Huawei are known for packing in top shelf specs without the high price tag.

They did it with with their smartphones in the past, with their smartwatches currently and this transcends over to personal audio.

Here we have the Huawei FreeBuds 5i. A mid range set of wireless earbuds that punches well above it’s mid tier.

Up to 42 db (decibels) the FreeBuds 5i can rumble with deep bass and hit those high notes with perfect clarity.

This is driven by 10mm drivers per bud.

Handsfree hasn’t missed that immersive audio either with two mics on each ear bud.

The Huawei FreeBuds 5i also uses AI for it’s Active Noise Cancelation (ANC) as well as detecting the fit in to your ear.

If the ear buds don’t go in super snug the FreeBuds 5i will adjust audio accordingly so you don’t miss out on HD clarity.

There’s differing settings for the ANC for, as you guessed it, different environments.

And you can stream your fav playlist from morning to night non-stop.

Up to 28 hours from a full charge will see you rocking out. I’ve had the review FreeBuds 5i for a few weeks now, and they have been my daily buds every day and over the course of three weeks they have only needed to be fully charged once (on an average use of 4 hours per day, 5 days a week).

The Huawei FreeBuds 5i are also an excellent cheaper set for mobile gaming too.

You can dual connect, so there’s no need to unpair with, say, your mobile phone to connect to a tablet, just pair with both and switch devices as you please.

The Huawei FreeBuds 5i are an all rounder and cover almost all bases, and sporting the specs and HD quality audio of more expensive brands.

The Huawei FreeBuds 5i are literally music for your ears.

The post Huawei FreeBuds 5i Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Huawei know quality audio. Their prior FreeBuds 4 were, and still are, a symphony for your music senses.

This time, with the FreeBuds Pro 2 they have teamed up with Devialet, one of the most premium audio brands globally. This is not Huawei’s first partnership with the high end French audio producers, they also had a co-op with the Huawei Sound bluetooth speaker.

The FreeBuds Pro 2 will connect up via Bluetooth to either Android, iOS or Huawei’s HarmonyOS and once connected you are good to go.

Each bud is built with advanced A.I. sensors, two per bud, which detects your environment and can adjust the audio to block any sound pollution.

From a busy inner city street to the quietness of a library, the experience that you will get is always optimised for you.

There is a dual speaker system which accurately gives you a mix of highs and lows, True Sound. Unlike the FreeBuds 4, I found that the FreeBuds Pro 2 did not have the punch rumbling bass. Instead they produced more clarity in the media listened to, whether that be music, movies or games.

Keep in mind that your audio source is only really as good as the audio output you’ll receive.

Pairing the FreeBuds Pro 2 to a flagship Android phone there was a bit more freedom in tweaking the sound settings, then on an iPhone.

If you want to use Huawei’s Triple EQ settings you will need the Huawei AI Life app.

Between iOS and Android, Android fared better. This is due to the OS being less restrictive in what you can adjust.

That’s not to say iOS didn’t do the FreeBuds 2 Pro justice. Using an a new model iPhone I was able to gain more volume, but the clarity and highs were a bit too pre-set for my liking. There was little to no rumble.

The FreeBuds Pro 2 has dual connectivity. So you won’t need to disconnect from one device in order to connect to another.

For voice Huawei have outdone their competitors and pretty much any wireless bluetooth buds in the market right now.

With three mics per bud plus a bone conducting mic Huawei have added further smarts into the FreeBuds Pro 2 by way of an inbuilt algorithm can can detect over 100 million voice samples. What this basically means is that the tiny buds will themselves detect every spoken word and simplify for ultimate clarity. This ensures that any convo you have can be heard without fail, word for word. In a noise cluttered environment or just quietly at home – and this technology also makes the FreeBuds Pro excellent for online mobile gaming.

The FreeBuds Pro 2 don’t pull any gimmicks and are professional audiophile buds, without the extreme pricetag. Infact they come under most of their competitors who don’t offer the same smarts.

Battery life was excellent. The carry case can hold 30 hours of charge with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) off, each bud itself having around 7 hours (ANC off). The FreeBuds Pro 2 can be charged from your reverse-charge compatible smartphone as well.

