TECH REVIEW – Two things decide an earbud for me: sound, and whether my ears can stand it for more than half an hour. Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 is surprisingly strong on both, and that’s a rare combo in the in-ear world. If you’ve been hunting for a genuinely solid AirPods Pro alternative, this series is now very, very close.

Some earbuds look unbeatable on a spec sheet, then real life exposes the weak link – the tuning, the comfort, or the noise cancelation. In-ears are especially tricky for me: either they press in a way that turns painful, or they slowly work loose and force constant readjusting, and the whole experience falls apart. FreeBuds Pro 5 won me over because I didn’t have to wrestle it at all: I popped them in, they locked into place, stayed there, and the sound never dipped below “grown-up” territory. It’s the kind of setup where you forget you’re reviewing anything and just listen.

Huawei says it analyzed more than ten thousand ear profiles to improve fit, and in practice, you can feel the intent. My review unit arrived in Sand, a restrained light-gold shade that reads premium in person. The case is smaller and rounder than before; there’s a front LED ring for status, a side button for pairing and reset, and a concealed hinge that keeps the look clean. Charging is handled via USB-C, and wireless charging is supported too, so the convenience box is checked.

Quick overview

Design and comfort – premium feel, and you’re not paying for it with sore ears

FreeBuds Pro 5 feels premium the moment you pick it up. The case isn’t any bigger than it needs to be, it’s genuinely pocket-friendly, and the lid action is firm and confident rather than wobbly. The LED ring tells you what you need to know at a glance, while the side button is right there for pairing and reset. The earbuds themselves have a sculpted, almost “designed by someone who actually wears in-ears” shape – comfort wasn’t slapped on after the fact. In the box you get four tip sizes, and you can vary not only size but material too, which matters if you want a tighter seal for workouts.

For me, medium silicone tips were the sweet spot between comfort and stability, but smaller tips really do “lock in” better during exercise – and that also helps ANC. On my test runs, multiple 5Ks went by with no slipping and no “every two minutes” readjusting, which is a rare win in my book. Badminton was even more stable with the smaller tips, though that’s a pretty niche scenario, because I usually prefer listening to the shuttle hit the racket. The point is: this isn’t the kind of earbud that turns a workout into a patience test.

With an IP57 rating, sweat and dust aren’t a concern – that’s table stakes in this class, but it’s still good to have it properly covered. Comfort also holds up beyond the first ten minutes: longer sessions didn’t introduce pressure points, and I didn’t get that classic in-ear fatigue. If you’re normally cautious about in-ears, this is one of those models that can actually change your mind. Which takes us to the next big factor: noise cancelation, where everything starts with the seal.

Controls and noise cancelation – smart tricks, and the ANC difference is obvious

FreeBuds Pro 5 doesn’t just pause when you pull an earbud out – it also pays attention to your environment and can subtly adjust volume and even EQ to keep audio sounding its best. Gesture control isn’t decoration here: you swipe the stem for volume, double- and triple-tap to control playback and skipping, long-press for your voice assistant, and you can remap these per earbud if you like a different layout. On top of that, there are head gestures: nod to accept a call, shake to decline. It sounds like a gimmick until you live with it for a few days – then it starts to feel oddly natural. For me it was accurate, and I didn’t have to fight it.

With ANC, the real key is how well your tips seal, and that’s absolutely the make-or-break point here. Huawei talks about 35 dB of noise reduction, but the number matters less than the immediate, audible effect you get once the tip sits properly in your ear canal. There are four ANC modes, including a smart, dynamic setting that adapts to your surroundings, plus the more straightforward Cozy, General, and Ultra profiles. If you want ANC off, it’s a quick switch, and there’s also an Awareness mode that pipes in outside sound when you need to stay alert.

Awareness mode is exactly the feature you appreciate when you don’t want to fully disconnect: commuting, the office, street use, quick conversations. It doesn’t replace truly open designs, but it’s genuinely usable and doesn’t sound like a plasticky, hissy “fake passthrough.” It also highlights that FreeBuds Pro 5 isn’t just about getting louder – it manages the environment with control. And speaking of control, sound quality is where this model really flexes.

