Introduction, unpacking
If you’re looking for a good pair of wireless headphones, there’s a good chance Huawei has something for you. Whether it’s a pair of truly wireless earbuds or neckband-style wireless earbuds, Huawei has a product in every segment.
Today we take a look at the Huawei FreeLace Pro – a premium wireless headset with active noise cancellation, an IP55 rating, 24 hours of battery life, and promises of impressive sound quality.
We received the Green model, which offers the best balance between casual and eye-catching. There is also a cream white model and a matte black model.
Spruce Green, Obsidian Black, Dawn White
Priced at a reasonable $ 119, the FreeLace Pro comes with three sets of tips in different sizes and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable.
You can also charge the headphones by plugging them directly into a USB-C charger or USB-C phone with reverse charge support.
Design and cut
The Huawei FreeLace Pro are very light at only 34g. They are made of a soft rubber material that won’t catch on your clothes or your skin. The bud itself doesn’t protrude much from the ear and fits very well thanks to the wing tip, which holds it in your ear.
If I did my best, I couldn’t dislodge the headphones from my ears without really reaching out and removing them.
Placing the heads correctly took almost no time or practice. Simply insert the tip into the ear, then slide the wing tip to secure it. I was comfortable with the medium sized ear tips, but there are smaller and smaller ones in the box which should cover most people’s ears.
Removing the eartip is very easy, but there is a latch on the earpiece itself that prevents the rubber eartip from falling off, which means you can’t easily replace the eartip with a custom earpiece. (not that you probably need it).
The Huawei FreeLace Pro measures 862 mm including 814 mm of that taken by the cables. They seem very long, but in no way hinder your movements. Each end is interrupted by a small plate, housing the batteries. On the right side, you have four buttons – the power button, the play / pause button, and the volume up and down buttons.
Controls on the right, nothing on the left
The left ear cup has operable taps to activate active noise cancellation and awareness mode – more on those later. For now, here is the entire control diagram of the Huawei FreeLace Pro.
FreeLace Pro Control
The controls are well thought out for the most part. However, the tapping function on the left pimple does not always work perfectly. It takes a good 3-4 seconds before the headset toggles between ANC on, awareness mode, and ANC off, which is cumbersome. And the headphones won’t remember the setting the next time you turn them on, which is doubly cumbersome.
Sound quality, noise cancellation, battery life
Getting to the heart of the matter – the sound. Simply put, the Huawei FreeLace Pro delivers a powerful and rich soundstage. They are very loud, thanks to the 14.2mm drivers, and have a powerful low end, which gives the music a solid foundation, without spilling out and scrambling vocals.
Like most wireless headphones, the FreeLace Pro has a more pronounced midrange. This gives music, especially instrumental music, a strong presence. Most of the music sounds alive with a nice low end response and good volume, enveloping a charming whole.
There is no in-ear detection to pause and play music when you take the headphones off. But when left to hang, the two buttons magnetically attach to each other and automatically stop playback. Once you detach them again, they will automatically reconnect to your phone and start playing.
Now let’s talk about awareness mode and active noise cancellation. Awareness mode is something I’ve never liked to use, but I can appreciate that it’s pretty good on FreeLace Pro. This is convenient when you need to have a conversation with someone, without taking off your headphones.
It amplifies vocals, essentially giving you superhuman hearing. The problem with this mode is its slow start. You have to long press the left earbud to activate noise cancellation and then again to enter Awareness mode – it’s a slow process. Even if you are in noise reduction mode, you still have 3-4 seconds to enter awareness mode.
The noise cancellation on the FreeLace Pro is functional, if not magical. It reduces surrounding noise, especially low frequency noises like the hum of your noisy gaming laptop fan. But it will do next to nothing for the constant human chatter. It’s really about having the right expectations – ANC is designed to cover predictable, unchanged low frequency noise and the FreeLace Pro does a good job. The in-ear nature of the headphones also helps with isolation from outside noise. But we’ve tested headphones with better ANC – Apple’s AirPods Pro and Sony’s WF-1000XM3.
Now let’s talk about battery life, which is one of the highlights of this pair of neckband headphones. Huawei claims up to 24 hours without ANC, which is achievable at half volume. We had 19 hours of music playback at full volume with the Huawei FreeLace Pro, which is a superb result.
Charging the FreeLace Pro takes an hour, but Huawei claims that just 5 minutes on the charger will give the headphones 5 hours of listening time.
Verdict
So, is the Huawei FreeLace Pro a good buy? Simply put, yes, they are excellent. If you’re looking for neck-strap wireless headphones with powerful sound, which can last for days on a single charge – they’re hard to beat, even at their total price of $ 119. With the start of the Black Friday and Holiday deals, Huawei’s promotions could turn it into a bargain.
Keep in mind that by choosing the Huawei FreeLace Pro you are paying extra for premium features like active noise cancellation and IP55 rating. If you’re here for the sporty element of these headphones, you might find similar sound and build quality at a lower price point.
If you’re okay with paying north of $ 100 for headphones, the Huawei FreeLace Pro doesn’t disappoint by any means and will last a very, very long time.