Huawei just unveiled fully waterproof IP57-rated open earbuds and I think they could be the bargain of 2025

February 18, 2025

Huawei FreeArc are here, boasting IP57 dust- and water-ingress protection
It’s Huawei’s second open-ear option after FreeClip, but the firm’s first ‘shell’ design
They’re affordable – and there’s an extra saving if you buy now

My main issue when considering open-ear earbuds? Actually, there are two things: something that will survive a particularly sweaty/rain-soaked attempt to improve my (abysmal) 5k personal best, and something that won’t fall out of my ear during the aforementioned attempt.

While the all-new Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 certainly claimed to have sorted the latter during their hotly-anticipated February 11 arrival announcement, their IPX4 rating won’t necessarily tackle the former. Oh, and they come in at $249 / £249 / AU$399. Want something that costs just £99 – or £75 if you act fast – and offers IP57 protection, meaning you could actually drop one in the pool, leave it languishing in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes and still expect music after you’ve fished it out? Meet Huawei FreeArc.

Open earbuds are big in 2025 – and this set won’t break (the bank)

Huawei FreeArc worn by a woman doing yoga, in profile

(Image credit: Huawei)

Are the Huawei FreeArc some of the best open ear headphones I’ve seen? Well, I haven’t had a chance to test them fully yet, but on paper there’s an awful lot to celebrate, especially for this money.

The sports-focused open-ear category is growing incredibly rapidly, and I predict Huawei’s done well to price them so competitively. According to Huawei, a company that boasts seven audio-specific R&D facilities (one with a wind tunnel lab capable of serving up winds of 10 meters per second for mic testing) plus over 1,000 audio engineers with more than 150 PhDs between them, open ear headphones are the fastest growing product in the audio industry, with a 600% growth rate year on year.

This is the Chinese tech specialist’s second stab at going open-ear, following the December 2023 cuff-like FreeClip. But this is the first time Huawei’s attempted a shell-like design that slides over your outer ear so that the drivers slip in near your ear canal, but not covering it – think Shokz OpenFit Air or Oladance. Huawei tells me its engineers worked exceptionally hard on the new “140-degree optimal Triangle Design”, which marries a delicate gravitational balance and data from over 10,000 auricle curves, in something Huawei is calling a “C-bridge design”. That ‘C’ essentially amounts to 8.3g of liquid-silicone rubber covering a 0.7mm titanium nickel wire, with a 17 x 12mm high-sensitivity driver unit at one end and a battery pack at the other (behind the ear).

Leave your phone in your gym locker

Another big selling point for me here is the dual antenna design for stability at long ranges. Although you only get SBC and AAC codec support from the Bluetooth 5.2 chipset (so no higher-resolution codecs such as LDAC or aptX) your quoted range is 100m indoors or 400m outdoors, which means you can leave your phone in your bag by the running track – or in the locker at the gym. And that’s a huge bonus if, like me, you’d rather not cart your smartphone around during workouts.

There’s also an AI algorithm for the dual mics, to help eliminate blustery wind and ambient noise during calls, and your battery life is a highly competitive seven hours on, or 28 with the case. Did I mention they support on-ear sliding touch gestures for volume too?

The Huawei FreeArc are available to pre-order from today (February 18) in your choice of black, gray or green. Ultimately, they’ll be priced at £99.99 – but pre-order them now and you’ll get £25 off until March 3, only at a Huawei Store. The full product line will be officially launched on March 4, with a launch offer of £20 off once they hit shelves, until April 1. I’m still waiting on official US and Australian prices where available, but I have to say, predict a big hit at those prices…