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Huawei FreeBuds Neo come in a stylish, glossy finish. | Image by PhoneArena
There's a new member in Huawei’s FreeBuds line – the brand-new FreeBuds Neo are here to target the younger crowd and slot right beneath the FreeBuds Pro, but above the mainstream FreeBuds. At a price of €129 (around $140), this is a self-respecting pair of earbuds that exudes style and confidence.
The FreeBuds Neo tries to win over the younger crowd thanks to a bold, fashionable design and a focus on noise cancellation performance. One of the coolest things in these earbuds is the new light "mini-stem" design, which makes them considerably smaller and inconspicuous than most earbuds out there. They also have Bluetooth 6, Huawei's L2HC 4.0 codec, good battery life, and spatial audio features that work with any phone.
Design
Huawei has once again experimented with its earbud design. This time, we have a very unique shape for the case of the FreeBuds Neo. It's hard for me to describe it, so just take a look at the pictures to see what it looks like. While something like the AirPods 4 or 5 is still, I believe, a bit more compact, the case of the Neo is also easy to put in even the smallest pockets out there.
The FreeBuds Neo case has a rather interesting shape. | Image by PhoneArena
The Huawei FreeBuds Neo are also fairly light at just 41 g with the case, and each earbud weighs only around 4.8 g. Of course, you get a bunch of ear tips in the package so that you can find exactly the size that fits you best. Plus, the Neo is rated for IP55 dust and water resistance.
There are several very nice color options for the FreeBuds Neo:
Ice White
Nebula Pink
Stellar Silver
Starry Black
The one I'm testing is Stellar Silver, and I simply love both the color and the polished, glossy finish.
Audio quality and noise cancellation
Enjoying the well-rounded audio quality out of the FreeBuds Neo. | Image by PhoneArena
Huawei FreeBuds Neo uses a dual-channel noise-cancelling setup as well as a third-generation audio chip by Huawei. According to the company, we get an average of 30 dB of full-band noise cancellation. In my testing, the FreeBuds Neo may not be industry-leading in terms of active noise cancellation (that title still goes to the AirPods), but there is a significant improvement over previous FreeBuds earphones that I've tested. That's a definite advantage for the Neo and now they are at a place where you can confidently rely on their noise cancellation - it's not just a box the Neo checks.
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I've been testing the FreeBuds Neo on a plane, and while they couldn't block away all ambient noise, the overall reduction was pretty good. It allowed me to play music without having to crank up the volume to the maximum, for which my ears are thankful.
Images by PhoneArena
Using AI Life to configure the FreeBuds Neo. | Images by PhoneArena
There's also a conversation awareness feature which can automatically switch ambient mode on the moment you start talking to someone, which is, of course, super convenient because it takes a while to switch between noise-cancelling, awareness and noise-cancelling-off modes. You use gestures to switch between modes and to control your bud functions. You can do a single tap, double tap, triple tap, as well as swiping up and down.
I also used the FreeBuds Neo for audio calls and found the audio fidelity and stability quite good, even in noisy environments.
The FreeBuds Neo use 11 mm dynamic drivers and support a whole bunch of codecs, like AAC, SBC, LDAC, and L2HC 4.0 mode. If you happen to be using a modern Huawei phone, you can use the L2HC 4.2 mode codec, which can go up to 2.3 Mbps. For other phones, the LDAC tops out at around 990 kbps, which is still pretty good.
You can use either Huawei's AI Life or the Audio Connect app to configure the Free Buds Neo and take advantage of their dual-device functionality. Yep, that's right: you can connect the Free Buds Neo with up to two devices and switch between them seamlessly.
My impressions from the audio quality with the FreeBuds Neo are very positive. I think there is sufficient bass, the trebles are mostly clear, and overall, the sound is lively and rich.
You can use the app to further customize the sound profile, including the new spatial audio feature. It can be either fixed or with head tracking. Generally, it works well to enhance the liveliness and spaciousness of the sound.
When it comes to gaming and latency, my personal experience with the Huawei FreeBuds Neo is somewhat hit or miss. They have an automatic feature that reduces latency when they recognize that you're launching a game. This tends to work most of the time but I've had a couple of instances where I launched a gaming app that was not properly recognized and thus suffered from significant latency. A feature to let you manually whitelist apps would be welcome here.
Battery life
Living the good audio life with the FreeBuds Neo. | Image by PhoneArena
Battery life is pretty great, especially for such compact earbuds.
Huawei promises up to ten hours per charge with ANC off, and 6.5 hours with ANC on. Together with the case, that's up to 40 hours total or 24 hours of non-stop listening with ANC on.
If you're looking for a stylish pair of earbuds, especially one that sounds good and has a bit of a unique character, I think the Huawei FreeBuds Neo is a great option.
Rad Slavov is the Editor-in-Chief at PhoneArena. He joined the media in 2008, right on the cusp of the modern smartphone revolution. Through time and perseverance, he amassed a great deal of knowledge and industry know-how, allowing him to guide and organize the company's growing line-up of talented content creators and ever-expanding content portfolio.
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