TECH REVIEW – The Huawei FreeBuds 6i redefine the mid-range wireless earbud market with their sleek design and surprisingly good sound quality. Combining dynamic noise cancellation and high-resolution audio, these earbuds are an excellent choice for both everyday use and music listening. Let’s explore how these earbuds perform in real life and what innovations they bring compared to the previous model.

In their sixth generation, the Huawei FreeBuds 6i offer an elegant appearance and sophisticated functionality at an affordable price. Sound-wise, they fit solidly in the mid-range category and do not overly emphasize treble and bass in their default settings. However, with the help of the AI Life app’s equalizer, these earbuds can reach their full potential. It’s important to note that Huawei is subject to a US embargo and is banned from the Google Play Store. Therefore, you will need to download the AI Life app from the Huawei website. If you are willing to take this route, you will have control over almost all the functions of these earbuds.

Differences Between Huawei FreeBuds 6i and FreeBuds 5i

The shape of the charging case and the earbuds remains almost unchanged. The positioning of the in-ears in the case is also retained; they sit with the ear molds facing outward and need to be rotated 180 degrees to be removed. However, the internal components have been completely revamped, with the old 10mm drivers replaced by dynamic quad-magnet drivers that have a diaphragm diameter of 11mm. This increases the extremely light weight by half a gram to 5.4 grams per earbud. The previous slightly marbled coloring of the charging case has been replaced with a consistent color scheme, available in white, purple, and black.

Technology and Usability / App

The FreeBuds 6i offer state-of-the-art technical specifications: they promise a frequency response of 14 Hz to 40 kHz, transmit via Bluetooth 5.3, and support Bluetooth codecs SBC, AAC, LDAC, and L2HC 2.0. This means they are also capable of playing high-resolution audio. The FreeBuds 6i feature a “noise filtering chamber” – a type of Helmholtz resonator that is particularly effective in the 1 kHz to 3 kHz range – which prevents external noise from interfering with your music enjoyment.

When traveling, the FreeBuds 6i are protected by an oval charging case that closes with a satisfying “click”. The 510 mAh case holds enough battery capacity for four full charges of the earbuds, providing up to eight hours of playtime (without ANC) and five hours (with ANC).

Basic operations such as adjusting the volume (swipe up/down), switching ANC modes (press and hold), or playing/pausing music (double tap) can be performed without consulting the manual. However, additional actions like setting the ANC algorithm, using the equalizer, or updating the firmware require the installation of the AI Life app.

After the US government deemed Huawei’s products untrustworthy, Google banned the Chinese manufacturer from both services and apps. Huawei apps are no longer available in Google’s Play Store. Instead, you must first install Huawei’s AppGallery from the Huawei website, and from there, access the AI Life app. Testing this on our Android phone (Samsung) revealed that installing these two apps was quite tricky, as the Android system repeatedly warned against the installation.

Once you overcome this hurdle, the app offers a variety of settings to customize the FreeBuds 6i to your personal preferences – including the option to redefine all touch gestures.

Noise Cancellation, Transparency Mode, and Sound Quality

The app provides access to four noise-canceling algorithms. “Dynamic” and “Ultra” produce slight background noise, with “Dynamic” selecting the appropriate setting from 34 noise scenarios within 2.6 microseconds, according to the manufacturer. However, this was accompanied by a distinctly audible frequency change in the background noise, which was somewhat annoying. “Balanced” and “Low”, on the other hand, were much quieter, although the noise cancellation was correspondingly gentler. Of course, the ANC can also be completely deactivated, providing only passive attenuation.

There is also a transparency mode (“Awareness Mode”) where the three integrated microphones amplify external sound. This function worked well, although a slight background noise was also perceptible, and it sometimes inexplicably switched off, only to become audible again shortly after.

The manufacturer claims a frequency response of 14 Hz to 40 kHz for the FreeBuds 6i. In practice, this had no audible effect on the perceptible sound spectrum because it lies outside the range of human hearing. However, the FreeBuds 6i’s factory settings demonstrated a slight emphasis in the mid-range, which on the one hand, naturally ensured good speech intelligibility for podcasts and phone calls, but on the other, made dance and hip-hop productions seem a little less fun to listen to. This was mainly due to the pre-set equalizer mode “Hi-Fi Live”. If you use the app to switch to “Standard”, “Symphony” or – even better – create your own equalizer signature, the FreeBuds 6i presents a whole lot more bass boost and treble sparkle.

Phone calls were also a pleasure to make, as the voice quality was really good thanks to a three-microphone system at both ends of the line.

AppGallery Made in China

After the US embargo, it is not necessarily easy for Huawei products to continue to play a leading role in the European market – especially as they have previously relied on services from American companies (in this case “Google”). It is, therefore, all the more astonishing to see that in a very short space of time, Huawei has managed to program a platform (AppGallery) that is largely on par with the Google Play Store. If you get involved and use the FreeBuds 6i in conjunction with the AI Life app to control and personalize these in-ears, you will get a pair of pretty stylish earphones for less than a hundred euros, which – if you adjust the sound in the software equalizer – deliver a whole lot of listening pleasure. The touch controls on these in-ears worked quickly and reliably, and with an IP54 protection rating (resistant to splashes of water and dust), nothing stands in the way of them being used for sports.

-Gergely Herpai (BadSector)-

Cons:

– Sound slightly tuned to the midrange
– ANC and transparency mode with variable background noise
– Installing the application is a bit complicated