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Huawei FreeArc: One minute evaluation
With audio manufacturers and tech corporations asserting open-ear earbuds left, proper and heart, it was solely a matter of time earlier than Chinese language large Huawei bought in on the motion too.
It was solely minutes into the testing for this Huawei FreeArc evaluation, although, that I understood these to be a number of the best open-ear buds in the marketplace proper now. Huawei’s onto one thing right here!
The rationale for that is easy: as of their launch, the Huawei FreeArc are the best-sounding examples of this kind issue, and that’s a very spectacular promoting level given how earbuds like this work.
For many who aren’t acquainted, open-ear headphones like these dangle the earbud over your eardrum, as a substitute of plonking it straight in there; this implies you may nonetheless hear sounds past your music. Helpful for individuals in busy areas or who want to listen to bulletins, however much less helpful for audiophiles as having a bud centimeters out of your ear can spell doom for well-tuned music.
Not with the FreeArc, although. Music has a formidable soundstage, sounds delicately tuned and maintains bristling power. The most effective praise I may give to Huawei is that I typically forgot I used to be listening to open-ears.
Two enthusiastic thumbs up within the audio division, then, though the FreeArc do battle just a bit in just a few different departments. The battery life is one, with the 23-hour lasting energy of the case specifically an space that may dissuade sure consumers.
When you’ve bought an Android cellphone, you’ll additionally discover the app set up course of an absolute ache, as you must side-load a number of apps by APKs. The method is barely appropriate for technophiles, or somebody who can rope in a tech-savvy relative or pal to assist.
OK so great-sounding, simply barely annoying to arrange? Sure, however we’re lacking the massive draw. Huawei has priced these buds to promote, making them a number of the most reasonably priced open-ears in the marketplace proper now.
You possibly can overlook just a few of points in tech with aggressive pricing, and the Huawei FreeArc do profit from that when you think about their function set. However purely from a sonic perspective, these are an absolute steal on the value.
Huawei FreeArc evaluation: Specs
|
Element |
Worth |
|
Waterproof |
IP57 |
|
Battery life |
7 hours (earbuds), 23 hours (whole) |
|
Bluetooth kind |
Bluetooth 5.2 |
|
Weight |
8.9g / Charging case: 67g |
|
Driver |
17mm x 12mm |
Huawei FreeArc evaluation: Worth and availability
- Introduced in February 2025
- Priced at £99.99 (roughly $130, AU$200)
- Not on sale in Australia or US
The Huawei FreeArc had been introduced in February 2025, concurrently a slew of rivals, and went on sale shortly afterwards.
You possibly can decide up the buds for £99.99 (roughly $130, AU$200) so that they’re priced competitively in opposition to many of those opponents. There’s no US or AU pricing on the time of writing and I don’t anticipate the buds will go on sale in both area.
There are just a few open-ear buds priced round that basic space, or a slight quantity cheaper, however most opponents value as much as 50% extra. So Huawei has put out a very tempting possibility right here.
Huawei FreeArc evaluation: Design
- Mid-sized charging case
- Snug and dependable bud match
- Temperamental contact controls
The Huawei FreeArc is available in a sq. carry case; it’s not the smallest I’ve ever seen from open-ear buds, but it surely’s positively on the smaller finish of the spectrum.
The case measures 67.8 x 67.8 x 26.5mm and weighs 67g, and it has principally what you’d anticipate from an earbuds case: place to put every bud, a pairing button, and a USB-C port for charging.
The buds themselves weigh 8.9g so that they’re not the lightest open-ears I’ve ever examined, however the distinction is only a gram or so and they’re on no account heavy. Like most open-ears (though not ear-clip/cuff designs – see the Bose Ultra Open), they include the principle physique in addition to a sports activities loop that circles and slips behind the ear, which within the Huawei’s case ends in fairly a pronounced teardrop form.
I discovered them reliably snug and light-weight to put on, and so they didn’t shift a lot throughout workout routines or runs, an issue another open-ears have. As a substitute they’re firmly held fairly near the ear, so you may hear your music effectively.
The buds’ physique helps gesture controls, however I discovered them a bit bit temperamental in selecting up my contact. You’re meant to have the ability to swipe to vary quantity, double faucet to pause or play songs and triple-tap to skip songs, and whereas the tapping ones labored effectively, I needed to combat with the buds to choose up swiping.
The charging case doesn’t have any protecting certification however the earbuds are IP57, which was a nice shock to see given that the majority rivals are IP54. The ‘5’ in widespread implies that they’re mud resistant and the ‘7’ implies that they’re waterpoof as much as a depth of 1m for half an hour, whereas most rivals are merely splash-proof. I don’t suppose which means that you must swim with the buds, but it surely nonetheless means they’re shielded from the weather.
You should purchase the FreeArcs in black, white or pale inexperienced, and as you may inform from the photographs, my evaluation pattern was the previous.
Huawei FreeArc evaluation: Options
- Battery life is 7 hours (solely 23 for case)
- App has convoluted set up course of
- Might do with additional options
The function set is the Huawei FreeArc’s Achilles Heel, so let’s get the criticisms out the best way upfront.
Firstly, the battery life isn’t wonderful. At 7 hours of listening per bud, it’s not terrible, although loads of different buds (particularly open-ears) beat it. However worse is the charging case, which solely will get you 28 hours of listening, a stat that’s bought to be one of many lowest I’ve seen in buds like this.
