Huawei Freebuds SE 2 Wireless Earbuds Review

I have been trying out these Huawei Freebuds SE 2 earbuds recently as I wanted to see what a budget pair of earbuds could offer. I am an AirPods Pro user in the main so I wanted to see what the main differences were between a pair of earbuds that cost less than £40 compared to £169.

Could they be used as my main earbuds? Or will they be consigned to the draw or an emergency backup pair?

Design:

The Huawei Freebuds SE 2 Earbuds have a similar design to the Apple AirPods but the case is a bit more square. The buds come in two colours ceramic white (which is the one I have) and Isle Blue. The case is light and compact so perfect for picking up and popping in your pocket or bag.

The earbuds themselves are slightly longer than my AirPod Pro’s but only slightly. The main difference is that the Huawei Freebuds SE 2 do not have silicone tips that cover the end of the earbud. The Earbuds are IP54 Dust and Splash Resistant so you don’t need to worry about wearing them out in the rain.

Battery Life & Charging:

The battery life on the Huawei Freebuds SE is really good for what you would consider to be a budget pair of earbuds. You can get up to 40 hours with multiple charges in the case. With one full charge, you will get 9hrs which I found perfect for when I was in the office and on multiple conference calls throughout the day.

And if you do find that you are running low on juice you get 3hrs hours of one 10min charge. Again this is great for those who use earbuds for work. What I would say about the charging is that you are not going to get wireless charging with these earbuds. You will need to use a wired USB-C charging cable, this is a bit annoying but for the price, I wasn’t expecting it to be wireless.

Comfort:

I was not expecting these to be the most comfortable of earbuds but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I thought because they lacked the silicon tips that the plastic would rub in my ear but I found that they didn’t. I was quite happy to have these in for long periods of time without feeling any discomfort.

Audio Quality:

I am an Audiophile but in my opinion, the audio is not as good as the AirPods I have found that the sound is still pretty good. For listening to music or podcasts on the go they are more than good enough.

The sound quality on calls is good and the microphone is pretty good as well, I have no complaints from others on the calls to say that they could hear me. They do come with Active Noise Cancellation which is just OK, they do block out noise but you can still hear the background noise quite a bit from what I have experienced.

Controls:

The Huawei Freebud SE 2 have most of the controls that you would want to have by just tapping the earbuds. So what can you do:

• Play & Pause Music
• Answer & End Calls
• Skips tracks

You will just need to tap/double tap either the left or right earbud based on what you are looking to do.

You can customise your earbuds more by downloading the Huawei AI Life. This will allow you to track your battery life, create customer gestures, adjust the EQ levels as well as a find your earbuds feature. I haven’t used the app that much as I don’t find that I need to as I can do what I need to without using the app.

Connectivity:

The process of pairing the earbuds was very simple. To pair you need to hold the left and right side of the top of the earbuds (they refer to as the touch control area) for 3 secs. You should then see the LED light flash white which lets you know that it’s in Bluetooth pairing mode.

You can then go into your Bluetooth Device on your phone and you will see your earbuds in the list, tap on the name and they will connect and the light will turn green.

Final Thoughts:

I was expecting much from these earbuds but actually, they are a really good pair of earbuds for the price. You might not get the best Audio or ANC but if you are looking for a cheap pair that works well for the average person then these are certainly a good option.

If you are someone that is looking for great ANC and superior sound then these are not going to be for you. So it all comes down to your use case and if you are a real audiophile.