17.03.2025 
Finding earbuds that stay in place during a workout can be challenging. It's even harder to find a pair that offers good sound quality at a reasonable price. Fortunately, the fitness earbuds market is growing, and HUAWEI has just introduced a new model designed to provide an excellent user experience without breaking the bank. Meet the FreeArc, a pair of earbuds that stays securely on your ears, no matter how intense your workout gets, while also allowing you to remain aware of your surroundings. In this review, I'll share my experience with the FreeArc earbuds and outline who might benefit from using them and who should consider other options:
HUAWEI FreeArc: Who are they good for?
These earbuds are a great choice if you:
- Need open-ear earbuds that don’t fall from your ears
- Require good environmental awareness
- Want to listen to music during outdoor activities
Pros and cons
These are the aspects I like about the HUAWEI FreeArc:
- They’re light and comfortable to wear
- They do a great job at sticking to your ears
- Excellent environmental awareness
- Useful gesture controls
As for downsides:
- The environment you’re in affects audio quality
- While not problematic, battery-life could be even better
Verdict
While they may not win any awards for their appearance, the HUAWEI FreeArc are competent open-ear headphones that balance price, comfort, and sound quality. They stay securely on your ears during workouts and offer the environmental awareness you need for outdoor sports activities. With an IP57 rating for water resistance, you can use them without worry during rain or workouts in which you sweat a lot. Additionally, cleaning them is much simpler than with in-ear earbuds. If you are on the lookout for a reasonably priced pair of open-ear headphones, the HUAWEI FreeArc is one of the best options available.
Unboxing the HUAWEI FreeArc
These earbuds come in a white cardboard box, featuring a picture of the FreeArc look, the product name, and company logo. You'll find printed information about this product on the sides and the back of the box, including a list of its most important features.
The HUAWEI FreeArc come in a small white cardboard box
When you open the box, the earbuds are nicely tucked into their charging case, which is covered by a bit of protective packaging. Taking everything out reveals the following items: the charging case, the earbuds (inside the case), the warranty card, and a quick start guide in multiple languages. There's no charging cable available, like you get for other earbuds from HUAWEI, but that shouldn't be a problem, as the charging case works with just about any USB Type-C smartphone charger.
This is everything you find inside the packaging
The unboxing experience for the HUAWEI FreeArc is quick and simple. Inside the packaging, you get the earbuds and all the information you need to set up and use them immediately.
Design and hardware specifications
Each FreeArc earbud has a C-shaped design or C-bridge as HUAWEI calls it. Each earbud has three parts: the acoustic bean (featuring the company logo), a C-bridge and a droplet. The acoustic bean is covered in plastic, while the C-bridge and the droplet are covered in soft liquid silicone to ensure a skin-friendly texture that doesn’t cause any irritations. Each earbud has a size of 45.4 × 18.35 × 47.50 mm or 1.7 × 0.7 × 1.8 inches in length × width × height, and it weighs just 8.9 grams or 0.3 oz.
HUAWEI FreeArc have a C-shaped design
The charging case is very simple and has a square shape with rounded corners. It weighs just 67 grams or 2.3 oz, and its size is 67.80 × 67.80 × 26.50 mm or 2.66 × 2.66 × 1.04 inches. The USB-C charging port is found on the back of the case and works with any USB-C smartphone charger.
The charging case has a USB-C port on the back
When you open the charging case, you see the pairing button and the slots made by HUAWEI to fit the earbuds in the correct position. To help you out, the case also features small magnets which make the earbuds stick as soon as you place them in the proper slot.
The charging case has magnets for sticking the earbuds into their position
The HUAWEI FreeArc earbuds are available in three colors: green, black, and grey. I’m reviewing the black version and prefer this color for my gadgets. However, I’ve seen all color versions at a local press event, and I must say that black is by far the best looking and most practical of the three. The green and gray versions look a bit weird and are not a good fit for this product. I’m sure that not many people will buy the green version, so it will likely receive serious discounts sooner than the other two colors.
The colors for HUAWEI FreeArc
The acoustic beans, featuring the HUAWEI logo, have a touch-sensitive surface that enables gesture controls for adjusting the volume, playing or pausing audio, answering or rejecting calls, and more.
Each HUAWEI FreeArc has a touch sensitive surface
On the back of each earbud is a letter (R or L) indicating which ear it should be used in. Pay attention to this detail before putting them on. Both earbuds have an IP57 rating for water resistance. This means they are protected against dust and can be submerged in water up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes. You can also wear them while it’s raining, and they’re much easier to clean than in-ear earbuds. Remember that the IP57 rating does not apply to the charging case.
Notice the letters printed on each earbud
Each earbud has a small 55 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, allowing it to provide up to seven hours of music listening or five hours of voice calling. The charging case has a capacity of 510 mAh, extending their autonomy up to 28 hours of music playback or 20 hours of voice calling. When you open the case, the charging indicator lights up in three different colors, depending on how much battery is left.
The charging case increases autonomy to 28 hours
The HUAWEI FreeArc feature Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity with dual-device connections. These earbuds support the SBC and AAC audio codecs and offer noise cancellation only for their embedded microphones. Additionally, the company has refined the noise cancellation algorithms to resist wind noise up to 4 meters per second (approximately 14 km per hour). However, the earbuds don’t have active noise cancellation, as the main focus of HUAWEI FreeArc is to provide excellent environmental awareness.
For more details, check the official specs on the HUAWEI FreeArc webpage.
Spec-wise, the HUAWEI FreeArc is a competent pair of open-ear headphones that should provide a comfortable fit, as well as good audio and call quality. But more on that in the next section of this review.
