When thinking about Huawei, you rarely think "stellar audio products". Not that Huawei hasn't released earbuds before — it's just that they are a bit generic and pale in comparison to the company's highly experimental, super premium smartphones and most recently — tri-foldables.
So, when Huawei launched the FreeArc earbuds, we were curious but not entirely enthused. Then, we learned their price is penned at £99 in the UK. Alright, these could be interesting, are they good?
The Huawei FreeArc buds are a pair of hooked, open-ear earbuds, which means they sit above and outside your ear canal, allowing you to hear the outside world fully while still playing music for yourself. They are meant for sports or office work where you want to be able to hear colleagues, or a daily carry to always be on your ear but never block out the world. So, how are they?
Huawei FreeArc in a nutshell:
17 mm × 12 mm driver
Touch controls
Fully "open ear" design
Ultra-light
Does not conflict with glasses
Case is big and wobbly
IP57 resistance on buds only
Nothing Ear specs
Color options
Green, Black, Gray
Audio
Bluetooth 5.2, AAC & SBC
Noise cancelation
No ANC
Connectivity
BT multipoint (dual device)
Battery life
7 hours from buds, +21 hours from case
Wireless charging case
No
Ingress resistance
IP57 buds
Design and Comfort
Aw, it's a heart (Image credit - PhoneArena)
The Huawei FreeArc buds come in a big, square-ish plastic case that feels a bit cheap, but does its job just fine. The size is one of the pills you have to swallow with this type of over-ear earbuds, since there's just no other way to store and charge such a design. However, at least Nothing have us an elongated, flat case for the Ear (Open), which was more versatile in terms of fitting it in various types of pockets. The Huawei FreeArc case is definitely the bulkier package.
The buds themselves are pretty light and comfortable. The hooks are covered in soft silicone and have the bud batteries at their very end to act as counterweights. In general, you can wear these all day long and forget about them — they are light enough and do not interfere with the usage of glasses in our experience. They also hang on pretty tight and don't feel like they are going to fall off no matter how hard we shake — they'll do fine for sports.
They hang just outside your hears (Image credit - PhoneArena)
Controls are done with taps and swipes. A swipe forward or back for volume up / down. Double tap to play / pause or answer call. Tap and hold to reject call and triple tap for next song. That's all.
The earbuds are rated IP57 — capable to withstand splashes and even slight immersion in water. The case itself has no ingress protection rating, so careful there!
The drivers sit right above your ear canals and deliver sound directly in. We've found that the earbuds are very specific with that — if you put on a hoodie or a hat that slightly moves one, you will get an unbalanced sound. Something to keep in mind.
Otherwise, they hang on and work just fine for jogging, skating, or even casual wear while working or doing chores at home.
Box... contents? There isn't even a cable (Image credit - PhoneArena)
Sound Quality
You can't expect miracles, can you? (Image credit - PhoneArena)
These Huawei FreeArc earbuds sound... OK. Credit given — it's pretty hard to compete when the earphones are not delivering the sound directly into your ear canal.
Huawei has worked hard to boost bass — that's an important thing to get right when the tiny drivers are sitting outside your ears. And, with bass, we truly have no complaints. It's when you move up the frequency spectrum where these don't sound ideal. They are a bit honky in the upper mids and there's a clear lack of air in the high frequencies. So, while they do have bass, they can still sound inexplicably thin and nasally.
Not to a point where they sound outright bad, don't get us wrong. Their sound is serviceable especially considering their use case and the niche — these are earbuds for people that insist to also be hearing the environment. Therefore absolutely pristine audio quality is not a priority. So, they can do fine to play music in "elevator music" volume in the background, or your favorite podcast, or a YouTube video.
Huawei advertises that they minimize sound bleed, but it's still there. Raising the volume of your favorite song to "moderately loud" will make it audible to people sitting close to you in the office. Again, it comes with the territory with these open-ear earbuds.
There is a Huawei AI Life app, which you can download from the App Store but not Play Store, which allows you access to three more EQ profiles. They don't sound much better, and we preferred sticking with the default one.
Mic quality is as OK as it gets with Bluetooth earbuds. It's a bit muffled, but mostly clear with not a lot of digital artifacts attached to it. Callers were able to understand us more often than not, and didn't complain about the sound more often than with other Bluetooth earbuds.
Conclusion
At least they are hard to lose, right? (Image credit - PhoneArena)
Overall, these are OK. The fit and comfort is on point for what they are supposed to do. And they are priced quite competitively at £99 in the UK right now. Other regional prices are TBD, but we expect similar numbers for the EUR and USD pricing.
For £99 buds, they don't sound too bad. Again, their sound is OK and it serves the use case. You can do a bit better, but if you spend a bit more dough. So, we'd say, the Huawei FreeArc are positioned well.
Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.
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