“Tricky” is to understate Huawei’s place in a lot of the world exterior its native China greater than considerably. Few are the electronics firms which are the topic of sanction by nation-states, and fewer nonetheless are the entities that might trigger the US Democratic Party to assist one of many govt orders Donald Trump issued when he was president. Things have been tough (for need of a greater phrase) for Huawei on the world stage for greater than 4 years now, and so they present no signal of getting any simpler any time quickly.

The firm is not going to go mild into that good evening, although. Its aspirations for domination of the world’s smartphone market are being recalibrated, certain, however in different areas of shopper electronics it’s as bold because it ever was. These new Freebuds Pro 3 true wi-fi in-ear headphones are simply the most recent working example.

I suppose that once you’ve gone toe-to-toe with the nationwide safety departments of total nations, selecting fights with Apple, Bose, and Sony doesn’t appear to be all that huge of a deal. Nevertheless, the Freebuds Pro 3 asking value ($219, £179) places them up towards alternatives of broadly acknowledged excellence.

Why, then, would you select a pair of those when you would spend cash on a rival product that nearly actually gained’t get you placed on a shadowy watchlist of potential enemies of the state?

Shiny Happy Earbuds

Well, for starters, you could be a fan of shiny issues. The Freebuds Pro 3 can be found in three finishes—frost silver, ceramic white, and, um, inexperienced—and the earbuds themselves are about as extremely polished (and, consequently, slippery) as these items ever get.

The little pebble-shaped charging case they journey in, product of nano glass with some mirrored branding on its rear, is notably proof against marking or scratching, and has a hid hinge that contributes to a fairly modern, upmarket feel and appear.

Or you would possibly love a little bit of hyperbolic language. The claims Huawei is making for the technical specification of the Freebuds Pro 3 are all simply confirmed, however the firm shouldn’t be shy of dressing up what’s straightforwardly spectacular in some fairly flowery language. For occasion, it’s apparently not sufficient to clarify that every earbud has an 11-mm full-range dynamic driver augmented by a planar diaphragm and Halbach array—no, for Huawei’s functions it’s an “ultra-hearing dual driver.” For these ultra-hearers amongst us, presumably.

Competitive Specs, Mostly

Elsewhere, the Freebuds Pro 3 are typically aggressive the place specification is anxious. Battery lifetime of as much as 31 hours (together with the charging case) is nearly acceptable, and also you’ve a selection of wired or wi-fi charging when these 31 hours are up.