Review: HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite
In November of last year, Huawei officially parted with the former subsidiary brand "HONOR". In China, HONOR experienced a huge boom and even landed there on number 3 of the most popular smartphone brands. In Europe, however, it was quiet about HONOR until the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite were finally released at the beginning of August.
The finally followed in October HONOR 50 smartphone range which the young company catapulted back onto the scene in this country too.
Design, workmanship and delivery
Earbuds
As far as the design of the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite is concerned, HONOR did not dare to experiment and opted for the most common true wireless in-ear design that Apple has exemplified with the release of the Apple AirPods since 2016.
Typical is the long handle, which protrudes visibly from the ear when worn and at the same time contains the smart touch control and the microphones. The direction of wear is printed on the inside of the handle. However, the earbuds cannot be inserted the wrong way round. The ergonomically shaped head is only stable in one direction in the ear.
Instead of one-size-fits-all, it was decided to use interchangeable earmolds. Three different sizes are included. According to protection class IPX4, the earbuds are protected against splash water. The HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite can withstand jogging in the rain or sweaty exercise.
charging Case
The earbuds and charging case are all in glossy white ("Glacier White"). At 45,5 x 61,2 x 25,35 mm, the charging case is not particularly large and fits in your pocket without any problems. The corners, which are strongly rounded on all sides, ensure a harmonious look. There is an inconspicuous reset button on the side of the charging case. Finally, on the front, we would have the HONOR imprint and an overlying status LED. The USB-C charging socket is located on the underside of the charging case.
The hinged lid of the charging case is held in place magnetically. The same applies to the earbuds, which are held magnetically in their respective recess. Incidentally, it is not possible to stand the charging case with the lid open. This is prevented by the rounded corners.
Processing and delivery
There is nothing wrong with the workmanship. The shiny plastic feels high-quality and the connection seam of the earbuds is visible, but not sharp-edged. The charging case closes flush.
In addition to the earbuds and the earmolds already mentioned, the scope of delivery also includes a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, multilingual operating instructions and warranty information.
comfort
The sound can be so good, but if the earbuds don't sit properly, you definitely won't enjoy them. The wearing comfort is of course very individual. After all, not every ear is shaped the same.
I personally found the wearing comfort of the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite to be good. The ergonomically shaped head sits stably and does not feel any pressure in the ear. In contrast to the standard model, the interchangeable ear tips provide additional flexibility in terms of wearing comfort.
Our tip
It is generally recommended to replace the earmolds with high-quality memory foam adapters (e.g. Comply) to exchange. These enable an even better hold and improve noise isolation.
Walking or doing light sport do not change the wearing comfort. In the case of high-movement activities, however, it can happen that you have to readjust, whereby sports headphones with (ear) hooks are the better choice for this anyway.
Hardware
Little is known about the hardware data of the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite. We know that a dynamic 10 mm driver with a polymer composite membrane is installed, the Bluetooth 5.2 connection standard is used and the AAC and SBC audio codec are used.
Information on the frequency range, the impedance or the maximum volume are unknown. Particularly high-resolution codecs such as aptX or LDAC are not supported.
sound quality
First of all: the sound perception differs from person to person. This is what the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite sound like to me:
Sound signature and spatiality
The HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite do everything right in terms of sound. The sound is dynamic and the sound signature is characterized by a slightly U-shaped frequency response. It is one of the most common sound signatures, especially in the consumer sector, as our hearing is already trained on the slightly raised lows and highs.
The sound stage has its limits, but a spatial impression of width and depth is created. Details come into their own precisely and well separated. Watching a movie with the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite is fun, because the sound is not only rich in detail, but is also played back synchronously thanks to the low latency.
Depths, mid and highs
The HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite bring the low frequency range to the point. Bass is crisp without being distorted or mushy. Bass lovers, however, only get their money's worth to a limited extent. Due to the largely balanced sound image, the low frequency range is not overpowering.
A down-to-earth midrange ensures proportioned voices that are clearly delimited from the bass and treble without losing fine detail and sound volume. Lows, mids and highs are characterized by a harmonious interplay.
A coherent and clear high frequency range gives the sound of the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite a pleasant finish. Sharpness or uncomfortable sibilants are not there. Listening to music for hours without getting tired is possible without hesitation.
Active Noise Canceling (ANC)
The ANC of the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite does a good job without compromising the sound quality. Disturbing background noises such as train or airplane noise are effectively suppressed. A prerequisite for good noise reduction, however, is that the earbuds also sit securely in the ear. Slightly slipping in the ear can already be at the expense of the ANC.
The attention mode, which amplifies outside noises, is also interesting. Listening to music and listening to other people's conversations at the same time is no problem. This is made possible by the microphones of the earbuds, which are activated in attention mode.
Operation and App
The HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite can be conveniently controlled by gesture. By default, double-tapping the outside pauses or resumes playback. The ANC can be switched on and off by holding it down.
If you want to customize the gesture function, you should install the Huawei AI Life app. Users of a HONOR smartphone have already integrated the functions of the app into the system. In the app you can change the respective function for the right and left earbuds. In addition to playback control, you can also choose from the title control and the voice assistant. Unfortunately, there is no way to control the volume by touch. It is again possible to completely switch off the touch control.
In the test, the touch controls only worked reliably to a limited extent. In most cases, double taps were recognized immediately, but I also found myself tapping blindly into space more often because the touch area is very small.
In addition to the settings for touch operation, the AI Life app provides insights into the battery level of the individual earbuds and the charging case. The "Noise Protection" function allows you to switch between noise suppression (ANC) or alert mode.
Carrier detection
The carrier detection works reliably. As soon as one of the earbuds leaves the ear, playback is automatically paused and resumed when plugged in. It is also possible to continue listening with just one earbud in your ear. Take out the earbuds and press play again. The music will then continue to play on the plugged-in earbud, the other one remains mute. This also saves the battery. The carrier detection can be deactivated via the app or setting.
Microphone and calls
The microphone quality falls short of expectations. Calls are understandable for the other party, but what is spoken has a tinny note. The noise filtering is also poor.
Battery
Let's lose a few words about the battery, which also plays an important role in the evaluation of TWS headphones. Including a full charging case, HONOR promises a playback time of 32 hours.
This information is understandable at medium volume. In the test, the fully charged earbuds with the ANC switched on lasted almost 7 hours. If you switch off ANC, you can even tickle 10 hours from one battery charge.
Fast charging charges the earbuds to around 10 percent battery in just 35 minutes. This corresponds to an approximate running time of 4 hours. A full charge takes approximately 60 minutes. The charging case is charged in 90 minutes. Contactless charging is not supported.
HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite
Modern and compact design
Pleasant wearing comfort
Well-functioning ANC
Detailed and very well coordinated sound
Carrier detection
Long battery life
Fiddly touch controls
No aptX or LDAC
microphone quality
HONOR has arrived back in Europe and with the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite has a particularly powerful in-ear headphone in its luggage. Whether music lovers, film fans or audio book enthusiasts, the balanced and harmonious soundstage meets pretty much every taste. Useful functions such as the well-functioning ANC, which also does not impair the sound, or the carrier detection, which reacts precisely, round off the positive impression. There are minor disadvantages with the gesture control, which sometimes feels a bit fiddly, or the microphone, which sounds slightly tinny. Nonetheless, the HONOR Earbuds 2 Lite are recommendable in-ear headphones for the general public, which will surely accompany me personally for some time to come.