My largest concern was that downloading the Huawei AI Life app, to unlock additional options, was an absolute ache (on Android, at the very least, however on iOS it’s easy). To get it on my Realme cellphone I needed to obtain Huawei’s AppGallery (as an APK on my browser, because it’s not on the Play Store), which took some convincing on my cellphone, then use the AppGallery to obtain the AI Life, persuade my cellphone to let me side-load apps from this app, after which set it up through this app. It’s loads of faff and it took me about 10 minutes, which is roughly 9 and a half minutes greater than this course of typically takes me throughout evaluations.
I’m not solely satisfied that the method is value it both. It primarily permits you to discover your earbuds should you’ve misplaced them, handle which gadgets your buds are related to, and alter what the gesture controls do.
The primary function of the app is entry to 4 music presets (default, Elevate for exercises, Treble enhance and Voices for reinforcing vocals). You can too make your personal, which provides you entry to a 10-band equalizer.
In contrast to at the very least one modern rival (that will be the Honor Earbuds Open) there’s no lively noise cancellation, no low latency mode and no gimmicky AI function – sure, I’m trying on the Honor Earbuds Open’s AI translator right here. None of those are ubiquitous in open-ears so I can’t detract factors for that, however the FreeArc do really feel like they’re lacking some type of USP.
Huawei FreeArc evaluation: Sound efficiency
- Giant 17mm x 12mm drivers
- Spectacular sound stage
- Might have accomplished with ANC
The core promoting level of the Huawei FreeArc is that they’re the best-sounding open-ear earbuds I’ve examined to this point. That’s not the largest praise on the planet, provided that the shape issue naturally results in worse audio (the speaker is dangling away out of your ear, after all, and bass clout is often the primary casualty), however I used to be nonetheless impressed with how the FreeArcs sound.
Essentially the most palpable and immediately-obvious optimistic of the FreeArcs’ audio is the soundstage: it’s unprecedented for open-ears, and I used to be shocked to have the ability to select the strums of guitars and vary of piano keys after I was listening.
Music is energetic and thrilling, zealous and crisp, and it was a pleasure to take heed to my favourite exercise songs and really hear the small print in them. Admittedly, numerous my pleasure got here from the sheer indisputable fact that I may make out particular person strains in songs (I hate to harp on, however open-ears typically sound fairly dangerous), however the Huawei’s do sound nice.
Every earbud has a single 17mm x 12mm driver, which is larger than I can recall seeing in previous open-ear headphones, and that may go a way in explaining the standard of the Huawei FreeArc’s sonic efficiency.
I might have appreciated to listen to a little extra bass within the FreeArc, because it ended up sounding only a contact underwhelming throughout exercises after I wished a bassy kick. The aforementioned Elevate mode does enhance issues by way of bass clout, but it surely additionally makes extra complicated songs sound oddly ‘crunchy’ and distorted, so I finished utilizing it.
It was virtually a disgrace to take heed to such high-quality audio in open-ears – it sounded wonderful when listening in quiet environments, however as quickly as I left the home or went someplace busy, the extraneous noise that may’t assist however enter your ear makes it onerous to understand the element. ANC can be a blessing on these buds.
- Sound efficiency rating: 5/5
Huawei FreeArc evaluation: Worth
Provided that Huawei tends to launch premium merchandise, I used to be shocked to see the FreeArcs go for £99, which makes them pretty reasonably priced as open-ears go.
They’d be first rate worth in the event that they solely had ‘good’ sound high quality, however the truth that they sound nice actually helps cement the Huawei FreeArc as one of many best-value open-ear buds you should purchase proper now.
Huawei FreeArc evaluation: scorecard
|
Class |
Remark |
Rating |
|
Worth |
The Huawei FreeArcs supply nice sound at an reasonably priced value level. |
4.5/5 |
|
Design |
The FreeArcs are light-weight and comfy to put on for lengthy bouts. |
4/5 |
|
Options |
Just a few lackluster or lacking options, plus some app set up woes. |
4/5 |
|
Sound |
These are the best-sounding open-ear headphones to date. |
5/5 |
Huawei FreeArc: Ought to I purchase?
Purchase them if…
Do not buy them if…
Additionally take into account
|
Element |
Huawei FreeArc |
Honor Earbuds Open |
OpenRock Professional |
|
Waterproof |
IP57 |
IP54 |
IPX4 |
|
Battery life |
7 hours (earbuds), 28 hours (whole) |
6 hours (earbuds), 40 hours (whole) |
19 hours (earbuds), 46 hours (whole) |
|
Bluetooth kind |
Bluetooth 5.2 |
Bluetooth 5.2 |
Bluetooth 5.2 |
|
Weight |
8.9g / Charging case: 67g |
7.9g / Charging case: 52.5g |
13g / Charging case: 64g |
|
Driver |
17x12mm |
16mm |
16.2mm |
How I examined
I listened to the Huawei FreeArcs for 2 weeks earlier than scripting this evaluation, and the testing course of coincided with that of two rivals: the Honor Earbuds Open and the EarFun Openjump, which helped me higher perceive all three.
I used the Huawei FreeArc alongside my Android smartphone for many of the evaluation, and in addition paired them to my Home windows laptop computer at a number of instances. Principally I listened to music on Spotify but additionally examined podcasts, video games and TV reveals. I examined them at dwelling, within the workplace, on walks round my space and in addition for numerous exercises (street biking, working and gymnasium exercises).
The FreeArcs are the newest of many merchandise I’ve reviewed for TechRadar; I have been doing so for over six years and have reviewed headphones, smartphones, tablets and extra.
- First reviewed: March 2025