For the past three years I have declared Apple’s AirPods Pro as the best wireless earbuds around, and I say this not because I am an Apple loyalist who is fully immersed in the U.S. tech giant’s ecosystem (I am the complete opposite, in fact), but because the AirPods Pro have the best active noise cancelation and transparency mode I have ever heard. They silence the outside world better than any earbuds, and the transparency mode works so well it feels like I am not wearing anything.

Huawei’s newest flagship earbuds, the FreeBuds Pro 5, is here to challenge that throne. But I’ll just come right out and say it: Huawei’s newest buds do not beat Apple in either of the two areas I just listed. After weeks of use in one of the loudest cities in the world (Hong Kong), I can confidently say the AirPods Pro’s active noise cancelation still does a better job of silencing street noise than the FreeBuds Pro 5.

However, Huawei’s earbuds have fuller, deeper audio; its EQ is more customizable; it lasts longer on a single charge; it’s lower priced; and perhaps most importantly, it is not as locked in a single ecosystem as Apple’s AirPods Pro.

The latter is important to me, someone who uses AirPods Pro and MacBook but with an Android phone. I find the AirPods Pro 3 to drop connection with my Android phone regularly — an issue that was not there with the first two generations of AirPods Pro. I am not sure if Apple actively made its newest AirPods less compatible with rival devices, or Android phones in recent years made changes to audio connectivity, but the issue has been bad enough that I switched to the FreeBuds Pro 5 full time the past few weeks.

As mentioned, I live in one of the loudest cities in the world, so the slightly inferior active noise cancelation (I’d say it’s about 90% to 95% as good as Apple’s) is disappointing. But in return I have appreciated the fuller, more immersive sound, and not having earbuds that could last me an entire eight-hour flight (the AirPods Pro can only last me about six to seven hours).

Design-wise, there’s not much to talk about: the FreeBuds Pro 5 look like the last couple of Huawei FreeBuds Pros, which did not stray too far from the typical wireless earbuds look anyway.

The stems are not as bulky as older FreeBuds Pros, but yet keep the touch sensitive panels that supports taps, swipes, and long presses. The silicone ear tip is comfortable, and Huawei includes four different sizes to fit most ear types.

The FreeBuds Pro 5 features 11mm drivers and an additional diaphragm tweeter, and it’s capable of producing audio up to 48kHz and 24-bit. However, you need to pair with a recent flagship Huawei phone to get the full 24-bit lossless audio quality. I paired mostly with a Vivo phone and an iPad, and thought audio quality was still excellent. You really need to be an audio

The EQ is easily adjustable in the Huawei companion app (that’s available for iOS, Android and HarmonyOS), and being able to easily tweak the bass or mids is something Apple’s earbuds cannot do. In fact, if you use the AirPods Pro 3 with an Android phone, you don’t have much setting options at all.

I think if you’re a fully immersed Apple user with an iPhone, MacBook and Apple Watch, you would probably still be better off with the AirPods Pro 3. But if you are using an Android phone, the FreeBuds Pro 5 plays a bit nicer. And while the active noise cancelation isn’t quite as good, I suspect this problem is only so glaring in an extremely loud and busy Asian city like Hong Kong. If I am in a typical North American suburb or a smaller Japanese town, I don’t think the difference in active noise cancelation would be noticeable.