EarFun Free 2 Earphones Review: Kings of Value

When EarFun stormed into the market back in 2018, they made a big splash in the true wireless earphones market, with very affordable pairs that were surprisingly feature-rich, and sounded way better than their cheap price would have hinted at.

The EarFun Free 2 are the sequel to one of their popular models, and it repeats those same tricks: surprisingly good audio quality, some of the latest tricks and codecs (such as aptX and Bluetooth 5.2 support), and all at a very affordable price.

Of course, some corners had to be cut – the battery times are on the lower end of the market, there’s no Active Noise Cancellation, and the overall volume is a bit low. Despite these, are the EarFun Free 2 the best you can get at this price range? Let’s dig in…

Who Are The EarFun Free 2 For?

When I review earphones, I often lament the fact that with so many different price points, it’s almost impossible to compare earphones that cost £50 to those that cost £250.

The EarFun Free 2, hit this very issue right on its head. They come with a bag of tricks (like aptX support, low latency and touch buttons), they provide very decent battery times on the earbuds themselves (the case is on the low end with 23 additional hours), and the list goes on.

The sound? it’s wonderful – for earphones that cost less than £50. The bass surprised me in how rich it is, and they’re generally well-balanced. Is the sound very exciting? Not really. Can they hold a candle to top-quality earphones that cost four times as much? No.

But they’re not supposed to, and that’s the point. And when compared to earphones at this price range, the EarFun Free 2 do shine, and are an excellent choice – depending on the specific set of features you’re looking for.

Using The EarFun Free 2

Size and Comfort

The earbuds are not the smallest I’ve seen, but they have a pretty flat shape so they won’t stick out of your ears too much.

They sit very comfortably in the ear, without going in too deep. The seal is decent, but not perfect – and without any active noise cancelling, this means you won’t enjoy them as much in a very loud environment.

In the box, you will find three different silicone ear tip sizes, a USB-C cable for charging, and the instructions manual.

The charging case is pretty small (though still feels a bit too big for just 23 additional battery hours that it holds), and is plasticky. It doesn’t look bad – but it won’t cause any heads to turn. And, in addition to the USB-C port, the case also supports wireless charging.

The EarFun Free 2 have touch buttons, so the whole outer face is one “giant” touch-control surface. Thanks to the shape of the buds, you can easily pull them in and out of your ears without accidentally pressing the buttons, which is a big plus (and one of the reasons I sometimes dislike touch buttons).

The touch surface is pretty sensitive, though I did occasionally have to “tap” more than once because my original tap didn’t register.

The earbuds are IPX7 water-resistant, so you don’t have to fear heavy rain, or even dropping them into a mighty puddle. The case, however, is not water resistant – so be careful with it.

Pairing And Controlling The EarFun Free 2

The EarFun Free 2 come with Qualcomm’s QCC3040 chip and Bluetooth 5.2 support.

Pairing them with my phone was therefore extremely easy, and whenever I took them out of their case, re-pairing was almost instant (which is certainly not the case with some older earphones).

Happily, they also stay connected: after using them for about a week, I haven’t had a single disconnection or Bluetooth-inspired crackle which you sometimes get.

EarFun promises a maximum working range of 15 meters, that will of course depend on the type of walls (and people, and devices) you put between you and the earphones. I was able to leave the phone in one room, go down a whole floor, and keep listening – which is impressive (but not the furthest I was ever able to go in this house – which was going down two floors).

As for controlling the earphones – they use touch buttons, so as with any small earphones, you need to memorise a set of taps.

There’s nothing too complicated here, though it’s a bit different than many other earphones – one tap on the left lowers the volume, a tap on the right raises the volume. Two taps start and stop the music, or answer a phone call.

You can also use the buttons to activate a Voice Assistant on your phone, or activate the special Low Latency mode, which is aimed primarily at gamers (or for watching a film on your phone).

EarFun Free 2 Audio Quality

Features and buttons and chips are nice – but the ultimate question is whether the sound quality is good – in earphones that cost this little.

