huawei freebuds 7i review

Huawei has been making great wireless earbuds for a long time and the FreeBuds 7i enter the brand’s audio portfolio as a budget option. Although they don’t look much different from their predecessors, the 7i do offer updated active noise cancellation, which Huawei claims is 30% better than the outgoing buds while offering 50% less latency.

There’s a new bone conduction microphone for better voice pickup during calls and spatial audio with head tracking. Huawei has also added Head Motion Control, which allows you to instantly answer or reject an incoming call by shaking or shaking your head, while also maintaining the same battery endurance, codec support, and IP54 ingress protection.

So how do the FreeBuds 7i stack up to the competition and should these be on your shortlist for TWS buds under €100/£100? We’ve been using them for about two weeks and the short answer is that they’re great.

Are the upgrades enough to help the FreeBuds 7i stand out in the oversaturated TWS market? These are our findings.

design

Huawei has made some changes to the design of the FreeBuds 7i, with the charging case now having a more rounded design than their predecessors. It is fully fabricated and looks like a dental floss kit. It’s compact enough to fit even in tight spaces like the coin pocket on your jeans, which is always a plus.

The buds are essentially the same as last year’s model. These have a traditional in-ear design with silicone ear tips and a small touch-sensitive stem, which also houses microphones.

We have the white pair for review, but you can also get them in pink or black. The buds and their case get a glossy finish, which is fine on the white color variant. We honestly prefer the matte finish of the black variant, which also adds some grip to the otherwise slippery design.

The fit in the ears is good as long as the ear tips are the right size for your ears. We managed to make do with size M tips, which stayed snug even during gym workouts and races. The comfort level is good as the FreeBuds 7i stay in our ears for several hours at a time.

The FreeBuds 7i measure almost exactly the same as their predecessors, weighing in at 5.4 grams, while the case adds an additional 36.5 grams, for a total of 47.3 grams. As we mentioned earlier, the new case is slightly narrower than the one with the FreeBuds 6i, making it easier to store in a small pocket.

The retail package includes the buds, their case, and a set of size L and S replacement silicone ear tips. The buds are rated IP54 against water and dust, which means they can handle rain, sweat, and dust well.

features

The FreeBuds 7i have Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity and supports dual device pairing. They also get spatial audio with head tracking, which works across all devices, so you can enjoy more immersive content consumption. There are four different profiles, ranging from default to theatre, concert hall and movie theatre. The latter three recreate their respective locations quite effectively, which is impressive.

The FreeBuds 7i bring Huawei’s Dynamic ANC 4.0, which the manufacturer claims can achieve up to 28dB of noise cancellation while offering 50% less noise cancellation latency than the FreeBuds 6i. It is paired with 8mm² air vents and 3x microphones on each earbud.

Not only this, Huawei has also added a new bone conduction microphone on each earbud, which claims to offer better call quality with better voice pickup compared to the previous generation buds. The buds also bring wear detection sensors, which automatically pause and resume playback when you remove and reinsert the buds in your ears.

The FreeBuds 7i feature the same touch gesture controls as their predecessors. These include touch and hold, double tap and triple tap options as well as swipe for volume adjustment. These are programmable inside the Huawei AI Life app and you can freely customize them to your liking.

On the gimmicky side, the FreeBuds 7i also bring head control that allows you to answer or reject incoming calls by shaking or shaking your head.

sound quality

The 11mm quad-magnet dynamic drivers inside the FreeBuds 7i are carried over from their predecessors and deliver generally pleasant sound levels out of the box with a balanced default profile. We found the bass to be underpowered, which can be seen as a benefit, as most other earbuds emphasize the lows.

You’ll find five additional EQ profiles inside the Huawei AI Life app, including Bass Boost, Treble Boost, Voice, Symphony, and Hi-Fi Live. If none of these suit your tastes, you can also create a custom EQ profile via the 10-band slider.

With a few simple changes, the lows and highs can be calibrated to a pleasant overall sound stage. We enjoyed our time using the FreeBuds 7i and found them to be a great pair of buds for general media consumption.

Huawei AI Life app interface, EQ profile and custom EQ

The FreeBuds 7i brings support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC codecs. The new Huawei devices also get L2HC support for “nearly lossless” streaming at up to 960Kbps bitrates.

Noise cancellation delivered good results in the lower-level frequencies, managing to cancel out noise from the HVAC system and other low-pitched noises. There are four modes: Dynamic, Comfortable, General and Ultra, but we did not find any meaningful difference between them.

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The Transparency mode seems to be a step up from most earbuds in this segment and does a great job at isolating sounds, although you still get the annoying hissing sound that is found on most wireless buds.

Call quality is good as long as you’re indoors. Too much movement and strong winds prove to be a problem for the mic on the FreeBuds 7i, but this is to be expected from earbuds in the sub-€100 range.

We encountered no issues in terms of connectivity, zero drops or irregularities while testing the FreeBuds 7i on Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS devices.

battery life

The FreeBuds 7i feature a 55 mAh battery inside each earbud and a 510 mAh cell inside the charging case, just like the FreeBuds 6i. Huawei claims you can expect to get 8 hours of playback from the buds on a single charge with ANC off and about 5 hours with ANC on. With the charging case, these numbers increase to 35 hours and 20 hours respectively.

During our tests, we achieved 7 hours 40 minutes One charge from the buds ANC closed And 4 hours 20 minutes with ANC onThe case was good for 4 full recharges,

When you need to top up, you can do so via the USB-C port on the bottom of the case. The buds will charge from 0 to 100% in about 40 minutes, while the case will take an additional 60 minutes to top up.

decision

The FreeBuds 7i are Huawei’s affordable TWS option and they deliver pleasing sound without prioritizing bass like most buds in the segment. You get a sleek design with a fairly compact charging case, a great fit and all the standard features you’d expect in a pair of 2025 wireless earbuds for under €100/£100.