HUAWEI held their “Creation of Beauty” event in Dubai on December 12, 2023, and presented several new products including the HUAWEI FreeClip — an innovative pair of earbuds with a never-seen-before C-bridge design. These are launching in January 2024 on HUAWEI’s official store on Shopee. We got our hands on a test unit to see if it’s truly innovative and lives up to the hype from the event.

Above: The huawei freeclip box packaging.

THE UNUSUAL DESIGN AND WAY OF WEARING IT

Above: first look at the huawei freeclip inside its charging case.

It takes getting used to wearing these C-shaped earphones. I keep trying to push the audio ball deeper into my ear for louder and clearer sound; but that’s not how these are meant to be worn. The C-bridge design is meant to just rest around the side of the ear, with audio projected directly into the ear canal. It’s an open-ear listening experience, which means no noise cancellation, but you do get to hear your surroundings (like traffic and announcements).

OPEN-EAR LISTENING

The open-ear design will feel foreign to most users who are used to earbuds that sit directly in the ears. But it’s fast to get used to, mainly because these are so light and it actually sounds pretty good.

Above: the huawei freeclip has a c-bridge design.

You won’t get a prominent bass (like in a pair of Jabras), or profoundly clear separation of instruments and voices (eg. in a luxury device like Bang & Olufsen or Devialet), but you do get balanced sound. There’s a 10.8mm dual-magnet high-sensitivity driver unit that pumps out a decent big sound, which is impressive for such a small body.

And because of the C-bridge open-ear design, the FreeClip is very comfortable when worn, and allows the ears to breathe. Plus, at 5.6g they are extremely light. You can easily wear these for hours on end without even feeling them there.

They are fairly secure when worn and there are press images showing that these are suitable for outdoor activities like jogging. I’m not confident that these will not drop from my ears when I go on a run, so at least for the first few times I use these, I’ll save them for commute.

USABILITY

I like that both sides are interchangeable and on a single charge, they last up to 8 hours. With a fully charged case, you’ll get up to 36 hours in total. Gesture controls are intuitive and responsive. It’s just double or triple tapping anywhere on the FreeClip for different functions.

Above: the earbuds are extremely light.

I say HUAWEI has done it again with something completely new for the market and user. They did it with their FreeBuds Lipstick (earbuds in incredible packaging resembling a lipstick), and now with their FreeClip that sports a C-bridge design not seen with any other brand. Furthermore, the C-bridge design works. It’s extremely comfortable and sounds good, and that’s really all that users want.