Huawei FreeArc review: Arc de triumph?

According to Huawei, the Huawei FreeArc sit in the fastest-growing segment of the headphones market; data presented by the brand says sales of open-ear headphones skyrocketed by 600% between Q1 2023 and Q2 2024.

That figure is a little misleading – open-ear headphones are a relatively new concept, so pre-2023 numbers would have been low – but it shows an appetite for wireless earbud designs that leave your ear canals unobstructed.

They’re not without drawbacks: they offer no isolation from external noise and deliver inferior audio to regular buds with silicone eartips. But Huawei has priced the FreeArc in such a way that you can feasibly pick up a pair to complement your main noise-cancelling headphones – if all you want is an occasional pair for the gym.

Huawei FreeArc review: What do you get for the money?

The Huawei FreeArc have an RRP of £100, but those who preorder them directly from Huawei ahead of their official release on 3 March can lock them in for just £75.  They’ll then be available at a launch price of £80 until 1 April. That’s significantly cheaper than Huawei’s first pair of open-ear buds, the Huawei FreeClip (£170), and very competitive compared with rivals from other brands.

We awarded the Shokz OpenFit four stars at £179, although they were available for £129 at the time of writing, while the JBL SoundGear Sense picked up four stars and our Recommended badge at £130. Bose, meanwhile, has the Open Earbuds Ultra, which will set you back upwards of £250.

Unsurprisingly, the FreeArc are not as well-specified as Bose’s premium buds. There’s no support for advanced Bluetooth codecs (streaming capabilities are limited to SBC and AAC over Bluetooth 5.2), no spatial sound mode and features and customisation options are relatively thin on the ground.

You’re left with wireless headphones that loop around your ears to position their 17 x 12mm driver units in front of your ear canals, enabling you to remain tuned into the world while using them.

The FreeArc are reasonably light for their breed at 8.3g apiece, available in three colours (black, grey and green) and come with an IP57 rating for dust and water resistance, the best of any open-ear buds I’ve come across.

Touch controls enable you to execute playback commands without your phone, which is essential while working out, and built-in microphones allow you to have a natter when huffing and puffing on the treadmill. Battery life is rated at up to seven hours for the buds, while charging takes place in a chunky case. This can’t be topped up wirelessly but has enough juice to provide three full charges of the FreeArc for a maximum total of 28 hours.

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Huawei FreeArc review: What do they do well?

Huawei has nailed the design fundamentals of the FreeArc. Once you’ve wrapped the C-bridge – the section of the buds that connects the speaker and battery – around your ear, the headphones won’t budge an inch. They remained perfectly secure during test runs in Richmond Park and didn’t shift position while I worked through my “new year, new me” routine of sit-ups, squat thrusts and star jumps.

Not only are the FreeArc incredibly secure, but they’re also supremely comfortable. This is an area where open-ear headphones generally excel, but some options we’ve tested apply a little too much pressure to the back of your ears. That’s not the case here; the feel will take a bit of getting used to but, after a while, there’s a good chance you’ll forget you’ve got the FreeArc on.

The other aspect of their design that merits special mention is the IP57 rating, which means the headphones are dust-protected and safe to immerse in 1m of water for half an hour. This means you can wash the FreeArc thoroughly after sweaty sessions and could potentially wear them while swimming, although Bluetooth signals don’t travel well around water.

If you are a keen swimmer, I recommend looking at bone-conduction headphones with MP3 players built-in instead. As far as wireless earbuds go, however, IP57 is about as good as it gets; of the options we’ve reviewed, only the IP68-rated Jabra Elite 8 Active are better equipped to handle the ingress of dust and water.

On the features front, I found that, for the most part, the touch controls and microphones worked well on the FreeArc. My speech was intelligible on recorded voice notes and calls, though not impervious to strong gusts in exposed environments.

Huawei’s battery life claims are accurate based on my time with the FreeArc. While your average Joe wouldn’t get close to finishing an Ironman without them running out before the finish line, the fastest-ever man (7hrs 21mins 12secs) and woman (8hrs 18mins 20secs) wouldn’t be far off. If you’re an ultra-distance runner, you can rely on the FreeArc to soundtrack your training.

