A couple of months back, Huawei Philippines introduced to the country its latest TWS or True Wireless Stereo earbuds — the Huawei FreeBuds 3i. It’s the company’s budget offering that promises useful features for everyday usage.
While we prepare for its full review, join us in this unboxing and first look.
The FreeBuds 3i comes in this compact and simple packaging. As seen on the product image, it comes with its own charging case in the same color. Speaking of colors, this model is available in two options — Ceramic White and Carbon Black.
The contents are pretty basic and are limited to the essentials. Opening the lid of the box, you’ll be greeted with the charging case containing the two earbuds.
Digging a bit deeper introduces you to two smaller boxes — one containing all the warranty, quick start guide, and safety information, while the other houses the USB-C cable and three additional sets of ear tips in varying sizes to fit the user.
The earbuds are comfortably resting inside their case and are kept secure using a magnet.
Up front, the charging case has a small LED that changes color to indicate the status of its battery. While at the back, we have a single USB-C port for charging and a Function button to power up the case.
Huawei says that one earbud only weighs 5.5 grams so it’s not cumbersome to wear for long periods of time. And having been able to hold the buds and put them on, they are indeed light and wearing them both isn’t heavy at all and I don’t think I’d have problems using them for hours.
So now that the device is out of its box, it’s time to start setting it up. A simple press and hold at the charging case’s Function button wakes it up and is now ready for pairing. This is made possible through Huawei’s AI Life app. Simply download it on your phone and it should already detect the FreeBuds 3i and pair with it in a matter of seconds.
After set up, there’s a firmware update that will prompt you to download and install. But again, it takes no more than two minutes to complete this part. Once the phone has paired with the earbuds, they’re now ready for use.
Just like other TWS, the back part is touch-enabled to give you the usual controls for music and calls. You can set these controls on the app itself.
Two taps could play/pause the music, go to the next song, or activate your voice assistant. On the other hand, touching and holding it will cycle through its different noise control modes/ You can also assign these commands separately for each earbud.
The FreeBuds 3i features active noise cancellation using a 3-mic system meaning it will block off external noise so you can fully enjoy your music or hear the person you’re talking to better. It also comes with support for Wearing Detection — once you take them off, they automatically pause the music to better conserve battery.
Speaking of battery, the FreeBuds 3i carries a 37mAh battery per earbud and 410mAh capacity for the charging case. The company claims it can last up to 3.5 hours of continuous music playback and 2.5 hours of talk time on a single charge. Using its case, it can supposedly go up to 14.5 hours of playback. We’ll be testing the device to see if it does live up to its claims which we’ll include on its full review in the coming days.
The Huawei FreeBuds 3i is priced at PhP 5,990 and is now available for purchase.
Huawei FreeBuds 3i specs:
10mm dynamic driver
Active noise cancellation
Call noise cancellation
Wearing Detection support
Bluetooth 5.0
37mAh battery (per earbud)
410mAh battery (charging case)
5.5 grams (per earbud)
51 grams (charging case)
Ceramic White and Carbon Black colors