If you prefer to block out your surroundings, this will impeded on the overall battery life, considerably. With ANC on your case is reduced to 18 hours and the buds themselves just over 4 hours from full to flat.

Experimenting in different environments I toggled ANC off and on. While the ANC is one of the best I’ve experienced so far, it was not disruptive to not have it on either. The buds fit snuggly, the silicone tips prevent most background noise from filtering in and if you’re rocking out or gaming at an increased volume you’re not likely to hear anything around you anyway.

The FreeBuds Pro 2 are IP54 rated. They will handle rain but don’t go for a dip wearing them, otherwise it’s party or game over.

High fidelity sound in exquisitely designed buds, the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 are top shelf, in an audio spectrum of their own with no other wireless buds even coming close.

The post Huawei FreeBuds 2 Pro Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Huawei continue to innovate, improve and keep in check our health and wellbeing with their wearables. An ultimate example of this is their new Watch D.

Huawei have released three smartwatches in one line up, the Band 7, Watch Fit 2 and this one.

All punching above their price tag and and offering up more than their competitors do, their Watch D is more of a health wearable than its siblings.

Connecting to either Android or iOS you’ll need to use the supplied QR code to get the latest Huawei Health app.

It’s within the app that you’ll see your health stats to an almost granular level and personalise with a watch face that suits you.

A mid-sized smartwatch the Watch D has a 1.67 inch AMOLED touch screen which to navigate around is the same as Huawei’s other smart wearables. Swipe left, right, up and down to get your vital stats, notifications, apps and more.

There’s two toggle buttons to the right – home menu and health.

Fitness routines, workouts with a personal coach, stress monitoring, heart rate, SpO2, Skin temperature and sleep monitoring are all there via Huawei’s own TruSense A.I. Whether you’re in to running, walking, cycling and more the Watch D has it all.

The Watch D is waterproof with a IP68 rating. So technically it can handle around 1 hour in fresh water and a depth of approximately 1 meter or less, but I wasn’t brave enough to give that a go and don’t recommend you try it. It will be fine for the odd splash, rain and as I accidentally did with the Band 7, the odd shower or two.

Asides from the usual health and fitness goodness that the Huawei smartwatches are known for the Watch D has one more bonus that no other watch has ever had.

The Watch D will monitor blood pressure.

It does this by way of an inflatable band. A press of a button inflates the band and the Watch D takes the measurements. The inflatable band will slowly deflate as the vitals are monitored – the same as going to get your blood pressure taken at the local docs.

When I first started wearing the Watch D this was admittedly a bit of a novelty. I would do the check several times a day, just to have the band inflate.

Thankfully my stats were normal at any given time of the day.

The Watch D’s battery should see you right for up to 7 days. Initially it didn’t survive a full week, but that was likely due to me playing with the inflatable band constantly. Don’t be me, don’t do this unless you actually want to check your blood pressure.

After a full charge up and refraining from inflating the band many, many times a day the Watch D is still going strong with 57% at the time of writing this review and and 5 days in.

Huawei have really put some love in to their wearables for 2022 and the Watch D is a shining example of that.

True, this model wont be for everyone – it is a smartwatch designed for those that may have existing or suspected blood pressure problems. This said, even if you don’t think you do, it pays to know before it’s too late.

Huawei’s Watch D is a med check up right there on your wrist. It notifies you if it thinks something is out of beat (pun not intended) all the while offering up the same smartwatch functionality that we are used to.

The Watch D is not only your health and fitness assistant, it’s more.

The post Huawei Watch D Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

It’s thin, super light and will see you right for up to two weeks on a single charge. Huawei have released their Band 7 smartwatch.

An ultimate fitness and health tracker the Band 7 is smaller than its siblings with a 1.47 AMOLED touch screen (194 x 368 pixels) running their Harmony OS.

The Band 7 will connect via bluetooth to either your Android or iOS (Apple) smart phone.

As I’ve mentioned in prior Huawei smartwatch reviews as of late, there is a process to it. Use the QR code provided and follow the steps and in a few minutes you’ll be sorted.

To get the most out of the Band 7 you need to use the Huawei Health app.

