HUAWEI FreeBuds 5i

Huawei has significantly scaled back its consumer electronics business in Europe due to sanctions, but continues to actively produce accessories such as fully wireless earbuds. For many years, this segment has been important for the manufacturer to build its own ecosystem of products, so they managed to develop a good expertise in it. Here it is worth mentioning the rather good models FreeBuds 4 and FreeBuds 4i, the latter of which received an update in the form of FreeBuds 5i – new completely wireless headphones that just went on sale in Ukraine. The model promises good sound quality, support for wireless Hi-Res Audio through the LDAC codec, and finally touch control. In fact, these are now one of the most affordable earbuds with Hi-Res Audio support on the Ukrainian market, so it was interesting to see what they are capable of.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Design and comfort

The earbuds are available in three colors: white, black, and blue. The last two options offer a matte coating of the case and have small splashes of a different color, which should give the user associations with sea pebbles.

At the same time, the earbuds themselves are made in the same color as the case, but without splashes, and with a glossy coating that is quite slippery. It would be much more convenient if their case was matte.

Functionality

To connect the FreeBuds 5i, the Bluetooth 5.2 module is used, and the AI Life application can be installed on the smartphone. It is available in the App Store for iPhone, but it is not in Google Play, and the manufacturer offers to install the program directly from its website for Android smartphones, which, of course, is not very convenient.

The earbuds themselves have a sensor that detects whether they are in your ears, and if you take one out while playing music, it will pause. In addition, FreeBuds 5i support simultaneous connection to two devices and instantly switch between them. This is convenient when listening to music from a laptop, but need to accept an incoming call from a smartphone.

Sound

The earbuds feature 10mm dynamic drivers and a polymer composite diaphragm, and sound really, really good, especially considering the price. They provide sound with a wide stage, where the mids and highs are well defined, you can hear the instruments and imagine their placement, and they have a good bass level. The latter is not too deep and sometimes its artificial amplification is felt, but you should not expect more from such compact earbuds.

Microphones

Each earpiece is equipped with an array of three microphones, but one is used in the noise cancellation system, and the other two are involved in the transmission of the user’s voice. In a quiet or moderately noisy environment, the microphones provide good sound quality. The voice sounds a little muffled, but in general, the interlocutor will have no problem hearing and understanding the words.