Huawei FreeBuds 7i Review: Feature-filled budget buds

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Need-to-knows

• Really comfortable fit
• Amazing noise cancelling for the money
• Good Awareness Mode
• Solid bass

The world of budget earbuds is often fraught with danger. You either get absolute rubbish or a surprising amount of quality that makes you wonder why anyone would ever spend more than $100. This was the context in which the Huawei Freebuds 7i, retailing for £79, landed on my desk.

To impress for such little money, the Freebuds don’t need to do anything particularly impressive. You’d be happy if the audio quality was above average and they felt comfortable. But Huawei has managed to cram in noise cancelling, spatial audio, head tracking and a pass-through mode too. 

On paper, then, you are getting loads for your money. But does it all come together to provide a worthwhile listening experience? Let’s find out!

How I reviewed the FreeBuds 7i

I use earbuds every day. In fact, I prefer them to full-on headphones, mainly due to the convenience of earbuds being small. As such, the FreeBuds 7i took the place of my usual everyday earbuds. That meant I wore them for at least four hours every day for a week, listening to music, podcasts and radio.

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They went with me everywhere, including the gym, London Underground, on runs and at my desk for work. They got the full treatment.

At a glance

Design and fit

There’s no point hiding it; these are AirPods Pro clones. And that sure ain’t a bad thing because those are some very comfy earbuds, which in turn makes these very comfy too. The silicon ear tips create a great seal in your ears, and I had no issues with irritation over hours of wear. The stems also slot neatly into that gap between your earlobe and the rest of your ear. 

I went running with them and they were stable for the most part. Although, after using open-ear earbuds, I can’t stand running with normal ones so I probably wouldn’t use the Freebuds 7i for this purpose anyway. They’re perfectly serviceable for the gym though.

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In terms of cosmetics, the Freebuds have a glossy finish which comes in Pink, White and Black, all enclosed in a very pocketable oval-shaped case that weighs 36.5 g. All-in-all, it’s a very premium look and feel that reaches far above its lowly price.

Noise-cancelling and Awareness Mode

The noise-cancelling is undeniably the standout feature of the Freedbuds 7i and does a lot of the work towards making these earbuds worthy of a purchase. It’s probably the best noise cancelling I’ve used at this price point and does an excellent job at blocking most stuff out that you’d encounter in your house and a respectable job at dampening train noise.

I was regularly unaware of people walking into the room I was working in to talk to me until they had to tap me on the shoulder. How much of a good thing that is is entirely up to your own needs to be able to ignore other people. I’d also say that these earbuds sound best when ANC is turned on.

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If noise-cancelling is a priority to you, you won’t do much better at this price than the Freebuds 7i.

I’m happy to report that the Awareness Mode is also pretty good too. With most earbuds I’ve tested, this has always been the low point, but here it’s more than serviceable and you can hear different voices in a conversation fairly clearly when in use. So as far as these two features go, it’s a big tick from me.

Sound quality

I won’t beat around the bush here. The Huawei Freebus 7i aren’t the greatest-sounding pair of earbuds you will ever use. But if you thought they were going to be at £79, then I’m afraid you have some wildly unrealistic expectations. 

What they do offer from their 11mm dynamic drivers is solid performance for the price, especially when it comes to the bass which is surprisingly smooth, well-mixed and deep. It gives tracks a certain degree of earthiness that helps lift the whole listening experience up a notch.

That being said, there are some areas of weakness that stand out. Not to any catastrophic degree, but you will notice them if you use other earbuds side-by-side. The mid-range is handled fine; you can pick them out on complex tracks and there is enough clarity there.

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When you get into the highs, the quality begins to suffer. Things like snares sound a bit strangled instead of punchy and cymbal crashes can be a bit tinny instead of providing that luxury shimmer you ultimately want. But again, we’re dealing with sub-£80 earbuds here. What you do get is more than worth the price.

Battery

As is the case with most Huawei products, the battery life on the Freebuds 7i is very good. You get 8 hours with ANC off and 5 with ANC on, which compares to 8.5 hours and 12 hours on the Sony WF-C710N so you’re getting pretty much what you get as the industry best.

The case adds another 35 hours with ANC off and 20 hours with ANC on which, again, is a healthy amount. I found I could nearly squeeze a week of use without charging but obviously that depends on your listening habits. Most impressively, the buds charge fully in 40 minutes which I made use of a few days ago as I chucked them on a wire for 40 minutes to give me some juice whilst I dashed in and out of the house.

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Call quality and controls

I know headphone people are quite hot on call quality when it comes to reviews, and rightly so. In my testing, the FreeBuds 7i did a very good job at keeping things clear when indoors and were also far more impressive than I expected when outdoors, which must be thanks to the call noise cancellation.

When the audio environment gets really busy, the call quality does drop off a bit, but some of the most expensive earbuds out there still struggle significantly with this, so I can’t really knock the FreeBuds here.

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As for the controls, they are entirely of the touch variety. I don’t like touch controls, but these aren’t bad. Cycling through the different listening modes is easy enough with a long press on the left earbud and volume is adjusted by swiping up/down the stems. It’s still fiddly but liveable.

Final thoughts

This is an easy conclusion to write, thankfully for you and I. The main question I had when coming into this review was, are these earbuds worth the money? And I mean that in a very specific way. Cheap earbuds are often not very good, so are these good enough even to justify the low price tag. Or should you just spend an extra £50 or so on something more pricey?

I can safely say that if you want a cheap pair of earbuds, then the Freedbuds 7i are worth it, especially (and almost primarily) because of the top-notch noise cancelling. Alongside that, you get good sound quality that is fine for the price, great battery life and a comfy fit. At £79, it’s tough to bet against.