Just like flagship smartphones, flagship wireless earbuds have reached a plateau. Refinement is the name of the game in the premium TWS market, with new models focusing on better audio tuning, better noise cancellation, and an additional hour or two of battery life.
This is the short story of the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5, which recently made their global debut. We used them for over a week before their launch and found them to be a great option with great sound, powerful ANC, and top-notch build quality. Read on for our detailed evaluation.
Summary:
Project
The last few generations of FreeBuds Pro earbuds have shared similar aspects, and the FreeBuds Pro 5 are the logical evolution of the series. They still feature an in-ear design with silicone ear tips and short stems. The buds feature a fully polished finish, with the outside of the stems getting a mirror finish.
Although they look similar to their predecessors, the FreeBuds Pro 5 are slightly more compact. The sides of the stems are narrower and the buds are also lighter at 5.5 grams per earpiece.
The case of the FreeBuds Pro 5 is the same size as that of the FreeBuds Pro 4, but slightly narrower and a little lighter at 43 grams. The pleasant curvature and compact design help the case slide easily into the smallest pockets, while the satin texture prevents unwanted fingerprints and smudges. The case lid closes with a firm click, and the hinge mechanism feels as rigid as you’d expect from a flagship pair of earphones.
New this year is the circular LED status bar, which has three modes. It lights up a flashing white when set to pairing mode, then turns green when connected. As the battery discharges, the light turns yellow, indicating low battery, and red when it is fully discharged.
Our review unit comes in the Sand colorway with the buds sporting a light gray hue, while the case has a light gold/champagne look.
In terms of fit, the FreeBuds Pro 5 are some of the easiest earbuds to recommend. I usually struggle with the in-ear fit of most earbuds, but the FreeBuds Pro 5 are among the easiest earbuds to wear for hours on end. The supplied silicone eartips are soft and fit perfectly in the ear canal.
Huawei says it analyzed over 10,000 human ears and went through over 1,000 earbud designs and over 60 earplug iterations to reach the final shape of the FreeBuds Pro 5.
Interestingly, Huawei is Not providing additional foam ear tips with the FreeBuds Pro 5 as it did with their predecessor. In my experience, silicone ear cushions are more comfortable than their foam counterparts, but the latter offer better passive noise isolation, which definitely helps with noise cancellation.
The FreeBuds Pro 5 have an IP57 rating against water and dust, which is an upgrade over the IP54-rated Buds Pro 4. The case has also increased ingress protection and is now IP54 rated. That doesn’t mean you can go swimming with them, but you can rest assured against water splashes, sweat, and rain.
Characteristics
FreeBuds Pro 5 retains most of the key features of FreeBuds Pro 4, but features some improvements. The new model features Bluetooth 6.0 with dual device connection and is equipped with Huawei’s latest Kirin A3 chipset.
The FreeBuds Pro 5’s updated SoC offers improved ANC and lossless audio streaming at up to 4.6Mbps, but there’s a catch. High-bandwidth streaming is only achievable if you pair the earbuds via Huawei’s proprietary NearLink 2.0 wireless transmission protocol to a compatible Pura 80 series or a Mate XTs foldable smartphone running Harmony OS 6. We didn’t have a compatible device, so we couldn’t test it.
The ANC system on the FreeBuds Pro 5 is now designed to dampen even more noise than its predecessor. Huawei is promoting a brand new noise canceling system that transmits phase-reversed sounds from both drivers in each earphone to counter external noise. The system works in tandem alongside a dedicated AI detection model, which adjusts noise cancellation in real-time for a combined reduction in external noise of 220% compared to the FreeBuds Pro 4.
There are a total of 8 microphones spread across the two earpieces, with 3 silicon microphones per earpiece and an additional bone conduction microphone for optimal voice reception. During calls, Huawei says the FreeBuds Pro 5 can reduce 100 dB of surrounding noise while still being able to pick up your voice even in wind speeds of up to 10 m/s.
There are four ANC modes available with adaptive (dual-core intelligent), cozy, general and ultra mode. The adaptive version now adjusts noise cancellation not only based on your surroundings, but also the shape of your ear canal and the posture you wear it in.
Huawei AI Life app, ANC controls and awareness mode
The earbuds also feature awareness mode and come with a speech awareness feature that automatically activates the awareness mode as soon as it detects speech. There is an adaptive volume mode that adjusts the volume based on the ambient noise level.
You can control all key functions of the FreeBuds Pro 5 via the Huawei AI Life app, available for Android, iOS and Huawei’s EMUI/HarmonyOS.
An unusual feature of the FreeBuds Pro 5 is that they support gesture controls for pinching, tapping, and swiping. Virtually all competing earbuds opt for just one of the three, but having them all on board is pretty nice.
FreeBuds Pro 5 support both pinch and tap controls
They worked perfectly in our tests too, registering taps and pinches equally well, and swiping up and down actually adjusted the playback volume. You are also free to reassign controls within the Huawei AI Life app.
Head tracking, audio modes and custom EQ
Like their predecessors, the FreeBuds Pro 5 also support spatial audio with head tracking and are also equipped with wear detection sensors, which automatically pause and resume playback when you remove and reinsert the earbuds in your ears. You also get head gestures, which let you accept incoming calls via a nod or reject them with a shaking motion.
