The Huawei Freebuds Pro 2 are some of the best wireless earbuds to come out so far. They convince at a fair price with an excellent sound, a strong active noise suppression and a high wearing comfort.
The market for wireless earphones is highly competitive, manufacturers have to constantly release improved devices in order not to fall behind against the strong competition. Above all, if you want to play at the top, you have to offer something to win the favor of users. The new Huawei Freebuds Pro 2 have everything you need.
The in-ear headphones are not exactly inconspicuous, but they sit extremely comfortably and securely in the ear if you have found the right silicone attachments. Because they are also very light at around 6 grams, you can wear them for hours without any problems and you hardly feel them. It can also rain, the earphones are protected against splash water according to IP54.
Once you get used to it, controlling the Freebuds Pro 2 is also very comfortable. You don't tap on the outside like with many other earphones, but press the left or right stick together one, two or three times. To control the volume, swipe up or down.
To optimize the sound, Huawei uses two drivers in each earbud. In front of a large 11 millimeter membrane sits a so-called planar oscillating pulse unit as a tweeter. On paper, this results in an enormous frequency range from 14 hertz to 48 kilohertz. Most people's hearing isn't capable of reaching such thresholds, but the sound of the Freebuds Pro 2 is actually great.
The large drivers use four magnets to generate powerful and elastic bass that reaches extraordinary depths for earphones. However, they do not displace the mids, which set the tone precisely and presently. In addition, the planar drivers deliver clear highs with many details.
The earphones can present their full potential when you play high-resolution songs via LDAC. Otherwise, they only support the Bluetooth audio formats SBC and AAC.
According to Huawei, the Freebuds Pro 2 automatically adjust the sound to the shape of the ear, the volume and the wearing position. It's hard to verify how effective this is, since you can't disable the feature.
The overall sound is pleasantly warm. If that doesn't suit you, the app offers multiple modes and an equalizer for customization. In the excellently designed application, one can also switch between two devices connected at the same time, carry out a fit test for the attachments, assign control gestures or play ringtones for lost earbuds.
In the app you can also set the active noise cancellation (ANC) to automatically adapt to the environment. Otherwise, three different strengths are available.
The Freebuds Pro 2 also reach a top level in this discipline. Monotonous noises disappear almost completely at the highest level, only very high noise easily gets through to the ears. Other disturbing noises are also significantly reduced.
In situations that require attention, you can disable ANC or have outside noise amplified. The different modes can be selected in the app or by pressing the chopsticks for a long time.
The noise suppression cannot completely avoid hearing wind noise in stronger gusts. On the other hand, it does a good job on the phone, where you can still be understood clearly even in a noisy environment.
Huawei claims a runtime of around four hours with noise canceling enabled, which is okay but not great. In the test, however, the Freebuds 2 Pro lasted more than 4.5 hours. The charging case, which weighs around 50 grams, has reserves for 14 (with ANC) to 23.5 hours. The box can be charged inductively.
It's hard to find better wireless ANC earbuds than the Huawei Freebuds Pro 2 for $200. When it comes to sound and ANC, they play at the top, they are comfortable, easy to use and fully equipped. A recent update fixed small problems like a temporarily weak Bluetooth connection. The only downside is actually a somewhat short runtime.