It’s here that you can see your vitals, sleep records in more detail and add new watch faces.

To navigate your way around is similar to their other smartwatches. Swipe down from the top and you’ll get all of the settings.

Swipe up from the bottom gets you your notifications and a swipe from the left or the right you’ll see your apps running and your vital stats.

There’s a single toggle button to the right – this gets you in to the menu where you’ll find prepared workout routines, further health apps for you to use and more.

The Band 7 weighs a mere 16 grams without the strap, so it is a wear and forget, and yep you’ll feel like you don’t even have a watch on your wrist.

The Band 7 is water resistant up to 50 meters (fresh water), and there’s swimming routines included with a personal coach on the watch.

Which for me was lucky as I did forget I was wearing it and it has joined me in the shower a couple of times, and survived.

The Huawei Band 7 will actively monitor your SpO2, heart rate, stress, breathing and more, and will alert if it detects anything irregular.

It does this through Huawei’s own A.I. called TruSense. It will learn what is your norm and then notify you if something is amiss.

I’m a fan of the sleep monitoring.

This is something that I’ve found to not always be accurate on other smartwatches. But with Huawei’s latest wearables in the past 12 months the sleep tracker has been on point.

You’ll always get your notifications, quick reply to messages and the Band 7 features call and music controls.

The mentioned 2 week battery life is about right. Wearing the one that I received from Huawei lasted a week and a half from full charge first time round and currently is on the 2 week mark, but still has 36% battery at the time of writing this review.

At a price tag that knocks any of its competitors off the running track, the Band 7 is ideal for those in to fitness, or simply if you’re wanting to keep your health and wellbeing in-check and are not fond of having a bigger timepiece weighing your arm down.

The Huawei Band 7 is small but packed with so much it punches well beyond its weight, literally and makes it an ideal health, fitness and wellbeing best friend that’s always on and keeps you on track.

The post HUAWEI Band 7 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Huawei’s 2022 range of smartwatch, fitness and health trackers are now on offer with a model to suit pretty much everyone.

From the small to mid and larger sized, they are built to be tough while keeping your vitals in check.

Upping the stakes from last years Huawei Watch Fit smartwatch and fitness tracker they have this year released its second edition, the Huawei Watch Fit 2.

The all screen watch runs Huawei’s own operating system – HarmonyOS and comes in with a 1.74 inch full view display. That’s a smidgen bigger than last year’s model.

In the box comes two silicon straps (incase, like me, you have smaller wrists).

Swipe up from the bottom and you’ll see any notifications you’ve got. Swipe down from the top and there’s your watch’s settings. A swipe from the left gets you some basic info, like weather and a swipe from the right sees all of your important health stats to the likes of heart rate, steps and more. You can customise what you see and even transfer a few songs over to the Huawei Watch Fit 2.

Oddly, the Huawei Watch Fit 2 does seem to forget some notifications, and can alert you hours after the fact. I also missed almost all call alerts. Something that the GT 3 I previously reviewed never misses a beat with.

But hold up – I’m getting ahead of myself. First you need to connect the watch up.

Now there is a process to this and the first time I gave it a go on the Huawei Watch GT 3 I had problems on an Android based phone.

On the box and even on the face of the watch when you first begin setup there’s a QR code. Scan that to be taken to a download of Huawei’s App Gallery.

From there you’ll need to find, download, install and use the Huawei Health app (not the one on the Google Play store).

Once you’ve done all that – you’ll see the list of watches in the app. Select the one you have and it’s straight forward from there.

If you have a newer Huawei Watch already, then likely you’ve already been through this process and you’ll just need to open Huawei Health app and connect your watch.

The Health app doesn’t just facilitate the connection, it’s also where all of your stats are recorded to from your Huawei Watch Fit 2.

From sleeping patterns, health and also where you can customise your watch, watch faces and more.

The Huawei Watch Fit 2 also has differing workout modes.

There’s one tactile button to the right of the watch which takes you to the Menu. In the Fitness app you have Courses, Indoor and Outdoor run, Walking, Cycling, Swimming, Skipping and way more.

There’s an onboard personal coach that will assist you through differing workout modes.

