Huawei's new FreeBuds Pro is giving the Apple AirPods Pro a run for their money

Huawei FreeBuds Pro

If the FreeBuds 3 were Huawei's answer to the standard Apple AirPods, the FreeBuds Pro definitely has its sights aimed at the AirPods Pro.

Featuring a new stocky design, which Huawei calls an iconic cubic design with a natural arc for in-ear comfort, the FreeBuds Pro now also has touch controls on its stem similar to the AirPods Pro. You can slide up and down for volume , and squeeze to toggle ANC.

It also touts a more natural awareness mode that uses dual mics and better air pressure balancing to produce natural sounds. But here's where the similarities end. Huawei's boasting a few world's firsts on these true wireless buds.

Firstly, they claim to be the world's first dual-antennae TWS earbuds , which supposedly greatly improve its anti-interference performance.

Huawei's keynote slide showed that the Apple AirPods Pro would periodically experience lag interference of about 10 times in 30 minutes, while the FreeBuds Pro is able to keep it at a cool three .

The second world's first claim is Dynamic Noise Cancellation.

Besides boasting up to 40dB noise cancellation depth (again, better than the AirPods Pro), the FreeBuds Pro also feature an Acoustic Sensor that when combined with AI algorithms, can provide real-time environmental noise recognition and apply the right amount of ANC, from Cosy to Ultra .

Other features include improved voice quality with a 3-mic pickup array and bone vibration sensor. The FreeBuds Pro has a 4.5-hour battery (with ANC), 7-hour battery (without ANC), and a total of 30 hours with its charging case (without ANC).

It's priced at €199 (S$162) with an October availability. As soon as we get local information, we'll update this article.

FreeLace Pro

The FreeLace was a neckband-style wireless earphone with a unique design where the charging cable was designed into the neckband itself. Unlike the FreeBuds Pro, that had some design changes, the FreeLace Pro is a straight up feature update.

It features a new 14mm dynamic driver design with a magnesium-aluminium alloy diaphragm and an independent bass tube . It also boasts 40db ANC performance, similar to the FreeBuds Pro, but the FreeLace Pro doesn't get the Dynamic Noise Cancellation feature.

The FreeLace Pro will also feature 3-mic array for improved voice quality with AI-assisted voice enhancement , 24-hour battery life and fast charging capabilities; 5 minutes for 5 hours of playback . The FreeLace Pro is priced at € 119 with a September availability.

Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro

Besides the expected launch of the new Watch Fit, Huawei dropped another variant of the existing Watch GT 2, the ultra-premium Watch GT 2 Pro, which features a titanium body, sapphire glass, and ceramic case.

At a glance, the watch features are almost identical; after all, it is still called the Watch GT 2. So you'll get onboard GPS and 2-week battery life. It looks like it'll get all the software updates from the Watch GT 2e as well, including the 100+ activity modes.

However, it doesn't seem like Huawei's just slapping on some expensive materials to an old watch and charging you for it; there are some improvements. Mainly, the heart rate sensor has gotten some tweaks. Huawei is calling it TrueSeen 4.0+.

Again, it doesn't look like a straight up generational upgrade, or else they'd have called it TrueSeen 5.0, but Huawei is now claiming up to 98.6 per cent accuracy when compared to a proper chest strap monitor. 

It's also gotten two more professional sport tracking modes: Golfing and Skiing/Snowboarding. We know it can be a little confusing after saying that the Watch GT 2 Pro already detects 100+ activities.

If you checked out our Watch GT 2e video review, most of these 100 activities only offer basic heart rate monitoring, while those labeled as professionally tracked activities will give you proper metrics for that particular sport.

So for golfing, you'll get stroke and swing stats, and for skiing, you'll get things like elevation, slope, descent stats.

Other software improvements include an offline trekking navigation feature, as well as more environmental alerts such as sunrise/sunset, moon phases, tide information and severe weather alerts.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is priced at €329 for a sport version, and €349 for a classic version, and is slated for a September availability. Like the original Watch GT 2, the difference here is only the band it comes with. 

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.