Setting up, wearing, and using the HUAWEI FreeArc
To use the HUAWEI FreeArc, get access to firmware updates, and configure the way they work, you need the AI Life app. It’s available in Apple’s App Store, but you won’t find it on Google Play. However, Android users can either download and install the app manually, or install HUAWEI’s AppGallery (the company’s alternative app store) and get AI Life from there.
You must install the AI Life app
When you open the charging box, the HUAWEI FreeArc are detected, and you can connect to them with a simple tap. The AI Life app downloads the necessary firmware for the earbuds and informs you about the latest updates. I strongly recommend installing the latest firmware, as HUAWEI delivered some good quality-of-life improvements.
HUAWEI FreeArc are detected as soon as you open the case
The initial setup guide also shows you a tutorial for correctly wearing the earbuds. I recommend you read it carefully before using them. It’s not immediately intuitive how to attach them correctly to your ears, and you must read the labels printed on each earbud. If you wear glasses, like I do, it’s better to take them off before attaching the earbuds. You should do the same when taking them off.
Here's how to wear the HUAWEI FreeArc
Wearing the HUAWEI FreeArc is very comfortable even for long periods. They don’t fall off, even if you go out running or cycling, and especially not when doing indoor workouts. I’m usually a physically active person, but I recently had knee surgery, and I’m still in the recovery period. Therefore, I can’t go running outside for another few months. However, I tested the earbuds while indoor cycling and my usual physiotherapy sessions. I also went for a brief, very light run and didn’t have the HUAWEI FreeArc fall from my ears.
In the weeks following the surgery, I had to use crutches to walk. During that time, I used to wear my Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro. Because I wasn’t walking normally, and I was often out of balance, they fell easily from my ears. Also, their active noise cancellation (ANC) isolated me from the environment, which wasn’t ideal for someone in my condition. I had to turn off the ANC from their software to get the experience that I needed. The HUAWEI FreeArc would’ve provided a much more positive experience. These earbuds don’t fall off even if you walk without a normal balance (I still have minor balance issues when climbing stairs) and provide excellent environmental awareness. Therefore, they’re not only a good fit for physically active people, but also for those with movement impairments.
HUAWEI FreeArc are very comfortable to wear
The AI Life app is simple and easy to use. You don’t get access to many customization options, but those available are genuinely useful. Many users will appreciate the dual Bluetooth connectivity, allowing them to switch between devices easily. You can connect the HUAWEI FreeArc to your smartphone and smartwatch or your smartphone and laptop. Switching between from one to another is relatively easy afterward.
AI Life is easy to use
Audio quality is generally good, with a well-balanced sound in quiet indoor environments. You can hear voices clearly, and the bass is well defined. You also get access to a few predefined sound effects, which allow you to increase the treble or the focus on voice to make it more clear. You can also create your own sound effects if you don’t mind playing with equalizers.
Setting up the sound effects is easy
Audio quality lowers when outdoors or when you’re in noisy environments because of the lack of active noise cancellation. However, this is a compromise that’s very difficult to avoid for earbuds with this format. Call quality is pretty good too. While HUAWEI provides some noise cancellation algorithms for low intensity wind, the person you’re speaking to will have trouble hearing you clearly if you encounter more serious winds, or you’re walking along noisy boulevards.
Call quality is pretty good
You may experience sound leakage after you turn the volume to more than 60%. However, it’s less than I experienced on the HUAWEI FreeClip and much less than on other earbuds with a similar format and pricing. If you intend to listen to loud music, wearing them in a busy elevator is not a good idea, as it’s likely to bother people around you. Those standing very close to you may hear bits from your calls too but will have trouble understanding the entire conversation. Luckily, the sound leakage diminishes a lot when people stand two meters away or more from you. They will barely hear any sound coming from HUAWEI FreeArc, which is great.🙂
The HUAWEI logo on each earbud has a touch sensitive surface. I found it easy to control the volume and music playback, answer, or reject calls using taps, swipes, and press & hold gestures. These gestures can be customized from the AI Life app to do anything you want, so I encourage you to set them up. They’re especially useful for quick controls when working out.
The touch gestures can be personalized
When you can’t find an earbud or both, you can use the Find feature to play a sound and localize them more easily. They make a relatively loud sound so this feature can help you find them when you lose them indoors. Unfortunately, you can’t use the Find feature when the earbuds are inside the charging case, and you don’t have any option to find the charging case itself. This is unfortunate, and HUAWEI should invest into improving this feature to be on par with their competitors.
The Find feature can be useful
The autonomy of the HUAWEI FreeArc is close to what the company has advertised, and so is the charging speed. Many users will appreciate that a quick 10-minute charge can give them up to three hours of listening to music. This is very useful when you’re in a rush. During my testing, autonomy varied between 5 and 7 hours on a single charge, depending on how I used them and how long my calls were. While battery life isn’t the best you can find, it isn’t bad either. I’m curious how it will evolve and whether the battery on these earbuds will wear out quickly.
I enjoyed my experience with the HUAWEI FreeArc. While they’re not a perfect product, they’re good at what they were designed for. Most people are going to appreciate their sound quality, as well as the comfort of use, including during workouts.
What’s your opinion about the HUAWEI FreeArc?
I hope you enjoyed reading this review and now have a good understanding of this product and what it has to offer. Before closing, let me know your thoughts: Do you like the HUAWEI FreeArc? Are you considering buying them? If the answer is yes, how do you intend to use them? Comment using the options below and let me know.🙂
