There is no lack of headphones with ANC (noise cancellation) function, but Huawei still sees potential. In this Huawei FreeBuds Studio review, we discuss the first ANC headphones from the Chinese tech giant. Should Sony, Bose and other famous players start to worry?
Huawei FreeBuds Studio
Price: 299 euros
Battery life: 20 hours with ANC on, 24 hours without ANC hours
Frequency range: 4Hz – 48kHz
Drivers: 40 mm
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2, USB-c
Included: Protective cover, USB-C cable
7.5 Score 75 
- Pros
- Premium design
- Wearing comfort
- Sound quality
- Functions
- Negatives
- Slightly less effective noise cancellation
- Slightly shorter battery life than the competition
- No aptX support
- No 3.5mm jack
Huawei makes everything, but did not yet have over-ear headphones with ANC function in the range. The FreeBuds Studio changes that. These 299 euro headphones have recently been available in gold and black in the Netherlands. I was able to test that second version for a few weeks right after it debuted in stores.
Good to know: during that period I saw the headphones on sale several times, with 229 euros as the lowest price (around Black Friday). It is therefore likely that the FreeBuds Studio will drop in price more often, so as a real Netherlands, I advise you not to pay 299 euros for it in advance. Even at that price, the FreeBuds Studio is cheaper than the known competition.
The renowned Sony WH-1000XM4 costs at least 349 euros and for Bose’s Noise Canceling Headphones 700 you pay at least 339 euros. The big question is: is Huawei’s cheaper alternative also a better choice or is it better to keep saving?
Luxurious and ingenious design
The design of the FreeBuds Studio is perfectly fine. The headphones are made of plastic and metal, have a solid feel and a thicker headband. The ear cups are spacious and soft and fit nicely over my ears. Extendable legs make the headphones suitable for a smaller and larger head. At 260 grams, the FreeBuds Studio is almost as light as the Sony WH-1000XM4 (254 grams). I find the headphones comfortable to wear, even after a few hours of use.
The FreeBuds Studio has several – barely visible – microphones on the ear cups and uses them to register and filter ambient noise. I’ll come back to this in a moment. The right ear cup is touch-sensitive and lets you swipe pause, resume, and fast-forward and rewind the music. Indeed copied from Sony, for example, but better stolen than badly invented. On the right earcup you will also find the USB-C port to charge the headphones, the on / off button and the bluetooth connection button. The left ear cup houses a button to amplify ambient sounds. This is useful if you are walking in the street or waiting for the train and do not want to miss an announcement.
Huawei also supplies the headphones with a solid storage cover, which has a compartment for the charging cable.
No 3.5mm port
Big absent on the headphones is a 3.5mm jack. Many competing models have such a port, intended for connecting an audio cable and listening wired. Huawei apparently does not think that is necessary and only lets you listen via a Bluetooth connection. A miss if you ask me, because the FreeBuds Studio is now less versatile.
Sound quality
The headphones have 40mm drivers and a frequency range of 4 Hz to 48 kHz. These are common terms for this type of headphones, but they say little about the sound quality. This depends on other factors, including the supported codecs and audio codec chip. After two weeks of listening, I am enthusiastic: I like the FreeBuds Studio sound. A drum solo really sounds in my left ear, followed by subtle guitar tunes coming from the right. So spatial sound, which also sounds full and balanced. The headphones offer – for me – enough bass and don’t overdo it. No, the FreeBuds Studio doesn’t sound as impressive as a $ 500 pair of headphones, but you can’t expect that either. Considering the price, I am very satisfied.
Something is missing: support for the aptX codec. That makes sense, because this codec requires a Qualcomm chip and Huawei uses its own chip. The Sony WH-1000XM4 also lacks aptX support because the headphones have a MediaTek chip. For me, the lack of aptX support is a shame, but not a deal breaker. After all, not all devices are suitable for aptX.
The call quality of the FreeBuds Studio is also perfectly fine. The headphones have four microphones and make you perfectly understandable to your conversation partner both indoors and outdoors. In my opinion, the headphones do this better than the Sony WH-1000XM4.
How good is the ANC function?
As mentioned earlier, the Huawei FreeBuds Studio has an arsenal of microphones to map ambient sounds. With the ANC function on, the headphones produce counter noises to cancel out ambient noise as much as possible before they reach your ears. As a result, rattling keyboards, the hum of the train and talking colleagues or family members are considerably softer. The ANC function works well and will make you very satisfied. It’s nice that the headphones can automatically adjust the degree of ANC to your environment. In a quiet room it works a setting lower than in a full bus, which means that the battery lasts longer.
Since I regularly test ANC headphones, I can compare the FreeBuds Studio to the competition. In my opinion, it just falls short of the Sony WH-1000XM4 and Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700. With those headphones on, I hear even less what is happening around me. However, the difference is not very big, while the FreeBuds Studio costs tens of euros less. Huawei does a good job here.
Battery life
Huawei claims that the FreeBuds Studio can last up to 24 hours on a battery charge without ANC switched on. In practice, I managed about 23 hours. You probably prefer to listen with ANC, because that gives more peace of mind. The battery life is then 20 hours, according to Huawei. I came to about 7pm. Long enough if you ask me, but do know that the Sony WH-1000XM4 can last a few hours longer. The FreeBuds Studio charges quickly via the USB-C port. The battery is full in just over an hour and charging for ten minutes gives you a few hours of listening pleasure.
Other functions
The Huawei FreeBuds Studio has some more useful functions in store. This way you can connect the headphones to two devices at the same time, for example your smartphone and laptop. If you watch a series on your laptop and receive a call, you switch seamlessly to the telephone call. This works well.
Also handy is that when you take off the headphones, it automatically pauses the music. After setting it up he resumes the music. If you have not set up the FreeBuds Studio after ten minutes, it will switch itself off to prevent the battery from draining unnecessarily.
One point of attention is that Huawei offers a free app with more functions. The app is called Huawei AI Life but is only available for Android smartphones, not the iPhone. In addition, some functions only work on Huawei devices. Too bad if you ask me.
Conclusion: Buy Huawei FreeBuds Studio?
The Huawei FreeBuds Studio are ANC headphones that are comfortable to wear, sound nice and effectively minimize ambient noise. The ANC function is slightly less than that of more expensive headphones and the battery life is a few hours shorter – but still nice and long. Huawei provides the headphones with useful functions, although it is a pity that some of them are only available to users of a Huawei smartphone. The biggest drawback for me is the lack of a 3.5mm jack, which means you can only use the headphones via the bluetooth connection. So you deliver in several areas compared to the competition, but that is also reflected in the price. The Huawei FreeBuds Studio is tens of euros cheaper and in the offer the price difference with Sony and Bose rises to more than one hundred euros. The FreeBuds Studio is therefore an ANC headphone to be reckoned with.
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