That urge to participate in a conversation happening on the other side of the room, even though you know you have more hours of work to finish that day than time left on the clock, and you can’t afford to squander another 15 minutes debating Harry Styles in a dress, or offering your two cents on the pros and cons of microblading (just kidding, there are no cons).
When it comes to blocking out noise, my regular wireless earphones are no match for my chatty colleagues and my flappy ears, so on an especially hectic deadline week, I was lucky to have at my disposal the exceptional noise-cancelling capabilities of two new launches from HUAWEI — the HUAWEI FreeBuds Pro, and the HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio, both touted as groundbreaking additions to the heavily saturated home audio category.
Sleek, stylish, and designed for optimum comfort – the former coming with three sizes of silicon earbuds that the device will intuitively select for you based on how each sits inside the ear canal, and the latter boasting soft leather ear cups in a larger-than-standard size for a roomier fit, as well as an adjustable headband that can extend to 150 degrees – what really sets the HUAWEI FreeBuds Pro and FreeBuds Studio apart is their state-of-the-art Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) technology.
In the case of both the FreeBuds Pro and the FreeBuds Studio, dual microphones positioned inside and outside the earbuds or ear cups will quickly identify your surrounding noise environment and automatically switch between three noise cancellation modes – Ultra Mode, Cozy Mode and General Mode – to effectively cut out environmental noise. Additionally, Awareness Mode and Voice Mode utilise the two microphones to help cut out the cacophony of the outside world while still keeping users switched-on to their surroundings and, thanks to the technology’s ability to detect human noise, better enable them to hear conversation in a chaotic environment.
Both devices are also highly intuitive and work seamlessly with your other devices. I was told that pairing my FreeBuds with another HUAWEI device via the HUAWEI AI LIFE Android app would offer optimum seamlessness and sound quality, however, pairing them with my non-HUAWEI devices, minus the app, was no more difficult or laborious than connecting any other pair of wireless headphones. Furthermore, once connected, the Intelligent Connection made for seamless switching between devices. For example, if I received a phone call while listening to music via my desktop computer, the music would automatically pause and the FreeBuds would instantly switch to my phone, allowing me to answer the call without having to disconnect from my computer, and reconnect to my phone. Once the phone call was over, the FreeBuds would switch back to my computer, and the music would commence.
With impressive battery lives of up to 7 hours for the FreeBuds Pro (4.5 hours with ANC) and 24 hours for the FreeBuds Studio (20 hours with ANC). The FreeBuds Pro also offer reverse-charge capability (so you can siphon extra charge off another device), as well as ultra-fast charging. While the FreeBuds Studio deliver 8 hours of continuous music playback (5 hours with ANC), off just a 10-minute charge – the disorganised traveller’s saviour.
And, as it happens, the distracted editor’s saviour. I may be out of the loop this week as far as the latest on Harry and Meghan, but I sent a magazine to print on time, and I couldn’t have done it without the quiet, comfy cone of silence that the HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio provided.
