The Huawei FreeBuds 5i is basically the refreshed successor to the last year’s FreeBuds 4i, which from the base of the outlook alone has been slightly altered perhaps to look modern and a refreshing choice for the potential buyers, however we do see some of the features beneath it. Today we will quickly take a look in this review on what it has to offer.
Unboxing
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i came with the following
- Huawei FreeBuds 5i Case + Pair of earbuds
- USB C to C Cable
- Fitting eartips (S and L size)
- User Manual/User Guide
- Free Huawei Music Premium Subscription for 3 Months
Design
First off, I do love the initial looks of it, by holding and picking it up, if feels so solid that indeed it does already inherits the premium feel to it. Because of the overall texture, the touch is smooth yet not slippery. Overall I would say that the pebble designed shape is just right, not too big, not too small on the case, just nice for the major part. Oh yeah, the weight for each earbuds is 4.9 grams while the case is just weighted at 33.9 grams.
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i comes in choices of three colors, Ceramic White, Isle Blue and Nebula Black. The color that we will be reviewing the is the Nebula Black, which has slight grey dot splashes all around it, perhaps to attract the young youth segment users with the look of between a pebble and an egg.
Performance – Battery and Connectivity
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i will last about 5 hours with ANC ON in my experience for a single charge, and recharging back via the included FreeBuds 5i case will let you have another 4 rounds of battery life over your pair of earbuds. This ensures long lasting music listening and continuous gaming with video streaming enjoyment. Recharging wise, 15 minutes gives you roughly about 3 hour of music time, while charging the case took roughly about 1 hour via the supplied cable and there is no wireless charging for the case, in any typical normal cases a full charge will last anyone around 3 days if you are just solely using it for music listening and maybe a couple of drama episodes streaming via Netflix, or even a couple of gaming sessions.
Connectivity wise, the HUAWEI FreeBuds 5i is connected via Bluetooth 5.x with backwards compatibility within the Bluetooth 5.x specifications, all you need to do is just turn on the Bluetooth on your phone and scan, open up the charging case take out the Earbuds and place it to your ears, and its connected via a notification on your Huawei Device (or any Android 10 phone with Huawei AI Life). It’s just that simple. The pair of earbuds will detect each other automatically in stereo mode simultaneously.
You can also connect up to 2 device at the same time with Huawei AI Life, as long it is logged in with the same account credential where it will also populate all companion Huawei devices that you owned, allowing seamless connection.
Performance – Sound and User/App experience
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i is packed with several features that is matching any premium earbuds, performance wise , every time when I pick the earbuds up to my ear, it’s connected almost instantaneously, reconnection is quick as the FreeBuds 5i does, with close to no latency when streaming via YouTube and Spotify. Features include automatic/manual noise cancellation with ambient awareness modes, which when someone is having a conversation with you in the real world, you will be able to hear the other person speaking, once ANC is deactivated when there is human voice present, it will be reactivated after a few seconds. There is an equalizer setting and prioritization mode that is predefined under the AI Life Sound settings if you need more bass or Treble for your music. Additionally over settings you have Smart Wear Detection, Dynamic Latency and Codec Selection modes where user can customise as they wish on lower latency and different codec modes. The Earbud Fit test is a guide to users on how to properly wear your earbuds and analyses ear sensitiveness so that you can hear every tune clearly. HiRes Audio can be listen and enjoyed with formats compatible such as AAC, FLAC and MQA.
Call quality is clear with minimal muffles or distortion during normal calls, as well as video calling via Zoom. Music experience wise, keeping it over default settings is good enough over any genre of music, while enable Bass Boost does spice up a lot on heavier discotic type genre. Other features include IPX54 water splash resistance, AAC sound compatibility, Find my Earbuds & auto switch audio route with other Huawei Super Device compatible devices covering both Smartphones, Tablets & Laptop. During our test, we also found out that the earbuds manage to reach a reasonable average of 81 Decibels which is decently loud and clear .
Specifications
| Bluetooth Version | Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Bluetooth Range | 10m |
| Play Time | 5h / TTL 18h (ANC ON) |
| Battery capacity | Per earbud: 55 mAh Charging case: 410 mAh |
| Splash, Water, and Dust Resistant | IP54 |
| Charging Port | USB C |
| Bluetooth Protocol | HFP, AVRCP, A2DP (SBC, AAC, SSC) HiRes Audio Support |
| Sensor | Hall sensor/Cap sensor |
| Compatibility | Devices running Android 10/EMUI10 or higher |
Conclusion and Rating
The Huawei FreeBuds 5i is definitely a desirable choice in terms of audio performance and improvement from the previous iteration, an improved design that still holds strong quality audio, with a better surround experience backed by Huawei own Histen with multimode paring support and seamless connectivity, great value with ANC support with such price point that is considered value for money. This earbuds is another companion you should strongly consider to pair with your favorite Android or Huawei devices. Currently the Earbuds is retailing at RM399 with offer as of this writing selling at RM349.
To know more about the Huawei FreeBuds 5i, Click Here to Find out.