If you’re a fitness guru then the Huawei Watch Fit 2 is your perfect companion. If you’re not, it will still award you for simply how many steps you take in a day.

The Huawei Watch Fit 2 has a built in mic and speaker for handsfree calling (bluetooth). With automatic SpO2 monitoring and waterproof up to 50 meters (not sea / salt water).

It’s so light you forget it’s there and with a 7 to 10 day battery life, you rarely need to take it off.

The unit that I was sent for this review has been lasting me 8 days consistently.

Being the mid sized sibling in the Huawei Watch series, for me it’s not too small, I prefer the bigger sized screens on my wrist, more screen, more to see, but this one is just right.

When compared to competitor models out there – the Huawei Watch Fit 2 gives you a lot more for a lot less of a price tag and is one of the most reliable smart watches you can have.

The post HUAWEI WATCH FIT 2 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Over the last couple of years the way we live and work has changed for all of us.

Working from home sure has its benefits, but if you have kids it can get a little interesting. Huawei have the solution for you at a super low price point.

Having just released their MatePad T 10, the 9.7 inch tablet is a super kid friendly hub of goodness. And, if you don’t have kids – could be a cheaper alternative for you to go large for your media.

The HD touch screen is vivid enough, infact a bit better than I thought it would be. Side bezels though are super chunky – too big for my liking – but perfect for kids to hold the tablet without the potential of accidental touching the screen.

The MatePad T 10 is not high spec, except for the decent processor – Huawei’s own HUAWEI Kirin 710A.

Internal storage comes in at 32GB (with microSD slot) and with the low 2GB RAM on the review model that I have means that you’re not going to be able to play console quality games on it. However, this is not what it is intended for.

Huawei designed the MatePad T 10 as a family friendly media device, running Huawei’s own EMUI 10.1. And while this is based on a kernel version of Android, there are no Google Play Services.

But that’s not a setback at all. You can still get your Google bits working, via the Huawei (or third party) browser and save shortcuts on the Homescreen.

It’s form and function are perfect and the tablet is super light, only 450 grams.

Huawei App Gallery comes pre-installed and has a wealth of apps and games ready to go. Hundreds of thousands of them.

The camera’s come in at 5MP for the rear and 2MP for front. Low, yes, but enough for you to take snaps or video call without issue. Video can record in FHD (1920 x 1080) for the rear lens and HD (1280 x 720) front.

Huawei are the champs at personal mobile audio. Their audio products have been second to none and Huawei built the MatePad T 10 with dual speakers and their own Histen audio enhancer.

This can give you a 3D like listening experience (depending on the media you are playing) and up to 9.1 channel surround.

For a low cost, lower spec tablet – it’s got better audio than competitors tablets priced around the $2K range

As mentioned, the Huawei MatePad T 10 is built with smaller humans in mind. Huawei have added ‘Kids Corner’ which is a parental controlled mode that will safeguard your little humans against anything dubious and likely keep them entertained for hours.

On that – battery life.

Huawei added a massive power cell to their MatePad T 10 – 5100 mAh.

There is no wireless charging here, cabled only, but the life of the device from full to empty should give you around a couple of days.

My testing with the likes of streaming YouTube (via browser), Vimeo, streaming music to bluetooth earbuds and bluetooth speakers and game playing has gotten me to a little over two full days of near constant use.

In present day tablets can almost be a laptop replacement. The Huawei MatePad T 10 has enough functionality and surprisingly is not slowed down by its mid to low innards that you could easily manage your digital life on this, all the while giving it to the kids for a few hours of play.

It’s not a laptop replacement – but it will get you by if you don’t own a laptop.

This makes the Huawei MatePad T 10 a perfect all round solution for any family.

The post Huawei MatePad T 10 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Alongside the release of the Huawei GT3 comes a sports specific, track and field smart watch like never before. The GT Runner.

Packed with scientifically engineered Run based workouts the GT Runner is exactly what its namesake suggests.

Lighter than a lot of the smart wearables out there at only 36.5 grams the sports watch will help you train with its A.I. Coach, map out real world run tracks and build routines to have you sprinting about the neighbourhood like a track and field star.

Huawei have placed reliability and accuracy at the forefront of the GT Runner – placing an extended GPS antennae in to the the strap clip.