The big draw of open-ear headphones is the ability to hear what’s going on around you as well as what you’re listening to. And, in the situations they’re primarily designed for, the FreeArc balance these things very well. During my park runs, I was alert to MAMILs pedalling up the track behind me, could clearly hear the polite commands of a teacher instructing his students to move aside as I laboured up the hill, and was fully aware of traffic in my periphery on the way to the park. In quieter surroundings, around 40% volume was ample to hear and enjoy music, although I had to increase this slightly when listening to podcasts.

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Huawei FreeArc review: What could they do better?

In busier, noisier environments, the listening experience was different. I had to push the volume to over 80% to hear my tunes over those blaring out at the gym, and even higher levels were required on public transport, resulting in Apple notifying me, after a few days, that I’d exceeded the recommended limit for audio exposure. Unfortunately, there is no effective way for earbuds such as this to combat external sound, but it’s an obvious limitation of the FreeArc nonetheless.

The other drawback of the open-ear design is that you miss out on the sound isolation provided by silicone eartips and this has a knock-on impact on audio quality. I felt the FreeArc lacked a little richness and detail across the frequency spectrum compared to earbuds with silicone tips such as the Nothing Ear (a), our current favourites under £100.

I didn’t have any issues with the overall balance. Vocals are well-centred in the mix, treble is never unduly harsh and the FreeArc demonstrate a capable grasp of rhythmic expression. Their low-end response is reasonable, too; the unapologetically poppy bassline on Rina Sawayama’s Lucid was delivered in a clean and lively fashion.

But while I got a good overall picture of the tracks I was listening to, certainly enough to energise my exercise, the FreeArc aren’t the most revealing listen, and my enjoyment was directly affected by the level of external sound around me. Again, however, you’ve got to temper your expectations with an affordable pair of open-ear headphones like this, and the FreeArc put in a decent performance for the money. 

When running in a particularly heavy downpour, the previously dependable touch controls became a little sketchy, specifically the forward sliding motion used to increase volume. The combination of wet fingers and earbuds resulted in my swipes failing to register on several occasions and occasionally skipping tracks and activating Siri instead.

Another gripe is that, at the time of writing, the headphones’ companion app for iPhone is limited. It detected the FreeArc and displayed their remaining battery life but nothing else.

If you’re using an Android handset, you can customise a few things but doing so requires a bit of work as the app isn’t on the Play Store. Instead, you have to activate developer mode, download the AI Life APK from Huawei’s website and install it from there.

This gives you access to touch control customisation options, four EQ presets and a ten-band graphic equaliser for creating personalised EQs. That’s a lot better than nothing, but it isn’t as comprehensive as the options available for the JBL SoundGear Sense. I didn’t have a Huawei phone to test the FreeArc with but accessing the AI Life app won’t be a problem there. I imagine iOS users will get access to the same tweaks at some point, but at launch, they will have to make do with the default settings.

A final minor word of warning. If you plan on using the FreeArc on the tube or in the office, you’ll run the risk of disturbing those around you. Their handling of sound leakage isn’t bad, but the design means those nearby will be able to hear some of what you’re listening to if you listen at high volumes.

Huawei FreeArc review: Should you buy them?

The Huawei FreeArc may not be the last word in open-ear audio or the most fully-featured example of their breed, but they do what they need to do well. An extremely comfortable fit and impressive water resistance are big pluses alongside the full awareness they provide during physical activity.

I’d have liked their touch controls to be grippier to ensure commands are registered more consistently in inclement weather, but there’s little else to complain about here, other than the usual open-ear headphone drawbacks.

So, if you’re after a pair of exercise-focused earbuds, they’re definitely worth considering, particularly at the introductory price. They undercut the OpenFit from Shokz – long the dominant force in open-ear audio – by a decent margin, but don’t cut too many corners in doing so.