Huawei’s New Earbuds Offer Active Noise Cancellation Despite Open Ear Design

Huawei’s latest earbuds, the FreeBuds 6, continues the unique design of the FreeBuds 5, but comes in a sleeker form. These earbuds, weighing just 4.5g per bud, are so sleek and curvy that I’ve forgotten they were in my ears a couple of times during the past two weeks of use.

The FreeBuds 6 come in an egg-shaped case that can charge the earbuds seven times over (making for a total listening time of around 36 hours, as the earbuds can play for about five-plus hours each charge). The earbuds bring improved audio with four-magnet dynamic unit and dual drivers that deliver crisp highs up to 48 kHz and deep bass down to 14 Hz.

However, you must be using a recent Huawei flagship phone to achieve full 48 kHZ and lossless L2HC 4.0 audio. From my testing, audio quality sounded excellent when paired with the Huawei Mate XT. The 11mm driver produces satisfying oomph during hip hop tracks. When paired to a non-Huawei phone, audio quality still sounds good, but has a subtle loss of depth.

Open-ear earbuds — meaning buds with a tip that does not entirely seal off the ear canal — are not supposed to be able to offer strong active noise cancellation. But the FreeBuds 6, manages to do that thanks to a clever AI-driven software algorithm that uses its microphones to identify ambient noise around the wearer and then actively mutes the sound.

I must say the ANC isn’t quite as strong as the Apple AirPods 4, but it’s more than enough to silence loud talkers at cafes or public transport.

One downside of the FreeBuds 6’s curvy design is it’s a bit hard for my fingers to find the touch sensitive panel to control music playback. On other earbuds, including Huawei’s Pro series earbuds, there is a clear groove to tap or long-press. Here, I find myself often tapping to no avail, just to realize I’ve tapped on the wrong portion of the earbuds.

The FreeBuds 6 can also pair to two devices at the same time, a feature that comes in handy as I often switch between devices. Priced at around $150, the FreeBuds 6 are premium earbuds with an acceptable price tag. However, I do think those who can splurge a bit more are better off buying Huawei’s FreeBuds Pro buds for superior sound, ANC, and controls.