Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 review: premium ANC earbuds that undercut Apple and Sony

I’m a keen Apple AirPods Pro user, even though I’m more fond of the second-gen than the most recent version. Whenever I’m not testing headphones, I tend to reach for either the AirPods Pro 2 or the AirPods Max. That might change, thanks to the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5.

The Chinese brand's latest earbuds are on par with Apple’s top-selling in-ears across ANC, audio performance, battery life, and comfort. I’ve been using the FreeBuds Pro 5 for a week, and time and time again, the buds reminded me that there is life after the AirPods Pro.

Sure, the design could be a bit sleeker, and lossless audio requires a Huawei smartphone, but aside from that, there’s very little to complain about in day-to-day use.

Better still, the FreeBuds Pro 5 sells for less than the AirPods Pro 3 and plays well with iPhones, making it the most compelling alternative to Apple’s flagship buds.

Huawei Freebuds Pro 5 review

Price and availability

HUAWEI FreeBuds Pro 5 are available to buy from 26 February for £179.99 (~$243 / €206 / AU$343). Until 4 April, FreeBuds Pro 5 will be available for £149.99 (~$202 / €172 / AU$286) with an exclusive £30 launch discount via Huawei, as well as 12 months of Huawei Loss Care.

Even at full price, the FreeBuds Pro 5 are some of the most affordable in-ears in the category. Bose’s 2nd-gen QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds cost £299 / €349 / AU$299, while the Sony WF-1000XM6 are in the £250 / €300 / $299 price bracket. Apple’s latest AirPods Pro 3 will set you back £219 / $249 / €249, which is the closest to the Huawei (but still more expensive).

Design and build quality

The Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 lean heavily into a premium, minimalist aesthetic, with their compact form and classic colourways designed to highlight a refined, high-end feel. As expected from Huawei, the earbuds and case are positioned as much as style pieces as they are as audio gear.

The charging case features a new excimer film coating for a skin-friendly texture, while the blue variant adds vegan leather with a fine-grained surface that’s fingerprint-, wear- and scratch-resistant.

Huawei also highlights a concealed hinge design for a seamless look and a distinctive “star oval” visual signature with a ring indicator light, reinforcing the product’s polished, detail-oriented construction.

The buds themselves are 10% smaller and 6% lighter than the previous generation, with an optimised shape intended to reduce pressure points and improve stability. I prefer the slim stem and flush head unit design of the AirPods Pro 2, but the FreeBuds Pro 5 are far from bulky.

Multiple ear-tip sizes (XS to L) are included to create a secure acoustic seal and accommodate different ear shapes, with the design tuned for long listening sessions without fatigue.

Even though the FreeBuds Pro 5 aren’t specifically designed for workouts, they carry an IP57 rating for dust and water resistance, while the case is IP54-rated.

Ergonomics and gesture control

The FreeBuds Pro 5 use a gesture system that blends touch, swipe and pinch inputs directly on the stems, similar to AirPods, including the Apple AirPods 4. I’m so glad the control panel isn’t on the main part of the bud, which usually means you have to keep pushing them deeper and deeper into your ears to skip tracks or increase volume.

You can swipe up or down to adjust volume, double-tap to play or pause, and use longer presses or pinches to switch noise-cancellation modes, control calls, or skip tracks.

From an ergonomic standpoint, the earbuds are designed to balance stability with long-term comfort. Huawei says that the shape is informed by extensive ergonomic research, optimising contact areas to reduce pressure points while keeping the buds securely in place.

The smaller, lighter design compared to the previous generation is intended to help them “snap right in,” supporting extended listening sessions without discomfort. I wore them pretty much all day (~4 hours at the time, twice in one day), and I felt no pressure or discomfort, which is excellent, especially given that they provide an acoustic seal, which inevitably reduces airflow in the ear canal.

Four sizes of silicone ear tips are included to create a proper acoustic seal and accommodate a wide range of ear shapes. Huawei offers an ear fit test via the Huawei Audio app, similar to Apple and other brands. The music it plays is loud, but not unbearable.

Features

The FreeBuds Pro 5 features a ‘dual-engine’ AI active noise cancellation (ANC, combining two acoustic units with real-time environmental sensing to counteract external noise. Better still, you can adjust the ANC strength in the app, or let the buds handle it in ‘Smart dual-core’ mode.

I tried ANC on the train and in the office, and it certainly is on par with Apple’s. The company says the FreeBuds Pro 5 samples ambient noise up to 400,000 times (!) per second to ensure no unwanted noise enters your ears. The result is 220% improvement in noise cancellation performance compared to the predecessor.

As for audio quality, the earbuds use a dual-drive acoustic system with independent low- and high-frequency drivers, supported by dual DSPs and DACs to improve crossover precision and reduce distortion.

They also support high-resolution wireless audio and Huawei’s own sound profiles. Sadly, 2.3Mbps Lossless Audio is only available when you use the FreeBuds Pro 5 with compatible Huawei smartphones and play lossless audio files – admittedly, a niche use case. I was testing the buds using my iPhone 16 Pro, and even though everything sounded clear, it wasn’t a lossless experience.

Huawei isn’t alone in this regard. Many audio brands offer lossless/high-quality audio options, but with caveats. My Spotify also says I’m streaming songs in lossless quality, but my Bluetooth headphones say otherwise. Many Android phones support higher-bandwidth codecs, but they aren’t lossless, either.

That said, I had zero issues with sound quality while listening to music and watching movies. The Huawei Audio app offers multiple equaliser options, but I found the standard tuning perfect in most scenarios. Audio separation is excellent, and I detected no unwanted artefacts at normal volume levels.

The FreeBuds Pro 5 offer multipoint connectivity, and to my surprise, it actually works. I’m used to clunky switching between my iPhone and MacBook, but the Huawei buds handled the task almost as well as AirPods. There was a slight hesitation when I turned the phone's music off just before clicking a video on the Mac, but it always resolved quickly.

Battery life and charging

Huawei rates the FreeBuds Pro 5 for up to 9 hours of playback on a single charge (noise cancelling off), extending to around 38 hours with the charging case, positioning them competitively among premium ANC earbuds. The earbuds support both wired and wireless charging, and the case houses a 537 mAh battery, while each bud carries a 60 mAh cell.

In my testing with ANC enabled, endurance landed notably below the headline figure, which is expected given the extra processing required for noise cancellation. Tracking the discharge curve, the buds dropped from full to 35% over 4 hours and 15 minutes (a 65% drain) equating to roughly 15.3% per hour.

That projects to a total real-world ANC runtime of around 6.4 to 6.7 hours, with the curve showing a slight acceleration toward the end, suggesting the final figure will likely sit closer to the lower bound.

Charging performance proved solid. A quick top-up from 22% back to full took about 30 minutes using the case, which itself fell from 100% to 84% during the process. While the official numbers highlight strong longevity in ideal conditions, real-world ANC use paints a more typical flagship battery performance.

Verdict

The Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 tick almost every box. They sound excellent, offer brilliant noise cancellation, and are comfortable to wear. They also charge quickly and sell for much less than most flagship in-ear buds, making them one of the best (if not the best) value-for-money options right now.

A few ecosystem limitations stop them short of universal appeal, but for most people, they’re an outstanding flagship alternative to Apple, Sony and Bose. I would recommend them to anyone, except audiophiles, but they wouldn’t consider Bluetooth ANC buds with different EQ settings anyway.