Last year, Huawei’s Freebuds 3 was impressive. They provided fantastic quality of sound and battery life for the price. And, strangely, despite their open-fit design, they had active noise canceling (ANC). But inside areas such as the office or your house functioned well.
Now, the FreeBuds 3i has been introduced by Huawei, a more economical choice with ANC and a closed-fit design.
Features & Design
If you know FreeBuds 3 previously, the 3i sports might be a fresh design. It is highly similar, though, to the original 2018 FreeBuds.
The casing is tiny, and the buds are smaller than the AirPods Pro itself. The brilliant white finish and the active noise cancellation are similar.
However, the software is where the FreeBuds are similar to the AirPods: when you open the case, it shows pop-up that you see with an iPhone with AirPods on your (Huawei) phone.
You touched and held the bud switches between noise control modes: ANC, Off, and Awareness. The other take advantage of the built-in microphones to let you hear your surroundings. And you can choose which of these three settings you want to cycle through.
There is also wear detection, which can be turned off. When you remove a bud, it automatically pauses the audio and resumes when you put it in your ear. However, it is only compatible with Huawei / Honor phones running EMUI 10 or later.
If the fitted silicone tips do not fit your ears tightly, there are three other sets in the box to pick from.
Performance
There’s a lot to like about the sound quality for the price. They’re designed for music, so they’re loud and have a lot of basses. As a result, the FreeBuds 3i is ideal for anyone who likes low frequencies to dominate their music.
It becomes even heavier if you use Dolby Atmos or the Huawei sound effects. However, you can always modify the equalizer (using the controls provided by your phone or music app) to adjust the sound.
It performs an excellent job of blocking out conversations and the click-clack of office typing, and it does a better job than the FreeBuds 3 when it’s deafening – but that’s mainly due to the sealed design.
The call quality is good. Noise cancellation works for phone calls as well. However, it struggles when you’re outside in the wind.
Battery life
That’s what might be a FreeBuds 3i big deal. You’re able to keep your charge up to 3,5 hours, although the ANC enabled is more like 2-2,5 hours. The case provides an additional 11 hours – sufficient to recharge the two buds about three times.
Price & availability
You can buy FreeBuds 3i directly or from other sellers at R 1999.00. The quality offered here is an excellent price, sound quality, and quality built with ANC features. The cost of FreeBuds 3 is so much lower than it is almost as common as the 3i, so if you prefer the open design, you may want to go for them instead.
Verdict
After the Huawei freebuds 3i review, We found that the sound quality is good, and the active noise cancellation works well, as long as the environment isn’t too noisy around you.
They would be excellent for long-haul flights if the power life weren’t so short: when using ANC, you’ll get roughly 2-2.5 hours between charges.
Remember that FreeBuds work best with Huawei and Honor phones; they function on other Android phones, but you won’t get the AirPods-style pairing feature.
