Huawei's flagship 30-hour wireless earbuds vow to "set new audio standards"

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Huawei has announced its latest pair of flagship wireless earbuds, the FreeBuds Pro 4. Positioned as the brand's most premium pair of Bluetooth buds, the FreeBuds Pro 4 aim to deliver superior sound and comfort alongside advanced noise cancelling and a premium design.

The new earbuds use a dual driver setup with an 11mm dynamic driver handling bass frequencies and a complementary planar diaphragm driver taking care of the higher registers. The new buds promise to deliver audio up to 24-bit/48KHz for an "exceptional immersive listening experience", while the provided Huawei app allows users to adjust the sound to their tastes or choose from given equalizer presets.

Being a flagship pair, the fourth-gen FreeBuds Pro offer AI-boosted noise cancelling, which Huawei claims can handle up to 100dB of environmental noise and block out windspeeds of up to 10m/s. The Pro 4 use a quad mic array for clearer voice calls even with background noise, and during the launch demo, we were shown members of the Huawei team taking a voice conference from another room as a Bluetooth speaker played in the background, isolating the speakers' voice while dropping the noisy music down to a much lower level.

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The FreeBuds Pro 4 are IP54 rated, offering protection against water jets alongside decent defence against dust and dirt. They also boast up to 30 hours of battery life with the case included, exceeding the 24 hours total offered by the Award-winning Sony WF-1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, but equalling the AirPods Pro 2. There's wireless charging support, too, for which you'll need a compatible charging pad.

The FreeBuds Pro 4's head motion controls allow you to take calls with a simple nod of the head, while Bluetooth Multipoint lets you switch between two connected devices seamlessly. The new earbuds also offer automatic play/pause detection when placed in, or removed from, the wearer's ears.

The Pro 4 are available in three colours: black, green and white. Huawei hasn't confirmed its pricing for the FreeBuds Pro 4 yet, but we'll update this news as soon as we have official figures.

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Harry McKerrell is a senior staff writer at What Hi-Fi?. During his time at the publication, he has written countless news stories alongside features, advice and reviews of products ranging from floorstanding speakers and music streamers to over-ear headphones, wireless earbuds and portable DACs. He has covered launches from hi-fi and consumer tech brands, and major industry events including IFA, High End Munich and, of course, the Bristol Hi-Fi Show. When not at work he can be found playing hockey, practising the piano or trying to pet strangers' dogs.