In relation to wi-fi earbuds, I’ve discovered there are a number of issues a given pair must get proper to be thought-about good. Sound high quality, consolation, battery life, usability, noise cancellation and extra are all integral to the overarching earbud expertise, and nearly everybody will weigh these items in a different way. That’s what makes it considerably powerful to advocate the EarFun Free Professional 3 earbuds — they nail a number of the above points whereas whiffing exhausting on others, and relying on what you care about, they’ll both be strong earbuds or a disappointment.
I’ve been testing the EarFun Free Professional 3 earbuds for a number of weeks now, bouncing forwards and backwards between them and my present each day driver earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro. I’ve largely been impressed with how the Free Professional 3 buds stack up given the numerous worth distinction between the 2 — the Free Professional 3 earbuds cost $89.99 in Canada in comparison with the $259.99 price of the Pixel Buds Professional.To my ears, the EarFun Free Professional 3 sounds virtually pretty much as good because the Pixel Buds Professional. There are undoubtedly cases the place the Pixel Buds sound clearer, however general, they’re shut sufficient that, for the worth distinction, I’m greater than happy with the Free Professional 3. I primarily take heed to podcasts and music with my earbuds, sometimes bouncing between numerous genres, together with steel, jazz, R&B, hip hop and extra (principally something however nation). The EarFun Free Professional 3 buds dealt with every thing nicely, with podcasts sounding clear and sharp and music sounding full, although perhaps not as balanced as I’d like. In fact, you too can obtain the EarFun app and mess with issues just like the equalizer to tune issues to your liking.
Respectable consolation and battery life
Relating to consolation, I’d fee the Free Professional 3 larger than the Pixel Buds Professional. The primary cause for this little silicon wing on the top of every earbud is that it concurrently helps the Free Professional 3 buds lock into my ears snuggly and prevents them from placing an excessive amount of stress on my ear and changing into uncomfortable over longer listening periods. In fact, the Free Professional 3 are not any Floor Earbuds (and at this level, I don’t assume something will match the consolation these buds supplied), however I do assume the EarFun buds are a step up in consolation from the Pixel Buds for longer periods.
Relating to battery life, the EarFun Free Professional 3 isn’t dangerous both. The corporate advertises as much as 7.5 hours of playback time with lively noise cancellation (ANC) turned off or six hours with it on, plus both 33 or 27 hours of extra time, respectively, with the charger factored in. In real-world use, it felt just like the buds obtained very near these ANC numbers, although I didn’t check the battery life with ANC turned off.
Sadly, that is the place issues begin to disintegrate for the EarFun Free Professional 3 buds. They do have ANC, which is a plus, but it surely’s not practically pretty much as good as what the Pixel Buds Professional provide. For instance, when utilizing the Free Professional 3 on my weekly GO practice commute into the MobileSyrup workplace, I can nonetheless hear a big quantity of noise from the practice, although it’s considerably dampened. The Pixel Buds Professional did a greater job of creating it sound like I wasn’t on a practice however in a quiet room as an alternative. As somebody who would fairly have mediocre ANC over no ANC, I didn’t thoughts the noise cancellation on the Free Professional 3 buds, however in the event you worth good ANC, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Contact controls aren’t one of the best and the earbuds have connection points
Furthermore, usability and reliability have been each drawback areas for the buds. The Free Professional 3 have been nice once I might simply pop them in my ears, hit play, and never fear about them. However instances the place I wished one thing extra, like the power to simply pause or skip songs, issues weren’t nice. Basically, I discovered the contact controls on the buds weren’t aware of what I wished. For instance, the double-tap to pause operate virtually all the time registered as a single faucet, which might improve or lower the amount that I had taking part in relying on which earbud I tapped on.
Persevering with with the usability thread, I rapidly got here to overlook good options from the Pixel Buds Professional, like how they routinely switched from ANC to ambient mode once I began speaking. It’s a small factor, but it surely got here in useful extra typically than I spotted. Plus, there are lots of little methods the place the Pixel Buds Professional performs nicer with my cellphone of selection — at the moment the Pixel 8 — in comparison with the Free Professional 3 buds, contributing to a extra seamless consumer expertise.
As for reliability, the Free Professional 3 earbuds typically gave me points when it got here to connecting and disconnecting from my cellphone. On a number of events, I’d put the buds and began taking part in one thing, solely to find it was taking part in on just one bud. Then I’d must take each buds out, put them within the case, shut it, wait a second, then open it and take the buds out once more in hopes they’d join correctly on the second strive. Or third. Different instances, I’d take out my buds and put them within the case solely to find later that the earbuds by no means really disconnected from my cellphone, and I’d must manually achieve this from the Bluetooth menu.
Talking of the charging case, I recognize its small measurement, although the plastic enclosure admittedly doesn’t really feel as premium as what you get with one thing just like the Pixel Buds Professional. It affords a USB-C port for charging and wi-fi charging, which is a large bonus in my eyes.
Total, I believe the EarFun Free Professional 3 provide an honest package deal for the $89.99 worth. That stated, they earbuds are removed from good and the reliability points I had, whereas seldom greater than a light annoyance, detracted from the general expertise. In case you’re searching for respectable sub-$100 earbuds and don’t thoughts mediocre ANC and occasional connection points, the EarFun Free Professional 3 match the invoice.
The EarFun Free Professional 3 are available on Amazon for $89.99.
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