conversation without needing to stop the music or remove the headphones.
The latter I try not to do as it’s one of the shortcomings of the Freebuds Studio—every time I remove the headphones, the music stops automatically, picking up again when you put the headphones back on. This is supposed to be a “smart” feature, but I don’t like it as I’m quite finicky and constantly adjusting my headphone placement. I don’t like having the music stopping in its tracks just because I repositioned my headphones or gave my ears a quick split-second scratch—especially since the restarting process is relatively slow, sometimes taking a full second before music plays again.
Huawei’s app is supposed to let me turn this auto stop feature off, but it doesn’t work. I’d turn the feature off, and the headphones would continue to behave as if the feature was still switched on.
Huawei Freebuds Studio
Ben Sin
The Freebuds Studio
Ben SinThe second feature that is not readily available in many wireless headphones or earbuds is volume control. The Freebuds Studio, like many wireless earbuds and headphones, has a touch sensitive panel on the outside of the earpieces. But while most wireless earbuds/headphones I’ve tested only allow music playback controls, the Freebuds Studio includes those plus the ability to adjust volume with swipes. It’s very intuitive to use and another feature I enjoy personally as I am always tweaking with volume.
The Freebuds Studio also pack 40mm drivers in each cup so they pump out full and balanced sound. I’m no audiophile, but I can say the music I listen to—90s hip hop, 2000s U.S. east coast rock, 70s British rock—all sound great, with just the right amount of bass and clear mids and highs.
Battery life as usual for a Huawei device, is among the strongest in the industry. The Freebuds Studio can play 24 hours of audio on a single charge without noise cancellation or transparency mode on, but even with either mode on, it can still play for 20 hours.
Connectivity is strong, since the headphones use the latest Bluetooth tech (5.2), and voice calls quality are also above average for the person on the other party, with the six mics working in unison to pick up my voice.
Overall, the Huawei Freebuds Studio are an excellent pair of premium headphones. Although its $360 price tag will likely seem high to people who aren’t into premium headphones, it is actually priced a bit lower than what Bose, Sony and Sennheiser charge for their top-of-the-line headphones.
The Link LonkDecember 07, 2020 at 04:00PM
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Huawei Freebuds Studio Review: Intelligent Noise Cancellation Sets It Apart - Forbes
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