The GT Runner, on the face of it is similar to the GT3 – and for the most part has similar look and feel too, albeit lighter to wear.

The same tactile buttons on the right with similar functions too.

But the GT Runner is no watered down GT3, it’s a smart watch in a class of uniqueness.

Setting up the GT Runner is an interesting procedure. I covered this off in the GT3 review, that you can read here.

So to save reading time, I wont go in to it again, but to say once you’ve got yourself sorted via the Huawei Health app you’re ready to put your joggers on.

The GT Runner syncs via Bluetooth to either Android or iOS (Apple) and will track your vitals, such as heart rate and steps count in real time. The watch even records fat burning as you workout.

The smart watch has a ‘Running Ability Index’ and what this is, is a visualisation of your activity on your wrist in real time, giving comparisons to your overall goals.

If you feel that you’re not quite up for the heavy stuff just yet – set training goals and let the GT Runner be your personal coach with voice guidance.

If you’re keen to see your stats and achievements in more detail these are in the Huawei Health app.

Using the GT Runner is simple as. On the extremely popping and vivid AMOLED 46mm watch face it’s all swipe gesture to get to your stats, your media and more with the top right side dial taking you to the watch’s menu.

The bottom right button gets you in to workout modes.

Speaking of watch faces, you can customise these either by the watch touchscreen for any installed faces or via the Huawei Health app to install new ones.

You’ll get all of your notifications too. Without fail. Also you’ll never miss a call while your feet are beating the ground with handsfree calling via the watch’s built-in mic and speaker.

The GT Runner has builtin storage for you to transfer media too – that can be played back via bluetooth.

Best of all the GT Runner can go as far as you need it to and then some.

The battery life will last up to two weeks of consistent use before needing a full charge up on its magnetic charger.

This said I received both the GT3 and GT Runner watches from Huawei at the same time, so I had someone else who is a fitness freak wear the GT Runner.

With their three times a day workouts and active life the GT Runner has yet to need a charge up, after over two weeks.

Currently sitting at 37% battery at the time of writing, this is pure power wizardry.

The GT Runner is a first for Huawei. A sports wearable that is, well, specific to sports.

If you are someone who likes to put on sweatpants before the sun comes up or jogs a few blocks as the sunsets, or even a gym junkie, Huawei have designed the GT Runner for you.

The post Huawei GT Runner Smartwatch Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Huawei are absolutely still in the smart device game with their GT smart watch series.

Now they have just released two killer smart watches, the big and beefy GT3 and their very first ever running specific watch, aptly named the GT Runner.

In this review I’ll cover off the GT3, the GT Runner review you’ll find here.

Firstly the GT3 is all screen at 46mm and yes that’s big (there is a 42mm variant) but myself having toothpicky wrists it doesn’t look like I’m about to be weighed down by a giant timepiece. It, infact, fits well on smaller wrists.

The AMOLED screen is super vibrant and easily readable even when it comes to text or in direct sunlight.

The GT3 uses Huawei’s own HarmonyOS and needs to be setup via the Huawei Health app.

The GT3 will connect up to Android and iOS (Apple) phones and of course Huawei devices. If you connect to a non Huawei phone, it gets tricky but is doable.

The current Huawei Health app in the Google Play store won’t cut it, you need the app from Huawei App Gallery, which is the native app store for all Huawei phones.

So your best bet is to scan the QR Code on the face of the GT3 when you turn the watch on for the very first time.

This will open a browser link for you to go to Huawei App Gallery and then install both the App Gallery and the most recent version of Huawei Health.

Sounds like a process and it is, but also very straightforward. You just follow the prompts.

Once synced up with Huawei Health you’re good to go.

The GT3 still connects via Bluetooth to your smartphone and you’re so able to transfer media to it, it has around 4GB internal storage.

The GT3 is not only designed to be rugged, dust, sweat and waterproof (up to 50 meters fresh water) but will also keep your vitals in check in real-time.

From current heart beat through to all day real time Sp02 levels. Sleep monitoring and body temperature. Steps, activity times, stress and of course workout routines all feature at a swipe on the watch (these are all customisable and can be swapped out) or of course via the Health app, which will give you more in-depth detail.