Sound quality – split processing, wide staging, and less fiddling

FreeBuds Pro 5 sounds excellent, and not in the “only with one genre and one preset” kind of way. The core idea is separate processing for bass and the mid-high range via dual DSP, plus a dual DAC mode where low and mid-high signals are handled on different paths. The goal is to reduce crossover distortion and noise, and Huawei also claims a big improvement in digital crossover precision. The result is easy to hear: cleaner texture, better separation, and that rare sense of calm where it doesn’t feel like the system is trying to shove something into your ears.

On the codec side, Huawei’s high-resolution L2HC 4.0 is the headline feature: with a compatible Huawei phone, the pitch is up to 2.3 Mbps transmission and 48 kHz/24-bit lossless audio. With other brands, the article points to around 990 kbps and LDAC, which is still a solid setup. There’s spatial audio (aiming at a similar experience to Apple’s approach), and real-time voice translation is mentioned as an extra feature. Not everyone will use all of that daily, but it’s good to see more than just a checkbox list.

EQ options are plentiful, and you get a proper 10-band custom EQ too – something a lot of competitors still skip or half-bake. My best results came from a Huawei Sound Classical-style preset with ANC on, but there are bass-focused and voice-focused presets as well. You also get movie and gaming modes, and gamers will appreciate a dedicated low-latency mode, so these aren’t tuned only for music. The test rotation included jazz-folk, DnB, and classic heavy metal, and the earbuds handled all of it with clear, detailed output and minimal tweaking on my end.

And yes, here’s a sentence you can’t always write about earbuds: podcasts, YouTube, speech, and calls stay consistently high quality, not just music. That brings us to battery life, because great sound doesn’t matter if you’re hunting for the case twice a day. Fortunately, that’s not the story here.

Battery and charging – a realistic 6-7 hours with everything on, and fast top-ups

Huawei claims up to 9 hours with ANC off, and up to 38 hours total when you include the case. Real life, of course, depends on volume, whether you prioritize hi-res, and how hard ANC is working. Based on the article, with all the good stuff enabled – ANC on, sound quality priority, and hi-res audio – you can expect a very realistic 6-7 hours per charge. That’s right in the zone where you don’t have to play “battery manager” all day.

Charging speed also leans into convenience: the earbuds can get back to 100% in roughly half an hour, and the case provides multiple full cycles before it needs power itself. You get both USB-C and wireless charging, so you’re not locked into one routine – useful for travel and office life. You just drop the case on a pad and move on, no cable hunting required. It’s the kind of feature that’s expected at this level, but it still matters when it’s done well.

If someone is determined to chase the advertised 9 hours, turning off everything and listening at 50% volume will probably get them closer – but that’s like buying a sports car and never leaving second gear. FreeBuds Pro 5 shows its best side when the features are working and you’re not stingy with ANC and tuning. The good news is you still get day-to-day comfort without having to go on a compromise diet. So the real question is: is it worth it in Hungary, and who is it actually for?

Should you buy it? – if you want the AirPods Pro vibe without living in Apple’s garden

FreeBuds Pro 5 starts around 199 euros in Europe, and the UK price mentioned in the article is 180 pounds – which feels fair given what it delivers. In Hungary, current pricing typically starts around 66,990 HUF, and it’s common to see it above 80,000 depending on store and configuration. It’s not cheap, but the combined package – sound, comfort, ANC, and features – is strong enough to stand as a real premium alternative. The one real caveat is that some of the best extras shine most with a Huawei phone, and availability can vary by region.

Still, if your goal is a comfortable, stable, great-sounding in-ear with proper noise cancelation – and you want musical, enjoyable tuning instead of sterile “lab audio” – this is a very straightforward pick. Based on this review, it’s the kind of Huawei earbud that doesn’t just compete on paper. And if you’ve ever thought “I want a true AirPods Pro alternative, but I’m not on that platform,” FreeBuds Pro 5 has a very good chance of giving you exactly what you’re looking for.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-

Note: 15,000 HUF off the FreeBuds Pro 5 price until March 31 if you enter this code at checkout: AGEEKFBPRO5