The true wireless earphone market has become pretty saturated since the first pair made their Kickstarter debut in 2014, but Huawei seems to have found a way to stand out from the crowd with the fashion-focused FreeClip open-ears.
There are some mobile music listeners who experience extreme discomfort when pushing earbuds into ear canals. For such folks, and those who still want to be aware of the world around them while enjoying their music, open-ear designs are a good fit.
Chinese tech company Huawei has just held a "Creation of Beauty" event in Dubai to launch a new MatePad and Matebook, but also debuted the FreeClip open-ear true wireless earphones, which have been designed to make "on-the-go listening more snug, comfortable, and fashionable than ever before."
As its name suggests, rather than plug in, users clip the earphones around their ears courtesy of a C-bridge that gives the earphones the look of a trendy piercing and serves as both clip and connector. The company states that ear shape data from more than 10,000 people around the globe was used to determine the best overall fit, but the C-bridge will flex a little thanks to nickel-titanium shape-memory alloy.
The earphones features 10.8-mm dual-magnet drivers that push audio down the ear canal while a "reverse sound wave system" makes for private listening. They come with Bluetooth 5.3 cooked in, and there's auto identification of left and right ears for optimum stereo imaging.
Both the speaker ball and the behind-the-ear bean are touch-enabled for gesture control. The IP54-rated setup can also connect to two devices at the same time, a phone and smartwatch for example, and users are promised AI-enhanced call clarity.
Using the included charging case, listeners can expect up to 8 hours of mobile music from each FreeClip and 36 hours in total before the case itself needs a top up.
We've no word on US availability, but the FreeClip earphones will go on sale in Europe later this month for €199.
Product page: Huawei FreeClip