Think you’re getting a bit hot under the collar, test your temp via the watch for immediate results.

As mentioned earlier the GT3 is all screen and on the right side of the bezel are two tactile buttons.

The lower gets you directly into Workout modes, Cycling, Swimming, Hiking, Running, Skiing, Rowing, Snowboarding… the list goes on. There are over 100 differing workout modes.

Every sport you can think of is listed there.

The top button is also a dial. One click takes you into a full menu. Use the dial to scroll / zoom in to the available apps and options and control playing media.

Huawei have made the GT3 to be worn at all times, giving the watch a battery life second to none.

A total of 14 days from full charge, but this said I’ve had and been wearing the GT3 for near to 3 weeks now and it’s still going strong at 22% left. (The 42mm GT3 lasts up to 7 days).

The GT3 comes with a magnetic charger and has a quick charge function.

If you’re keen to do a workout or see your stats you can do so via the watch. Swipe gestures get you from Settings through to media, vitals and notifications.

This is something Huawei has evidently worked on.

Prior Huawei smart watches had been a little touch and go when it came to getting your messages and other bits to your wrist.

The GT3 receives everything that you allow notifications for – without fail.

The watch also has a built-in speaker and mic so you can take calls from your wrist, providing of course that your phone is nearby (the GT3 reviewed is not LTE).

Light at only 42.6 grams Huawei’s GT3 is so pack jammed with features and possibly more than you’d ever need and at a pricing tier that completely knocks out any competitor models.

Personalise it with a vast library of watch faces, always know what’s the happs with Always On Display (AOD) and depending on which model you opt for look super fit or sexy styley.

Wear it, keep it on and go with Huawei’s GT3.

The post Huawei GT3 Smartwatch Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

For a couple of weeks I’ve been using Huawei’s tablet / phone hybrid the Mate Xs and commonly I’m asked, ‘so, what’s life without Google on your phone like?’

Well, it’s manageable.

Huawei released a couple of versions of the Mate Xs with another one just announced. The wrap around screen just pops with its OLED brilliance. Unfolded you get an 8 inch tablet, folded it’s 6.6 inches.

There’s little to no bezel as the screen on the Mate Xs does not fold inwards, like a clamshell, instead it folds outwards and safely clasps the other half of the screen into the aluminium case with a satisfying click.

This unique design also has a flaw though. It does mean that the rear of your phone is the other half of your tablet screen, so you need to constantly be aware and remember that when you lay your Mate Xs on a surface – unfold it to prevent the left side of the screen from getting scratched up.

The folding mechanism is brilliant and it folds flat – there’s almost no gap between the two screens.

The mega-sized unfolded screen allows for multi-app windows and a cool minimse function that pins an app you were using to the side of the screen for ease of access later on.

As we are all aware Huawei no longer has Google services.

And wow Google sure do have the monopoly on any app you’ve ever downloaded from the Google Play Store.

To set the phone up I used phone clone, so that I could migrate over my entire library of apps.

While the phone clone sure did its job there were warnings with every app that without Google Play Services the app wouldn’t run.

Most of them did.

Ones that don’t are predominantly games. This is due to the game needing to ping back to the Google Play Store for such things as downloading game data, gaining in-game achievements and more.

Not one game worked from my porting.

Other apps, banking, social and media did work fine.

Huawei at great expense have built up a wealth of games and apps in their own Store. If there’s a game that you’ve played the stuffing out of but want to thrash it some more and move to a Huawei phone, there’s a slight chance that it might be on the Huawei store.

Huawei also have Petal search. Type in the name of an app (or anything really) and it will give you a varied menu of options from web, apps, images and more.

Petal search favours the alternative to the Google Play Store – APK Pure and for the most part the apps on their work out fine.

Other Google products require a workaround. Gmail can be set up in the native mail app, YouTube via browser. you can pin shortcuts to your homescreen if you need to.

It’s a workaround but totally possible.

Running the massive sized screen phablet is a Kirin 990 and with a generous 512GB internal storage you’re likely to not run short of space.

The 8GB RAM enables fluent multi-tasking, but being that this is a Huawei flagship I expected to see this at 12GB.

