Although not on the market for too long, Chinese audio company EarFun has made a strong impression because not only have they launched products continuously, but each pair of headphones has brought modern features down to an affordable price range. near. Their newest pair of headphones is Free Pro 2 It is not an exception, just launched a short time ago has received many positive reviews from foreign newspapers and Youtube reviewers.
The early reviews are quite positive of the EarFun Free Pro 2 pair
I also did not have to wait too long to experience this pair of headphones when even in the first days the company opened for sale in its home country in China, it also appeared in Vietnam. Sometimes bordering on the “world’s factory” has its advantages!
The box of this pair of headphones is quite small, the top quickly introduces the 4 main features: active noise cancellation ANC, 6 microphone system, 30 hours of music play and IPX5 water resistance.
Inside we see the headset is placed on a layer of hard paper, the accessories are stowed in a box at the bottom.
It is a mid-range headset, but the EarFun Free Pro 2 has a fairly complete set of accessories, including a user manual, a Type-C charging cord, 3 rubber pads, 2 sets of ear flaps and a small toothpick for cleaning. give the headset if it is too dirty.
My first impression when picking up this pair of headphones is that it is quite small, right from the charging box. This box almost fits in the palm of your hand, and so it will save space when you put it in a backpack or pocket.
With such a compact design, the battery life of the Free Pro 2 is not too bad, about 6 hours independently and 30 hours when used with the box. This duration is not the best, and can also be greatly affected by the frequency of active noise cancellation by the listener, but it is enough for us not to have to worry about charging problems anymore.
This charging case can be charged in two ways: the USB Type-C port on the back or wireless charging using the Qualcomm Qi standard. On the back of the box we also see a very special “feature”, that is… the hinge is made of metal and plastic, giving it a sense of certainty and confidence in use.
Small in the charging box, even the earpiece of this pair of headphones is also small. Free Pro 2 has roughly the same mass as the pair Samsung Galaxy Buds 2, but not round, but slightly elongated in one direction. With such a compact size, this pair of headphones will be suitable even for those of you with small ears, wearing somewhat “bulky” headsets like Sennheiser Momentum TWS 2 or Sony WF-1000XM4 feel uncomfortable.
The outside of the headset is a touch surface, allowing to control music, receive calls, adjust volume, turn on and off Gaming mode, active noise cancellation ANC. There are full operations, but unfortunately we will not be able to change the position of these operations, because EarFun has not yet developed software to support headphones on smartphones.
This is a shortcoming of emerging audio companies, they don’t have enough time or resources to create the full software experience like big tech companies. Fortunately, all the key features of the headset have been integrated in touch operations.
One feature that all new wireless headsets today have integrated is Gaming Mode or “Game Mode”, reducing latency compared to normal mode. Of all the headsets with this mode, I noticed a slight difference every time I played the game, the sound better synchronized with what was happening on the screen.
However, the gaming mode (at least in theory) will increase the stability of the connection and reduce the battery life because it uses more power of the headset, so people should use it flexibly, when If you only listen to music, you should turn it off to save battery.
Active noise cancellation must be said that in the present time it is no longer a feature reserved for the high-end segment, when there are pairs of headphones under 3 million VND that integrate it. But each company has a different way of tweaking noise cancellation, making ANC also have “ANC this ANC that”!
With the Free Pro 2, the company prioritizes efficiency when allowing this pair of headphones to block up to 40dB of outside noise. In fact, the noise canceling effect of this pair of headphones is not bad at all when it is able to block out loud noises like trucks, the sound from the speakers of the shops around my house.
There is one point that the ANC system on Free Pro 2 does not do well, which is the ability to block wind noise. In one time when I wore headphones while running, I turned on the noise cancellation and still heard very clearly the sound of the wind grazing my ears. With pairs of headphones from major brands such as Sony WF, Galaxy Buds, this problem is better handled, there is even an item in the software to turn on the wind noise filter feature.
The features are already complete, what about the most important thing about a pair of headphones is the sound quality? Right from the moment we put the Free Pro 2 on our ears, we immediately realized that this is a pair of bass headphones for bass-heads.
The bass range has an abundant amount, especially in songs with this sound range expressed in the form of “smashing the listener’s face” like Wizard of the Martin Garrix such as. Compared to the previous pairs of EarFun Free headphones I’ve tried, the Free Pro 2 has more “conservation” in the bass, trying to make this band compact to one point, but with a small amount, it’s still will be the focal range in the entire sound quality of the headset.
Audio companies recently seem to have found a way to make the mids and highs not sink despite making the bass heavy. The Free Pro 2 does this by making these two bands a bit brighter, to help listeners hear them more clearly despite being placed back. Tone Cécile Corbel in the post Where have you been? has good detail, as mentioned, is brightened but avoids harsh glare. I still think this is the mid-range for Pop, Hip Hop vocalists that have been processed through auto-tune, with Folk or Ballad songs, it needs a little more naturalness.
As a listener of many genres of music, for me the Free Pro 2 is a bit redundant in the bass range, so the ability to play is also more limited compared to pairs of headphones like the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2. On the contrary, those of you who want a thick sound pattern , boom to play more “flashy” music genres, this becomes a strength. Each pair of headphones should have a unique sound pattern to suit each individual music taste, if it was the same, it would be boring!
Still need a little more finishing
Free Pro 2 is one of the mid-range headphones with the most abundant features available today, which can be mentioned as active noise cancellation, water resistance, wireless charging, good usage time and low latency to use. be with many different purposes. This is a welcome thing, giving users the convenience that we previously had to spend a little more to get in the same product.
Not so that this is a perfect product, it still has some disadvantages in practical use such as active noise cancellation, poor wind noise and no control software on smartphones – things that Apple, Samsung and Sony thanks to their more “mature” R&D teams.
This will still be an option worth considering in the price range, but if in the next generation of products EarFun can patch the above defects, it will not only beat the small audio companies but also “reveal” steam” into the larger tech firms.
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