Earfun is a relatively new company in the headphones space, but it’s already making huge waves by offering excellent audio quality at a fraction of the price of the big names like Bose, Sony, and Sennheiser. Now it's at it again with the Earfun Free Pro earbuds.
The Earfun Free Pro are a pair of true wireless noise-cancelling headphones, and on paper they seem too good to be true. Excellent sound quality, active noise cancelling, Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, 32 hour battery life, wireless charging, touch controls, and an IPX5 waterproof rating for just $59.99?
OK, so what’s the catch? Does the devil get to claim my soul? Do they explode in your ears after a few hours? After several weeks testing out the Earfun Free Pro earbuds, we certainly haven’t been able to find the secret deal breaker here. The touch controls are a bit finicky, and the ANC is only OK, but the fact that it exists at all in a pair of $60 earbuds is staggering anyway. These are simply some of the best headphones we’ve ever seen.
Earfun Free Pro review: Design
- Premium design
- Lightweight with compact charging case
Styling is usually one of the first hurdles that budget headphones stumble at, but we think that the Earfun Free Pros look fantastic, and they come with a sleek carry case that’s one of the best we’ve seen since the AirPods Pro.
The Earfun Free Pro earbuds are a mixture of black and gunmetal grey, with a glossy black side panel that displays the Earfun logo. The earbuds themselves have soft, rubber tips that come in three different sizes. There is a small LED on top of each earbud that flashes blue or red depending on battery life. All in all, they look and feel like a premium product.
When you’re wearing the Earfun Free Pros, they actually go in upside down, with the bulk of the earbud pointing upwards.This feels strange at first, but they’re surprisingly stable in this position as they rest against the inside of your ear.
When not in use, the Earfun Free Pros pack neatly away into their carry case. It’s a little longer than most other carry cases, but at 2.6 x 1.0 x 1.2 inches it comfortably fits in your pocket when you’re out and about. The case is primarily gunmetal grey, with a gloss black top that displays the brand logo, just like the earbuds. There is a single LED on the front that changes color depending on battery life, and a micro USB port on the back for charging.
Earfun Free Pro review: Features and performance
- Excellent sound quality
- ANC is good, but not industry leading
- Touch controls take some getting used to
This is where things start to get interesting. We were blown away by the sound quality that the EarFun Free Pro earbuds offer, especially for their price range. You get a punchy, warm bass that comes through wonderfully on tracks like Linkin Park’s Papercut and Muse’s Hysteria.
The treble is similarly impressive. Listening to Steely Dan’s Do It Again, you can comfortably pick out the medley of instruments that make up the opening minute of the track before those vocals kick in. The mids are probably the weak link in the chain for these earbuds, but they’re still more than serviceable across the board. We’ve compared these directly to our Apple Airpods and they blow them out of the water, for less than half the price.
Alongside the audio output, you also get a dual microphone set-up in each earbud, for a total of four microphones for use in phone calls. We tested this on several calls and the audio quality was largely excellent. The person we called said the sound they heard through was a little different, but perfectly clear and understandable.
Those microphones aren’t just for phone calls though (because honestly, who even uses their smartphone to make phone calls these days?). They’re also part of the EarFun Free Pro earbuds’ active noise cancelling (ANC) technology. The mics pick up external sounds and then work to filter them out when you’re listening to music.
This can be switched between ANC, ambient sound, and normal modes by triple tapping the left earbud. ANC will filter all external sounds, while ambient sound mode will attempt to just eliminate background noises (meaning you should still be able to hear someone talking to you). We tested this by listening to music next to various external noises, ranging from traffic and an extractor fan to our partner’s singing (truly a noise you’d want to exclude).
The ANC performed reasonably well, blocking out almost all external noise when active with music playing in the house. Out on the street, performance dipped a bit and we could hear a little of the outside world, but it still greatly reduced the undesirable noise. The ambient mode functioned as a half-way house as intended, making it possible to hear direct noises while keeping background noise out. You couldn’t have a conversation like this, but it would make it possible for someone to get your attention.
On top of all that, there is a low latency mode for gamers, to help make sure your in-game sound lines up perfectly with the on-screen action.
Our only real complaint with the Earfun Free Pros is the touch controls. This might just be a personal gripe, but we’ve yet to find touch controlled earbuds that do anything but annoy us. You need to learn all the specific touch patterns to do the various things you want, and while it's pretty accurate at interpreting your commands, the main issue is that you accidentally pause your song or crank the volume up every time you need to readjust your earbuds.
Earfun Free Pro review: Battery life
- Up to 32 hours battery life including case
- Wireless charging available, but not included
EarFun states that the Free Pro earbuds are good for six hours of battery life with noise cancellation turned on, and seven hours with it disabled. In addition to that, you get 25 hours of playtime from the charging case for up to 32 hours of total usage on a full charge.
After testing the EarFun Free Pros extensively over a period of several weeks, we can confirm that numbers line up with our experience. We generally have our tunes a little louder than average, but we still consistently got around six hours per charge with noise cancelling turned on.
The charging case has an LED light on the front that activates when you open the case, letting you know how much juice is left in the case too. It starts green, then goes orange when you go below 30% charge, before changing to red when you go below 10%. You can recharge the case and earbuds using a micro-USB connection located on the back of the charging case or via a third-party wireless charging pad.
Earfun Free Pro review: Price
- $59.99
- 18-month warranty
The EarFun Free Pro earbuds cost $59.99 and can be purchased from major online retailers including Amazon and Walmart. You can also purchase them directly from the MyEarFun website.
Some retailers are listing that the EarFun Free Pros have an MSRP of $79.99, showing the $59.99 price as a discounted rate, but our research into price history using CamelCamelCamel and other tools shows that they have never been priced higher than $60.
Earfun Free Pro Earbuds come with an 18-month warranty, according to the EarFun website. There is also a 30-day money back guarantee, should you decide that you’re unhappy with your purchase.
Should you buy the Earfun Free Pro?
Yes, yes you should. These are simply the best earbuds that we’ve tested so far. You can technically get better audio quality and active noise cancelling headphones elsewhere, but you’re going to be paying four or five times the cost of these to see any real improvements.
They’re stylish and comfortable, they sound great and they have a long battery life. You really couldn’t ask for better than the EarFun Free Pro earbuds.
