EarFun Free Pro 3 review: Compact and cost-competitive

EarFun’s track record of putting out competitive wireless earbuds that deliver a lot for a low price keeps right on rolling with the EarFun Free Pro 3. These $80 earbuds come in an ultra-compact case but pack in major battery life, ample audio, and bonuses like ANC, transparency mode, capable codecs, and wireless charging. There’s a lot more on offer here than you’d normally expect to get for the price, and that’s before factoring in that EarFun isn’t shy about lowering its already low prices with almost ceaseless deals.

Price and availability

Low cost with frequent discount

The EarFun Free Pro 3 are available from EarFun’s website and Amazon for $80. They come in white, blue, and black colors, though they have a two-tone design that pairs the primary color with a nearby hue. EarFun’s buds often have discounts available, and at the time of writing, the Amazon listing had a 20% coupon available that would drop the price to $64.

Design, hardware, and what’s in the box

Compact design both in and out of the case

The EarFun Free Pro 3 earbuds are an update to the brand’s earlier Free Pro 2 buds. They bear a similar design and ultra-compact carrying case. While many earbuds come in a case that’s boxy to some degree, with length and width dimensions closer to equal, the EarFun Free Pro 3 has an elongated case that’s close to the size of a small tube of lipstick, considerably shorter than the Nothing Ear Stick. This makes it exceedingly easy to slip away into a pocket. The case has a USB-C port for charging and supports wireless charging. There’s also a light on the outside to indicate remaining battery life whenever it’s opened or closed.

The buds have a stem-less design found in a few other manufacturers, like Anker, Sony, and Samsung. This is in contrast to the stemmed design with a mic reaching toward the mouth as on Apple’s AirPods. With this design, the EarFun Free Pro 3 nestles away entirely into the ear like a small little bean. They’re more like Samsung’s Galaxy Buds in this regard, but they include a set of little rubber wings that reach out toward the antihelix. The little pressure the wings put on the antihelix keeps the buds securely pressed into the ear canal.

While EarFun offers a few different wing sizes, fit will still be a matter of luck. Even with the largest size, the wings couldn’t effectively reach my antihelix. Fortunately, the buds establish a solid hold with just their silicone tips, holding up to multiple runs without falling out and even passing my notoriously difficult bagel test, in which I eat a tough bagel with the earbuds in to see if they fall out.

The EarFun Free Pro 3 don’t have any buttons on them, but they have a touch sensor on each bud that can detect taps and long presses. The compact design does make it a little tricky to move the buds around without accidentally registering a tap on the touch sensor, though.

Audio and ANC

Better sound than you’d expect for the money

The EarFun Free Pro 3 follow the lead of their bigger, more expensive siblings, the EarFun Air Pro 3. They do this by punching well above their weight class. Even with the small, 7mm wool composite drivers inside the EarFun Free Pro 3, they manage to pump out surprising sound. Between the twinkling keys and trebling clink of the tambourine and the deep bass line of Of Montreal’s False Priest, the EarFun Free Pro 3 show they have some impressive range.

The bass powers through without overwhelming, while the mids and treble are all well-balanced. Vocals sound clear without overemphasis, and the treble lacks any tinniness, not coming through piercing or grating. The higher bitrate available with aptX lets more of the rich musical score come through untarnished by compression.

The clear presentation of the buds is also a great match for audiobooks and podcasts. Speakers’ voices are easy to hear without any harshness (unless that’s baked into the recording with a subpar microphone). The buds’ own mics aren’t as impressive with handling voices. They pick up my voice well enough, but it’s far from a high quality.

The buds do a good deal of passive isolation thanks to their in-ear design. With ANC active, they also cut out a lot of extra sound. Intermittent noises will get through, such as the clink of a radiator, but hums and the general drone of a busy environment (such as a cafe) can be significantly lowered in volume. With the volume bumping from the earbuds, it’s quite easy to get a clear listening experience. The transparency mode is also quite effective

when you need to hear your surroundings. It does emphasize high-pitched noises a little bit, and it has a bit of static crackle in quiet spaces, but otherwise, it provides a fairly natural sound to what’s going on outside of the earbuds. I was impressed by just how closely they matched the sound of a nearby truck engine I heard directly with my own ears immediately after removing an earbud.

