I didn’t need the FreeBuds Pro 5—but I got them anyway. After using the FreeBuds Pro 3 for about two years, I had already reached a point where I was comfortable. They sounded good, the microphones were reliable, and overall, they just worked.
Last year, I skipped the Pro 4. It didn’t feel like a meaningful upgrade. So naturally, I started waiting for the next step in the series.
And with the FreeBuds Pro 5, Huawei finally made that step feel… real.
Table of Contents
What Changed This Time?
The first thing that caught my attention when the FreeBuds Pro 5 were announced globally was the new dual-driver setup.
An 11mm dynamic driver paired with a micro-planar tweeter is not something you see every day in this category. And unlike many spec upgrades, this one actually translates into a noticeable difference.
On paper, there are also improvements in noise cancellation—Huawei claims more than double the improvement compared to the Pro 4.
In practice, I can say this: the ANC is not just better—it feels more controlled and more consistent.
With the AI-powered dual-layer noise cancellation, background noise is handled in a way that feels less aggressive but more effective. I’ll be sharing real-world audio samples from noisy environments, which will give a clearer picture than any spec sheet.
What’s in the Box
Inside the box, you’ll find:
- The charging case
- The earbuds
- Three different sizes of silicone tips
The default tips worked perfectly for me, so I didn’t feel the need to switch.
There’s no charging cable included.
At this point, that’s no longer surprising.
Sound Quality
The FreeBuds Pro 5 supports lossless wireless audio transmission up to 2.3 Mbps, along with 48 kHz / 24-bit playback and L2HC 4.0 codec support. However, it’s worth noting that L2HC 4.0 is only available when paired with compatible Huawei devices.
There’s also spatial audio support with real-time head tracking.
Compared to the Pro 3, the Pro 5 feels more refined. There’s a better sense of separation, and the overall sound feels more balanced.
It’s not a completely different sound signature—it’s more like the same idea, but executed better.
The FreeBuds Pro 5 supports Bluetooth 6.0, and in daily use, the connection feels very stable. I tested the range by moving more than 10 meters away while listening to music, and I didn’t notice any drop in sound quality or connection stability.
When it comes to latency, especially with TalkBack, the performance is very similar to the FreeBuds Pro 3. There is a slight delay, but it stays within a tolerable range and doesn’t really affect usability. That said, this delay is a bit more noticeable when using the earbuds with the Tab S11.
Noise Cancellation and Awareness Mode
Noise cancellation is clearly one of the biggest upgrades here.
But interestingly, one of my favorite improvements is not the ANC itself—it’s the awareness mode.
In previous generations like the Pro 1 and Pro 3, the transparency mode always felt a bit artificial. You could hear your surroundings, but it didn’t feel natural. With the Pro 5, that has changed.
The sound you hear from the outside feels much more realistic and usable. I can comfortably switch to awareness mode and have a conversation with someone next to me without feeling disconnected from the environment.
There are different awareness modes available, such as voice-focused and reduced noise, but honestly, the default setting was already good enough for me.
There’s also a small but very thoughtful feature: when someone speaks to you and you respond, the earbuds automatically lower the music volume and switch to awareness mode. After about five seconds of silence, they return to your previous ANC profile.
here’s one another small but very useful detail when it comes to how these modes behave. The buds remember the sound profile based on how you use them. For example, if you wear just the left earbud and leave it in awareness mode, and then later switch to using both earbuds with ANC enabled, it’s able to keep track of that. When you go back to using just the left earbud, it returns to the awareness mode automatically.
It’s one of those small details that you don’t notice at first—but once you do, you start to appreciate it.
Battery Life
The charging case offers up to 38 hours of total playback, while the earbuds themselves can reach up to 9 hours without ANC and around 6 hours with ANC enabled.
Compared to the FreeBuds Pro 3, this is a noticeable improvement, especially in real-world usage where ANC is almost always on.
Design and Comfort
The charging case is slightly thinner, lighter, and has a glossier finish. It feels more refined, but the overall design language remains similar.
The earbuds themselves have also been refined. The stems are thinner and shorter, while the part that sits in your ear is slightly wider, improving the overall fit.
They sit very comfortably in the ear, and even during long listening sessions, I didn’t experience any fatigue.
Charging Case Details
Just like on the FreeBuds Pro 3, Huawei continues to use a small speaker inside the charging case for pairing and charging alerts.
This time, however, the speaker is placed inside the USB Type-C port. As a result, there’s no visible speaker grille on the outside of the case, which I personally prefer. It gives the case a cleaner look.
You can also enable or disable the sound that plays when you open the case, and even choose from Huawei’s notification sounds.
Of course, I went with the Bongo notification sound. It just sounds great.
So far, I haven’t noticed any meaningful impact on battery life from having these sounds enabled.
You can manage these settings from the charging case section inside the Huawei Audio Connect app. Just keep in mind that this feature is turned off by default.
Pairing and App Experience
When you open the case for the first time, the earbuds are ready to pair immediately. For pairing with a second device, you can hold the small button on the side of the case.
Huawei now recommends the Huawei Audio Connect app, which is available on Galaxy Store for Samsung users.
After installing the app, I received a firmware update, which enabled spatial audio support.
Controls and Smart Features
You can control the earbuds by squeezing the stems once, twice, or three times.
There are also touch gestures on the upper part of the stems—the flat surface just outside the part that sits in your ear.
Double squeeze plays or pauses music, or answers and ends calls. Triple squeeze skips to the next track.
You can also touch and hold to trigger your voice assistant. The assistant needs to be selected the first time, and you can either set a default or choose every time.
By default, both earbuds behave the same, but you can customize them. For example, I set the left earbud to go to the previous track with a triple squeeze.
You can also control calls using head gestures—nodding to answer or shaking your head to reject. One detail I liked is that these gestures are not used for ending calls, which helps prevent accidental hang-ups.
Microphone test
Conclusion
Coming from the FreeBuds Pro 3, this doesn’t feel like a forced upgrade. It feels like a refined one.
The sound is better, the ANC is more consistent, and the awareness mode is finally where it should have been from the beginning.
And most importantly… I didn’t feel like I wasted my upgrade.
I don’t honestly know what to say about the headphones, I never used those. When I need small earbuds, I use the Audio-Technica ATH-E70. That delayless, flawless quality over wired… I could never find it in normal environments. They’re powerful, they feature a three, not two, driver setup, and just like anything else from ATH, worth even the last cent.
And for over-head, I use ATHM50X. Yeah, totally switched to Audiotechnica.
About the microphones, it’s very noise reduced. The noise reducing cuts down hardly on sounds like T, B, , creating that effect of “Heho” instead of hello, which is a shame for a microphone in 2026. It’s also 16k, triggering Android’s hands-off profile which reduces quality. I still can’t understand why headphone makers can’t just use their microphone propperly by setting it as a general input device rather than hands-off input device. It further reduces quality when it’s already noise reducing to hell.
I’ll just stick to my Sure MV88.