Huawei smartphones are known for their camera specs and the Mate Xs chalks up okay here.

It’s most definitely not on par with their P Series, but it’s not low either.

There’s a Leica triple array consisting of 40 MP wide, 8 MP telephoto and 6 MP ultrawide with AF, TOF 3D, depth. No front ‘selfie’ camera though, to do these you need to place the camera app in to selfie mode and turn the phone around. Recording video is in 4K.

The dual battery that you get is a 4500 mAh which has super fast charging via it’s supplied 55 watt charger. I’ve been able to get 3 days life from a full charge with normal use.

Like yourself, I wondered how I was going to get on without having Google services when I switched over to the Mate Xs as my everyday device.

I figured it was going to be painful, but it actually wasn’t and I’m still using it now.

Huawei are building their own eco-system of smart devices for a seamless integration between phone, tablet, wearable, computing and personal audio and as mentioned have their own App Store. This is actually a smart move – myself now knowing just how extensively Android relies on Google Play and Google Ply Services for the apps that you’ve paid to own.

I am a huge fan of Foldables. The Mate Xs has managed to tick nearly every box and while I do miss some of the games I used to play on my phone (they haven’t made it to the Huawei store yet…) it’s  smart life as usual with a much larger screentime.

The post Huawei Mate XS Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Huawei are fast becoming the kings of personal audio with their FreeBuds range.

Small snug fitting Bluetooth buds that produce near studio quality audio have you working out, jogging to, streaming the beat, on the go.

Their last buds, the FreeBuds 4i were something indeed, offering up high definition clarity and bass close to that of a wired set headphones.

Now we have the FreeBuds 4 and this time Huawei have pumped up the jam even more.

Unlike the 4i the FreeBuds 4 are not your traditional inner ear. They don’t have the silicone tips and instead have been designed by Huawei engineers to sit in the ear opening – instead of being tightly wedged in.

Despite that they do not have a sealed fitting in the ear canal the FreeBuds 4 still produce outstanding audio supremeness and Active Noise Control (ANC).

When you first start out with the FreeBuds 4 you’ll go through a fitting setup.

Via Huawei’s A.I. Life app for iOS (Apple) or Android, the FreeBuds 4 are detected and the wireless setup is all automated from there.

Except – was not so for me.

The Freebuds 4 have been built to fit a general populous ear (all of our ears are different) so the aim of the setup in the app is to get the best fitting and settings to maximise the quality of the audio and comfortability.

I must have abnormal ears (I perhaps do) as try and try again and try some more but my ears failed the snug fitting set up. Eventually I skipped this.

Despite having failed the personal ear setup I still received one of the best listening experiences from a wireless earbud I’ve had so far this year.

A built in array of micro-speakers including a dedicated sub is like having a professional studio speaker setup inside your ears.

Media streaming, gaming and music all were top shelf – and with ANC on the FreeBuds 4 still managed to 100% successfully drown out any background noise, even in a busy city environment. This was achieved by Huawei’s Open Ear Active Noise Cancelation 2.0. Meaning that you do not have to twist and push the FreeBuds 4 into your ears to drown out disruptive background noise.

You can toggle ANC on or off at the touch of a bud.

If you’re a content creator and streamer then Huawei has got you sorted their too. With the the app are differing sound modes. One of which is the Surroundings mode.

If you need to pick up audio from within your immediate environment the FreeBuds 4 will intelligently include the background environment, other voices from those that maybe with you and so on. Almost like a reverse of ANC but without the ‘noise’.

Your audio controls are touch or swipe via the short bud stem and hands-free calling is taken care of via the HD dual mic array.

Battery life is good too – but not the highest I’ve encountered. 4 hours of constant use from a full charge or if you’re caught short a quick 15 minute top up will give you 2.5 hours. The oval shaped carrying and charging case gives you a total of 22 hours.

charging options are either USB-C cabled or wireless. If you need a quick charge, use cabled.

The FreeBuds 4 can claim to be contenders for top shelf bluetooth earbuds in my opinion.

Ergonomically designed for all to wear, light and small, but ever so mighty and a clear winner on personal audio.

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