Features and app

Feature-rich and fairly easy to control

At $80, you might not expect much from the EarFun Free Pro 3, but defying expectations has been EarFun’s modus operandi. The earbuds offer a load of features and tech you’d expect to only find in $100+ earbuds. They’re compatible with a handful of Qualcomm’s aptX versions for high-resolution audio transmission over Bluetooth 5.3. They can switch to a low-latency mode for gaming. They have Bluetooth Multi-point, switching back and forth between two connected devices in only a couple seconds. And the EarFun app offers various equalizer settings, including a custom 10-band EQ so you can tailor the sound to your preferences.

Another notable inclusion is active noise cancellation. Combined with the snug fit of the buds blocking out external sound, ANC really cuts out what you hear around you so you can focus on what you’re listening to in the buds. It’s a powerful though fairly basic implementation, as there’s no tuning it to different pitches or levels. It’s either on or off. EarFun’s app has a few different options to adapt to ear shape, but which works best for you will be a matter of guess and check. There’s also a setting for wind noise canceling. When you don’t want to tune out your surroundings, the buds offer an Ambient Sound mode that’s shockingly effective. What would really have boosted them to another would be an adaptive sound mode that automatically turned transparency on if the wearer began talking, as can be found on some higher-end earbuds.

EarFun’s app will let you customize the on-ear controls or disable them. It can also switch between prioritizing audio quality and connection stability for the buds. If you ever drop your buds and can’t immediately spot them, there’s also a shockingly capable tool for finding the buds, which will ring out a tone so loud you better not test it out with them still in your ears. The app is also responsible for firmware updates, which I completed successfully on these buds after multiple failures in updating other buds from EarFun.

Battery and charging

More than enough battery to get through the week

Surely, the small size of the EarFun Free Pro 3 and their case comes with a trade-off to battery. Right? Shockingly, it doesn’t. The EarFun Free Pro 3 offer a very respectable runtime of 6 hours with ANC on and 7.5 hours with ANC off. In my testing, the buds were more than happy to run for hours on end without petering out. And the slim case holds up to an additional charge for another 25.5 hours of runtime. That’s pretty much all you need for a whole work week of listening without recharging.

With that kind of battery life and support for wireless charging through the, a quick drop onto a wireless charger now and then will be enough to effectively give you all the runtime you could need. If you do get caught out with no battery, 10 minutes of charging will get the buds up to 2 hours of runtime.

Competition

EarFun’s biggest threat is probably itself

In many ways, the EarFree Pro 3 are a solid alternative to the EarFun Air Pro 3, offering many of the same qualities in a smaller package. The Air Pro 3 often have a discount as well, so even though they retail for a higher price, they can sell for even less than the Free Pro 3. This makes choosing between them largely a matter of preference over size, shape, and battery life.

These buds may lack the smarts of buds like the Sony’s WF-100XM4, and their ANC isn’t going to do as much, but they’re a much cheaper alternative. The same could be said in a face-off against the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, but again, the EarFun Free Pro 3 are significantly cheaper. And unlike Samsung’s buds, EarFun’s don’t lock many of their features to a few specific smartphones. Essentially, if you’re after the best earbuds, you’ll find them elsewhere, but if you’re after a great deal, the EarFun Free Pro 3 are it.

Should you buy them?

The EarFun Free Pro 3 represents a quality pair of earbuds that deliver a lot for the price. While they may not always be intuitive in their controls nor offer all the nuance and customization of more expensive earbuds, they bring a lot to the table that’s hard to find for under $100.

Quality sound is their main offer, and they bring it. But that’s backed with plenty of battery life and compelling extras, like ANC and transparency mode. Packing all of these qualities into a compact, little set of earbuds that slide into a pocket better than just about any pair of earbuds I’ve come across, expect maybe Sony’s original Link Buds, the EarFun Free Pro 3 are truly a strong offering in a market that’s simply inundated with options.