review with features, price and specifications

There are three things that catch my attention whenever I travel to China. The first, that the Chinese food in my city is Chinese what I am blonde. The second, the omnipresence of electric cars. The third, that everyone wears the same headphones: some Huawei FreeClip or similar. They are everywhere. Everywhere you look, someone is carrying them, it’s brutal. Today the Chinese firm has launched the new generation, the FreeClip 2Sand after having tried them, I think I understand why.

✅ Buy them if…

• You are looking for very comfortable headphones so you can wear them all day.
• You want to listen to music, podcasts or make calls without isolating yourself from the environment.
• You don’t want to have to remember to charge your headphones for a whole day.

❌ Don’t buy it if…

• You need noise cancellation.
• You are looking for high fidelity sound.
• You want some sneaky headphones.

The essentials in 30 seconds

The Huawei FreeClip 2S are unconventional headphones with a clear objective: that we can wear them all day. They are very different from what we usually see on the street, since instead of having a part that we put in the ear and a pole facing down, it has two small balls joined by a bridge that hook to the ear like, pardon the redundancy, a paper clip.

They are not headphones designed for audiophiles nor do they seek to offer the best sound experience on the market, but rather they are another accessory that seeks to fit into a relatively dynamic lifestyle. The professionals are responsible for offering the best sound. FreeBuds Pro. FreeClips are something else and should be understood as such.

They are, as we will see later, extremely comfortable and versatile. The sound, although it is not its strong point, is fine; and the autonomy is a true wonder. The “problem”, of course, is that it has a price of 229 euros, a somewhat high figure for headphones focused on lifestyle.

Our experience with the Huawei FreeClip 2S

How to use them. These headphones have three components: the Comfort Beam (the piece that is behind the ear and where the battery is), the Acoustic Ball (the one that we put inside the ear and where the driver is) and the Airy Bridge-C (the bridge that joins both). They are placed in the ear as if they were a clip and the bridge, which has a certain tension, ensures that the headphones stay in one place. It takes getting used to, things are the way they are, but in a couple of days you get used to them, and in what way.

Some headphones to forget about. Simply put, they are the most comfortable TWS headphones I have tried in all my time testing headphones. They are one of the few headphones that I have been able to wear all day, even without playing anything. They are very light, pleasant to the touch and do not move during typical day-to-day journeys. What they are not is sneaky. They attract a lot of attention and will be noticed when you wear them, which is no drama, but that’s it.

• Unlike 99% of headphones in the world, the FreeClip 2S does not have one earpiece for the right ear and one for the left ear. You can put each earbud in the ear you want.

Relearn gestures. You can double-tap any part of the headset to pause music or accept a call; or invoke Gemini by tapping three times. You can also summon the assistant by touching the Comfort Beam from behind, and even control the volume by swiping up or down on it. What I have found most comfortable is adding touches to the bridge. It’s strange, because it’s not “natural” to tap the area that holds something to your ear, but not only do the headphones hold without a problem, but the sensitivity is exceptional.

The new case. It is totally different from anything I have seen so far. It is a kind of ball with a mirror effect that is more reminiscent of a ring box than a headphone charging base. The lid is magnetized and offers good resistance, and the headphones are placed with the Comfort Beam facing down (it doesn’t matter right or left). It’s very cool, but it gets covered in fingerprints just by looking at it, it bulges more than I would like in my pants and I’m not sure that that shiny finish is going to resist the amalgamation of metal objects that may be in a pocket or a bag.

Decent sound. The headphones work (well) for everyday use, but that’s it. The bass has surprising punch for the format and, at normal volumes, the mids and bass are fine. If we raise the volume more than necessary, they distort a little. For their price, there are headphones that sound much, much better, but of course, these headphones are not about the sound experience, but about ergonomics and lifestyle. Calls go very, very well, and the adaptive volume allows us to forget to a certain extent about manually lowering and raising the volume when we change sound scenarios.

• They have a multipoint connection, so we can connect them to the mobile phone and other devices at the same time and switch between them interchangeably. That’s always a plus.

Excellent battery (and great charging). The headphones last all day without problem. In fact, it has been impossible for me to drain the battery in one sitting, so I believe the nine hours of total autonomy that Huawei promises (up to 38 hours if we take into account the charging of the case). Charging is via USB type C and wireless, and the great thing is that if you have a Huawei Watch (or a Apple Watch), you can put the case on its charging base and recharge the headphones. For me, as the owner of a Watch GT 6, it comes in handy.

Huawei FreeClip 2S technical sheet

Huawei FreeClip 2S, Xataka’s opinion

Having tried them, I can understand why everyone wears them in China. Are so comfortable and so light that you can wear them for eight hours straight without getting tired and switch between calls, music and short videos with zero friction. They are barely noticeable when you wear them and that is, without a doubt, their main plus point. That, and the battery.

As for the sound, and since they are good, we must understand them for what they are. They are not to enjoy the rich nuances of HiFi music on Qobuz, but to wear them all day in any situation without isolating ourselves from the environment. They do this without any problem and it is up to each person to weigh ergonomics and lifestyle against sound quality and decide.

Do I recommend them to you?

In the specific case that you want comfortable headphones to put on and forget about until they run out of battery at the end of the day, yes. They are expensive, but in that sense they are worth it. Another story is that you tell me that you have 229 euros to invest in the best sound. There I would recommend the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 or the Sony WF-1000XM5.

Images | Xataka

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This device has been provided for testing by Huawei. You can consult how we do reviews in Xataka and our relations policy with companies.