Huawei Freebuds 5i vs 4i Review - What's The Difference?
/The Huawei Freebuds 5i is an excellent pair of truly wireless earbuds that offers a lot of value for its price point. Especially when considering that these at launch are under £100 & they support hybrid noise cancelling, they have a playback time of up 28Hrs...and they have this. The little HiRes audio badge...which means they support LDAC... A well-known Klingon swear word.
For those of you who are familiar with LDAC. This is a method of streaming BT audio over short ranges, for example, from your pocket to your earbuds but with three times the amount of data. Do you realise what this means... It means if you have HiRes audio on your device or a HiRes streaming service. You can listen to your music at higher fidelity.
Design-wise, the Freebuds 5i has been upgraded in a few ways compared to the 4i from 2021. They are now thinner... which is something I was before Xmas 2022. The stems are shorter, and the lid on the charging case has now been reinforced. The backup power supply, in this case, has increased significantly larger.
Their overall look and feel are sleek and stylish and strangely similar to the popular ear buds. The name of then escapes me, though. I have to say due to their lightweight the earbuds themselves feel very comfortable and if you choose the right silicon tips stay securely in your ears, even during light workouts. And when it comes to finding the right tips you can download the Huawei AI app directly from huawei and use the find my fit feature... just to make sure you get the best seal.
The Freebuds 5i come in a compact charging case & due to fact that it's thinner now it is even easier to fit in your pocket compared to the 4i. The case also has a convenient LED battery indicator on the front. So you'll have a good idea of how much juice is left. Green is good, orange is ok & red...means it is time to recharge the batteries. And if you run out of power in the earbuds themselves, a 15min charge can give you up to 4hrs playback with ANC off.
And Huawei has gone away from the shiny hi-gloss finish this time & opted for a more speckled, more organic-looking texture. There are three colours available. The Ceramic white, Nebula Black & these ones the Isla Blue.
In terms of sound quality, the Freebuds 5i are all improved compared to the 4i. The Bluetooth chip is better and can now support the multipoint pairing. It also brings LDAC to the table. So if you have a phone with that, you'll hear the difference, but also, on the hardware side of things, the 5i has a new 10mm dynamic driver with a polymer composite diaphragm. With a larger and more flexible diaphragm, the earbuds can move more air... and this often results in bigger bass... and that's precisely what you get. So If you're a bass head, you'll love these.
Although if you're not a bass head, you can dial up the treble & when you do, you can get a more balanced sound. Overall, the 5i's have a respectable soundstage. The bass is punchy without being too overpowering, and the mids and highs are well-defined.
And they also have hybrid noise cancelling, which can be adjusted between three levels. The maximum noise cancelling mode reduces up to 42 dB of sound. This is not going to block out everything, but it is excellent for blocking out ambient noise like cars & trains and planes... and my constantly asking people to subscribe in my videos... So you get the idea the ANC will allow you to focus on your music or podcasts... and it will sometimes even sound like it's improving the sound quality.
Huawei have also upgraded the touch controls you can set these up, however you'd like using the AI life app. As standard, its a double tap to play, pause, and skip forward and back tracks. The new addition is the swipe up and down to adjust the volume. Which is handy if you want to keep your hands in your pocket.
The Huawei Freebuds 5i are a great pair of truly wireless earbuds that offer excellent sound quality, good battery life, and a comfortable fit at a very reasonable price point. They are a perfect option for anyone looking for Hi-Res earbuds with a hi-res price tag...
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