Unusual and surprising in equal measure
Is it an earring? Is it a Jeff Koons modern art piece? No, it’s Huawei’s FreeClip. This odd-looking pair of wireless buds uses an “open” fit design, meaning you can listen to music while being entirely aware of your surroundings at all times, and offers a less intrusive design compared with conventional earbuds where an eartip burrows into your ear.
At this price there are plenty of great five-star earbuds, such as JBL’s Live Pro 2 TWS, Sony’s WF-C700N and the AirPods Pro 2. In terms of “open” style earbuds, Sony’s Linkbuds’ compact, light design and balanced, natural sound impressed us for £149, while Bose’s take on the idea, the Ultra Open Earbuds, will set you back £299.
Each earbud consists of two shapes – a round ‘acoustic ball’ that nestles in your ear’s concha and a larger ‘comfort bean’ that sits behind the ear to provide support – that are connected by what Huawei calls a ‘C-bridge’. This connector is flexible, made of a nickel-titanium memory shape alloy that flexes and settles to the ideal position as you put the earbuds on. Extensive tests were done to ensure this crucial connector has just the right clamping force for the buds to remain secure and comfortable. We tentatively twist and extend the connector, too – it certainly feels strong and durable enough.
Wearing the FreeClip buds involves sliding them on around the edge of your ear like clip-on ear cuffs, placing them so that the round acoustic ball (the one with the driver) points towards your ear canal. It takes us a couple of tries to make sure we put them on the right way round, but once you slip them on, they do make sense – and it leaves your ear canal free.
We’re not overly fond of the bulbous, rather cartoonish look, but we can imagine some being attracted to this unique design. The large size does make us wonder how we will ever be comfortable wearing them, but despite our reservations we are surprised by just how incredibly light and comfortable they are. The earbuds weigh only 5.6g overall and hang on gently to our ears, and the pressure is so light we forget we’re even wearing them after the first few seconds. Even those of us on the review team who wear glasses or have multiple ear piercings find them comfortable, with no part of the buds’ design causing issues.
Inside each bud is a “high-sensitivity” dual magnetic moving-coil driver, which Huawei claim
