Huawei’s Odd Earbuds Are The Most Comfortable I’ve Worn

I’ve been covering the true wireless earbuds industry since its infancy—when a German upstart brand named Bragi preceded the AirPods to the market—and to this day, I test a lot of wireless earbuds, including all the latest ones from Bose, Sony, Apple, Samsung, Google.

The technology behind wireless audio has improved by leaps and bounds in the last six years, with connection that are seamless, stable, and audio quality that are virtually as good as the best wired earbuds.

But there’s problem for me: I have very sensitive ear canals and I can’t wear in-ear earbuds for longer than 20 minutes at a time before I have to take them out to give myself at least a couple minutes of rest. Even during the 20 minutes of wear, I’m always fidgeting and tinkering the earbuds position in order to get a more comfortable fit. My ear canals are also dry and itchy, and putting a silicon tip in sometimes irritates the skin.

This is an issue with my ears in general, as I know dozens of people who can wear their AirPods or Bose earbuds all day without issues. So for me, open ear earbuds are a better choice, because they are earbuds that do not go inside the ear canal. I’ve tested quite a few pairs, but my new favorite are the Huawei FreeClips.

The FreeClips are unlike any other set of earbuds I’ve seen: they are essentially clips that wrap around my ears, with the small circular shaped earpiece positioned towards my ear canal, but not touching it at all. It’s basically like having tiny speakers hovering right outside your ear. This means music feels like it’s playing around me, while my hearing is completely unobstructed. Audio quality is good for open ear earbuds, but obviously can’t match in-ear top tier earbuds like Huawei’s own FreeBuds 3 Pro or Apple’s AirPods Pro 2.

This has clear benefits for someone like me who enjoys walking and cycling often. I wore the FreeClips on a recent trip to Osaka and cycled around the city with the earbuds clipped to my ear. And yes, they stayed on much longer than the usual 20 minute period. That’s because, as usual, Huawei has done an impeccable job with the hardware: the clips clamp onto my ears securely—even at the gym when I was jumping around, the earbuds didn’t move at all—but they’re not clipped on so tight it feels uncomfortable. It’s almost the perfect amount of force for my liking. Of course, your mileage may vary.

The FreeClips have touch sensitive panels on the curved band area, supporting double or triple taps to control audio playback and accessing digital voice assistant. Battery life is excellent, with the earbuds able to play eight hours of audio on a single charge, and the case adding another 28 hours.

IP54 water resistance and wireless charging are available too, so these offer almost all the flagship features, except active noise cancelation. The latter is understandable, with the design of the clips leaving the ear canal completely opened. This means in a very noisy city like Hong Kong, outside noise can still drown out audio, but that’s an issue with all open ear design earbuds, not just the FreeClips. Ultimately, if you want the best immersive audio, you still need to cram something inside your ear canal (or wear headphones that cover your entire ear). But the FreeClips are much more comfortable for me, and I’ll be wearing these whenever I’m walking around a city that isn’t unbearably loud like Hong Kong. The FreeClips are available for sale in Europe at around €199 and in Asia for around the same price.