Performance
Hardware-wise, the FreeBuds Pro 5 feature a dual-driver setup with an 11mm main dynamic driver paired with a micro-planar tweeter. Huawei offers redesigned magnets and upgraded dual digital signal processors (DSP), which handle bass and treble independently and reduce distortion.
There are new double vents for better sound reproduction in low and high frequencies. The updated design helps prevent interference between the lows and highs. Speaking of bass, Huawei says that the new pair of earbuds can reproduce bass up to a frequency of 10 Hz compared to 14 Hz on the FreeBuds Pro 4. Treble is limited to 48 KHz and the earbuds can intelligently process different frequencies via the two independent drivers inside each earbud.
The FreeBuds Pro 5 support AAC, SBC and LDAC codecs as well as Huawei’s L2HC 5.0 protocol. We were able to achieve transmission speeds of up to 2.3 Mbps, at 48 kHz/24 bit when paired with a Mate X7.
Audio quality
The default sound profile of the FreeBuds Pro 5 is nicely tuned and offers a wide soundstage with bouncy bass, great instrumentation and vocal separation, as well as well-defined, natural-sounding treble.
Compared to the FreeBuds Pro 4, the new model offers richer bass with less noticeable distortion. The FreeBuds Pro 5 also place more emphasis on the upper mids and clearer highs, which are both welcome additions.
Overall, the jump in sound quality between the FreeBuds Pro 4 and FreeBuds Pro 5 isn’t as stark as we’ve seen in previous generations, which has been a common theme in the flagship earbud market for the last few generations of flagship earbuds.
The Pro 5’s soundstage feels familiar and a bit heavier than that of the Pro 4, though the difference is negligible. I still prefer the Sony WF-1000XM6’s wider soundstage and overall clearer audio reproduction, but the FreeBuds Pro 5 are right up there with the best of the best wireless earbuds.
Huawei provides eight custom sound profiles, and you’re also free to mingle with the frequency sliders thanks to the custom 10-band EQ.
Noise cancellation
The FreeBuds Pro 5 offer a noticeable improvement in attenuating unwanted noise in the lower frequency range (50 – 300 Hz) compared to their predecessors. As soon as you pop them in your ears, the noises associated with HVAC systems, washing machines, and fans are put at bay.
The FreeBuds Pro 5 are more consistent in blocking noise across the entire frequency range, where previous generations tended to be harsher in the low end and less so in the high end of the range. The new model also attenuates the white hiss that you normally hear when you insert earphones.
With louder noise pollutants like car traffic and speech, the FreeBuds Pro 5 offer subtler attenuation than flagship competitors from Sony and Apple. While the FreeBuds Pro 5 are better at noise cancellation than the FreeBuds 4 Pro, I’d still take the ANC over the Sony WF-1000XM6 which is a clear step up from any recent pair of earbuds.
Call quality and connectivity
When it comes to voice calls, the FreeBuds Pro 5 once again offer tangible improvements over the FreeBuds Pro 4. You get better voice response with people on the other end of the call reporting clear, natural reception of my voice, even in mild winds and heavy road traffic.
Huawei still claims to be able to provide clear calls in extremely noisy environments with noise up to 100 dB, and while we couldn’t find a testbed with these specific values, we were able to try it out in a crowded food court of a shopping mall with lots of commotion from noisy teenagers.
Sure enough, the FreeBuds Pro 5 managed to isolate my voice, although the person on the other end reported some additional instability. However, the call quality on the FreeBuds Pro 5 is noticeably better than that achieved with more affordable alternatives like the FreeBuds 7i.
During our testing period, we used the FreeBuds Pro 5 with an iPhone 17 Pro, Huawei Mate
Battery life
The FreeBuds Pro 5 come with 60mAh batteries inside each earbud along with a 537mAh power supply inside the charging case. Both figures represent minor improvements over the FreeBuds Pro 4, but Huawei says the FreeBuds Pro 5 last up to 9 hours on a single charge with ANC turned off and playing on the AAC codec, with the charging case extending combined battery life to 38 hours. With ANC enabled and L2HC/LDAC playback, Huawei claims up to 5 hours from the earbuds and 22 hours with the charging case.
During our tests, we achieved a respectable result 8 hours and 25 minutes in AAC mode and with ANC deactivated during tests on our iPhone 17 Pro and MacBook Pro 14. The values dropped to 4 hours and 20 minutes when paired with Huawei’s Mate X7 with ANC active and playback set to prioritize sound quality over the L2HC codec.
The FreeBuds Pro 5 support both wired and wireless charging, with the former being noticeably faster (around 1 hour) to charge the earbuds and case to 100%. The wireless route should take just under 2 hours.
Verdict
We’re fans of the previous generation FreeBuds Pro models, and the Pro 5 are once again a worthy contender at the pinnacle of wireless earbuds. They offer a well-balanced approach between sound quality, noise cancellation and battery life, while offering all-day comfort and all the smart features you’d expect from a flagship pair of earbuds.
As an added bonus, the FreeBuds Pro 5 offer the best call quality we’ve seen from wireless earbuds so far, even in the noisiest environments.
The jump from the FreeBuds Pro 4 isn’t as drastic as between previous generations, but that’s the case with almost all premium TWS earbuds today. With an asking price of €199/£179, which at the time of writing has dropped to €169/£149, the FreeBuds Pro 5 are an easy recommendation regardless of which ecosystem you choose.
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