EarFun Free Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds, Hi-Res Sound, Snapdragon Sound with Qualcomm aptX™ Adaptive, 6 Mics ENC, Bluetooth 5.3 Earbuds, Multipoint Connection, Custom App, Wireless Charge

Best Earbuds South of $200
TL:DR… Just buy them!Let me start by saying that I own 32 pairs of TWS earbuds, 6 wired earbuds/IEMs, and 10 headphones. I try to get a good mix of each at different price points, so they’re equally distributed between budget, mid-tier, and premium. Weird hobby, I know. That said, these would be freakishly good at double the price. As I own the first 2 generations, I bought these strictly out of curiosity, as I wanted to compare Earfun’s 3rd gen offering to those. I thought the improvement from Gen 1 to Gen 2 was amazing but this jump is even bigger. I even prefer these to the Earfun Air Pro 3, which were my favorite Earfun buds. Here’s why.THE PROsEverything about Earfun’s newest offering is amazing: EQ-customizable sound, ANC, transparency, calls, battery life & wireless charging, compact size, and feature set. They have every feature I can think of except for in-ear detection. Qualcomm sound and Apt-x Adaptive codecs are the icing on the cake. I know everyone gushes over LDAC, but I prefer Apt-X Adaptive as my favorite codec.ValueUntil I bought these, I thought my Soundcore Liberty 4 NC would retain its title of Value King for a long time. They didn’t. The only thing I favor on those is the Soundcore App. The Earfun app is still loaded with features, though, my favorite thing being the selectable ANC mode. Added bonus: these are extremely comfortable and feel secure when you wear them, thanks to the ear fins. You can wear these to bed, even if you’re a side sleeper because they’re so small and don’t stick out of your ears. The only non-sleep-dedicated buds that I have that are smaller than these are JLAB’s JBuds Mini. (Those things are impressively tiny!)THE CONSThis wouldn’t be a proper review without some critique. As I mentioned, these lack wearing detection. I don’t mind that much. However, if I had to name something to gripe about, it would be that I don’t think the bass, although quite prominent, is as controlled as on some of my higher-end earbuds. Even after messing with both the preset and custom EQ settings, I can’t get the massive bass level I prefer without also adding a lot of boominess. This is a similar issue I have with my Sony WF-XB700. By contrast, Jabra 85T, Soundpeats Opera 5, and Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro let me rattle my head but still maintain control over the bass. That’s not quite fair though, since the Opera and the L3P have dual drivers. The L4P has much cleaner bass, although it can’t get as prominent as these can. It’s a shame. The mids and highs are near-perfect, but cranking up the bass throws mud all over them.ConclusionFor less than $80, I just can’t see how anyone wouldn’t be jumping for joy after purchasing these because I don’t think there’s currently a better option at this price for all-around performance and features.

First of all, the “Ambient” mode is amazing. It boosts all the ambient sounds so you are not deaf to your surroundings when you listen to music. I love that.The ANC in general is very good. In the app you can chose between 3 different modes based on your hearing, “Ear 3” worked the best for me, filtered out the AC and Fan next to me to hardly audible levels, I was mindblown. The default ANC setting worked well too, but there was distinct ‘whitenoise’. I was still happy, only found out about the app later, would still have given 5 stars with the worse default ANC.Bass sounds amazing, you really feel the thump on your eardrums, highs are good too, but I’m not the youngest anymore, so I’ve lost the ability to hear all of them properly. Aging is a b*tch.The EQ settings are sophisticated, you can create profiles and use some algos to adjust them in the app.Works super well with two connected devices, the hand-over is almost seamless. Game Mode works too, I was able to notice a slight decrease in the already very low latency.For 60eur a no-brainer. Buy it.

Good ANC , good sound quality, comfort and design what else you can expect in a such super affordable price

Update from March 2024 – just get better.So revisiting this set of earbuds now they’ve had a couple of firmware updates and have done a few tests comparing the capabilities of the buds on a new phone using AptX Adaptive.First, the bluetooth signal strength and stability to maintain high bitrate in Adaptive mode on these is incredible. Literally i can walk from the front of my house to standing on our back door step (about 7-8 metres through 3 walls) and they’re still coping with high bitrate.My other buds fail (downgrade to low mode) a good couple of meters sooner.Secondly these sound even better with AptX Adaptive. Using the Olaf boosted EQ profile with a couple tweaks these are so incredibly fun to listen to. Especially if you’re into EDM with that classic V profile of thumping bass and lots of treble. These just are so much fun to listen with.Only downside is the ANC performance is definitely the weakest part of the entire package. THey just don’t knock the ambient noise down by as much and the highest pitch sounds like keyboard clacking in an office just don’t get pulled out much. So i’d say ANC is a “could do better” but the rest of the package is great————————————————-Original review from Oct:Headline summary — brilliant bargainWhat’s in the box:EarbudsUSB-C 10cm cable6 sets of tips: Med fitted but 2 smaller and 2 larger sets by the looks of it. Plus a set of foamies loose in the bag separate3 sets of stablise bands (small, large and flat)InstructionsCharging case is small and pocket friendly. Less chunky than the Senn MTW3 and similar thickness to Samsung Galaxy FE case but widerThe case opens nice and wide (slightly over 90° open lid) making them easy to get in and out. Features Qi Wireless charging which is a nice feature bizarrely lacking from buds costing 5x the price (Bose looking at you!)Usual pairing process once you’ve peeled away the tape blocking the charge ports and let them initialise. Either can be done in-app or just in settings.AppYou can update firmware, customise buttons (both sides indepdent and from a good list of options), EQ, which comes with a bunch of presets including Oluv’s natural and boosted EQ’s (more later), options for codec (aptx adaptive available), mic options, voice, and a find buds option. Simple and clean app, nice and responsive. Perfectly functionalANCI’d say theyr’e probably the worst out of the 3 i’ve got here but it’s still enough to drop white noise down a few dB but it’s nowhere near as capable as some more expensive buds. It’s definitely passable when out and about. The firmware update you get on launch of the app (0.2.0 at the time) adds a wind-noise feature which seems to be the in-vogue feature.FitInitially used the small tips and large wings and they fit fine but still i find the need for a shallower overall fit to get the best experience for me so i switched to my goto Spinfit CP1025 TWS tips and the buds are immensely comfortable. Almost no pressure in any spot. The wings adds the security but are very soft silicone and flex so they really don’t pressure your ears. With the tips switched improving my fit i get a good boost in bass too.SoundThe EarFun signature sound is “ok”. Nothing special but perfectly fine. I immediately tried Oluv’s 2 pre-sets and it really wakes these things up in a big way.The “Oluv Boosted” EQ adds that more V feel. But for me it did push the bass a little bit too boomy for me on some tracksSub bass is present and solid. I took the Oluv boosted preset and knocked the bass down 1 notch on the 1st two points and it eased off the boominess plus i pushed up the top end a little as i felt it lacked a little bit of aireness. Am talking EDM / Drum’n’Bass music here — for most other things it’s ok. But backing off the bass a touch on the boosted EQ was the sweetspot for me.They’re a fun set and for the money they punch above their weight. I think my MTW3 are better still and handle things a little tidier and give me a little more detail but i think for the asking price these are a great casual set. I’ll spend some time with the EQ on these and see what i can manage but out of the box with minimal fuss you have a solid fun set of earbuds for a super competitive price. I think they definitely compete strongly with the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE which are a good 30% more expensive.The ANC is definitely similar and AptX adaptive being present means more options for better audio than the limit of Samsung SSCThese are a solid value prop.