Huawei Freeclip review: Open ear earphones that clip on

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating

Pros

Good grip

Automatic right-left detection

Good sound

Cons

Fit and sound depend on the ear cups

Our Verdict
The Freeclip is an exciting alternative to open-ear headphones with a headband. They fit well and impress with a solid sound that is particularly effective with electronic music.

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The Huawei Freeclip is eye-catching in two ways: its elegant, shiny surface and the unusual way they are worn. Unlike conventional open-ear headphones, which either sit in the ear canal or are attached with a headband, they are held directly to the ear with a clip. They work amazingly well.

The Freeclip’s secure and comfortable fit is impressive, but since everyone’s ears are different, how they fit will vary from person to person. I found that the Freeclips fit like ear jewelry and are also comfortable while wearing glasses.

While each Freeclip earbud looks identical, it doesn’t matter which ear you put them on. The Freeclip can automatically recognize which ear it’s in and adjust the audio appropriately. This is a useful feature and solves one of the most annoying problems with TWS headphones.

A typical weak point of the open-ear earphones is the sound quality. If the small speaker sits exactly in front of the ear canal, it sounds fine, otherwise, you have to make some adjustments. During testing, it fitted perfectly straight away. Electronic music is a genre that suits the Freeclip. When listening to Depeche Mode, the Freelcip produced powerful beats, though the treble was a little too restrained. The equalizer was only of limited help here. With the album, Songs For A Nervous Planet by Tears for Fears, the fresh sound harmonized particularly well. The equalizer could add a little more bass if desired–a trick that we also used on Trevor Horn’s new album. Songs by Tori Amos and Seal benefited from this full, rich sound.

However, the Freeclips show slight weaknesses with acoustic, jazz, and classical music. Here, the sound seems a little strained and less balanced in places.

The Huawei Audio app offers the usual setting options such as battery indicator, gesture control, and equalizer. The equalizer is rather simple and allows the user to choose between four settings: standard, boost, treble boost, and voices.

The gesture control of the Freeclip offers both double and triple taps, which can be used to activate the track control and even Siri. Volume control by pressing and holding is still in the experimental phase, but mostly worked reliably in our test. The supporting animations in the instructions are particularly successful and make the operation easier.

The Freeclip has even more exciting features to offer: Calls can be accepted or rejected with a simple nod or shake of the head–a practical feature borrowed from the AirPods Pro 2, but one that may take some getting used to. There is also a localization function using a signal tone and automatic volume adjustment in noisy environments.

With such a small surface, gesture control is a challenge. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It is therefore an advantage that a sound is emitted when the gesture is successful. It is helpful if you tap firmly on the bar. Then it works for the most part.

Should you buy the Huawei Freeclip?

The Freeclip is an exciting alternative to open-ear headphones with a headband. They fit well and impress with a solid sound that is particularly effective with electronic music. However, anyone looking for a more intense sound experience is better off with in-ear earphones.