Overall, they have good sound, but it could use a little more oomph and volume. I found myself having to raise the volume on my phone almost to the top level, which is something I rarely need to do.

Listening to Cherry Bomb by The Runaways, I was pleasantly surprised by the bass. The electric guitar managed to keep its edginess, with pronounced hi-hats and vocals that were nicely defined. They work well for rock music with great definition and no unintended distortion.

Moving on to something a bit quieter like Irene Cara‘s Out Here On My Own, the mid to high frequencies complement the beautiful solo vocal, which gently pierces through the mix without any shrilling moments.

The piano accompaniment is well balanced with the singing and gives a lovely contrast at the mid to low region. You’ll need to dial up that volume control though, as the overall gain is noticeably on the low end here.

There’s no Active Noise Cancellation (which is fine with me – cheap ANC is usually useless), but because they don’t go very deep into your ears, the seal isn’t perfect, and even typing sounds from a keyboard managed to slip in when I was listening to quiet songs.

As for phone calls, the EarFun Free 2 worked very well. They use Qualcomm’s cVc 8.0 tech which is supposed to help with voice clarity on calls. I can’t say there were any miracles here – when I was in a noisy environment, calls were noisy. But overall, the voice quality was good.

Watching Movies with The EarFun Free 2

Watching films and TV shows on phones is becoming more and more popular – so your earphones better be good at that too.

Plus, thanks to Bluetooth, you can connect the earphones to any device that supports the format – so phones and computers, of course, but also streaming devices like the Amazon Fire TV stick.

However, when you use wireless earphones to watch videos, one possible issue is the lip-syncing, since Bluetooth is notoriously laggy.

Which is why the EarFun Free 2 have a special “Low Latency Mode” that you can turn on and off. It then lowers the latency to 60ms (which is super-low for Bluetooth), but also shortens the distance you can have between the earphones and your device.

Truth be told, for movies on my phone I didn’t even need the Low Latency, and the EarFun Free 2 did just fine without any lip-synch issues on the “normal” latency level. Your mileage may vary, of course, depending on the device you’re using – so the Low Latency Mode can be helpful.

It’s also great for gaming, where sound lagging can be extremely annoying, so the Low Latency mode helps with that as well.

As for the sound, I tested things out with Captain Marvel, and the Free 2 really excelled. Speech was very clear, sound effects were powerful thanks to the rich bass, and the music worked well. Mostly, everything was well-balanced, so I could hear the speech clearly even when things were exploding all around the heroes.

EarFun Free 2 Battery Times

When fully charged, you can use the earphones for up to 7 hours, which is quite decent and around the average these days.

The case holds additional 23 hours of power, which is a bit low (especially when compared to some other earphones, like the Lypertek Z3, where the case holds 70(!) hours).

There’s no physical way of knowing the charge level of the earphones themselves (though you can check on your phone when they’re paired), and the case has a somewhat confusing battery alert system, because it only has one LED light.

So you need to remember a set of colours (Green for more than 30% full, Blue for less than 30%, red for 10% and a blinking red for ‘Charge Me Now!’). It’s not as clear as having a set of lights, but it works.

Bottom Line: Are The EarFun Free 2 Worth It?

Value for money is the name of the game here. For £50 (and even less when you can find a special deal), these earphones outperform some of the competition, and provide most of the features one would search for in true wireless earphones these days.

The sound is decent and well-balanced, and while I often complain about the bass with cheaper earphones – it’s quite good here.

EarFun also sells the EarFun Free Pro (see my review) which offer Active Noise Cancelling. The exact feature-set is slightly different (the Pro are older, so don’t support aptX or Qualcomm’s latest chip), but I actually preferred the Pro’s sound – it had a bit more oomph to it, and managed to send shivers down my spine in ways the Free 2 couldn’t.

Still – if you’re looking for a good bargain, with earphones that do almost everything “right” (even if not exceptionally) – the EarFun Free 2 are a great choice.

Note: The earphones were supplied by the manufacturer for this review. As always, this did not influence my unbiased opinion of the product.