Active noise cancellation and spatial audio

Review: Huawei Freebuds 7i - Offers possibilities

I start by sitting in the train seat and then placing the earbuds, one by one, in my ears. As soon as I put the second earbud in, the clear noise cancellation kicks in and blocks out much of the disturbing ambient noise.

Published 9 December 2025 - 16:30

Freebuds 7i is the new version of Huawei's cheaper headphones but still has a collection of features that allow them to compete with significantly more expensive headphones. We have, for example, bone conduction that ensures your voice is heard well in calls even when it's noisy around you with many other sounds, we have spatial audio, and we have, as mentioned, noise cancellation.

A lot for the money - can compete with twice as expensive

The headphones currently cost around 1300 kronor, and when I test them, I compare them for the sake of it with twice as expensive Airpods 4. In several areas, Huawei Freebuds 7i can surpass Apple's headphones. However, they differ because Freebuds 7i are closed with four different sizes of rubber tips, and Airpods 4 do not have any rubber tips to help seal tightly.

Depending on which phone you use as the audio source, Huawei headphones have different characteristics. Connected to an Android phone with support for high-resolution audio, you get noticeably detailed and expansive sound where each instrument and voice stands out. If you instead connect to an iPhone, you get the audio codec that Apple uses, AAC, and even then, the sound is often more energetic and punchy than Apple's Airpods. It depends a bit on what music you listen to and which equalizer settings you prefer.

Smooth app for both IOS and Android

Huawei Freebuds 7i has an accompanying app, Huawei AI Life, which manages settings, allows you to handle spatial audio, noise cancellation, and the aforementioned equaliser to adjust the sound profile to what you think sounds best. The app is available for both Android and iPhone. It also makes it easy to manage connections to several different devices, whether they are with iOS or, for example, Android. You can have the headphones connected to music from the computer or a video meeting there, and then if someone calls your phone, the headphones switch directly over there when you answer. It works really smoothly, and then I can manage more than two connected devices in the app, where the Android version of the app is slightly smoother than the iPhone version.

In addition to being able to control some functions in the app, you can of course also manage simple things directly from the headphones. A long press on the stem can switch between noise cancellation and transparency mode or start the voice assistant, and two or three presses can control calls, change tracks, and so on. This can be customised in the app. You can swipe along the headphone stem to change the volume.

When it comes to calls, the headphones are especially good at removing ambient noise and isolating your voice, but it can have side effects, so I don't get that really clear sound during calls even though a lot of disturbing ambient noise is removed. When I don't have disturbing noise around me, my voice consequently becomes significantly clearer for the person I'm calling.

Overall, Huawei Freebuds 7i offers a wide range of features at a very competitive price.

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