EarFun Free Pro 3 wireless earbuds review

The EarFun Free Pro 3 earbuds offer absorbing, fulsome sound, noise-cancelling and ambient modes, decent battery life, customisable fit and a well-developed app. It’s difficult to ascertain just how the brand has made cycling headphones so good at such a modest price.

EarFun was formed in China in 2018 by music fans with a background in design and audio engineering.

The brand’s belief is that “premium sound can be heard on a budget” and it has nailed that mission statement with these diminutive wireless buds.

Of course, price and hi-fi performance are only two of the factors by which to judge the best cycling headphones. If they don’t stay in your ears, or they dangerously drown out the noise of the world around you, we can’t recommend them. 

With adaptors to tailor fit to your ear size and shape, and a balanced audio presentation that doesn’t necessitate wanton volume cranking, the EarFun buds are certainly worth considering.

EarFun Free Pro 3 wireless earbuds specifications

The EarFun earbuds arrive in a neat package, including a lipstick-sized case and five ear tips (XS-XL). A choice of three ear hooks can be applied to further refine fit.

They’re available in three colours – ‘brown black’ (as tested), ‘navy blue’ and ‘silver white’.

Weight is only 5g per bud, packing in 7mm wool composite dynamic drivers and an IPX-5 waterproof rating – sufficient to withstand a low-pressure jet of water for 10 to 15 minutes.  

Claimed battery life is 7.5 hours – sufficient to see you through the first nine volumes of the essential Motown Chartbusters compilation series – alas, Frankie Valli's sublime floor filler, The Night, is on volume 10.

A quick 10-minute charge via USB-C will provide two hours’ play time and you can squeeze out 25.5 hours using the battery in the case.

Fitting involves placing the bud in your ear canal and rotating it until it feels secure, slipping the hook under the ridge of your ear to add further stability. 

Pairing via Bluetooth was quick and remained reliable throughout testing.

The buds can be tapped to trigger customisable controls such as volume, play/pause and track skipping. These controls worked smoothly, even when wearing my winter cycling gloves. 

The EarFun app introduces an equaliser featuring genre presets, the ability to boost bass and treble, and even a signature EQ setting from Austrian producer Olaf Lubanski. 

There’s also the ability to switch between 'noise-cancelling', 'normal' and 'ambient sound' settings. The latter mode dials in a little of the outside world using the in-built microphone, designed to enhance awareness when cycling with headphones. 

EarFun Free Pro 3 wireless earbuds performance

How I tested

Much of my 20 years’ journalism experience has been while working on guitar, vinyl and tech magazines. In that time, I’ve reviewed a wide musical spectrum of amplifiers, effects pedals, turntables and headphones.

I’ve recently been testing a range of bone and air conduction headphones designed for cycling and running to find out which are best suited to the rigours of an active lifestyle.

To assess the performance of the EarFun Free Pro 3 earbuds, I used them on my daily commute for two weeks, alongside a couple of gravel rides, around 50 miles of running and some gym sessions.

This enabled me to get a thorough picture of their fit, usability, comfort and hi-fi performance.

EarFun Free Pro 3 wireless earbuds fit

The combination of hooks and tips enabled me to get an impressively stable fit – not something my cavernous lug holes achieve with many in-ear buds. Throughout plenty of half-marathon training, commuting miles and the odd brief gravel rumble, I felt mostly confident they’d stay put.

On the one occasion the fit did fail, the left bud sprang from my ear on a towpath commute, bounced behind me and disappeared. 

However, the ‘Find Headphones’ function saved the day. This emits a high-pitched alert from one or both buds, which guided me to my bud, nestled in thick undergrowth. It's an impressive and extremely useful feature at this price.

EarFun Free Pro 3 wireless earbuds sound quality

The EarFun Free Pro 3 buds deliver an immersive and muscular sonic performance that will have you checking the price tag in disbelief. It’s commendable how ‘big’ these little buds sound.

Full volume is louder than you’ll ever need, even during rush hour in the face of a howling wind. 

Bass response becomes slightly too strident on some songs and the soundstage isn’t as wide and detailed as the class-leading Sony LinkBuds. However, the EarFun buds blow plenty of far more expensive rivals clean off the stage. 

Because they’re in-ear headphones rather than bone-conduction or open-ear buds, that presents inevitable road safety issues. I certainly wouldn’t advocate cycling with Raw Power by The Stooges at full volume, because you’d be oblivious to the hazards around you. 

However, after a brief soundcheck, I was able to settle on a richly rewarding, balanced performance with an unusually present bass for ear buds, while remaining aware of the hazardous whirl of metropolitan life.

That formidable bottom end and accompanying lower-mid punch is particularly well suited to electronic music. Hitting play on Parra For Cuva’s Paspatou, I was stunned by the focused bass throb and potent thud of the kick drum. 

Switching genres and eras to Rodriguez’ Sugar Man, the buds performed admirably. The vocal was fully present and fringed with reverb, strings swirling invitingly and the percussive acoustic guitar strums presented with enjoyable balance and verve. 

In 'ambient sound' mode, my awareness of traffic noise became heightened. This worked well for running, but when cycling the microphone amplified wind noise. 

The sultry, noir atmospherics of Pulp’s This Is Hardcore were quickly enveloped by the gusts, which became annoying. A ‘wind noise cancellaction’ feature mitigates this somewhat, but I preferred to stick with 'normal' mode and adjust the volume to taste – listen responsibly, kids. 

EarFun Free Pro 3 wireless earbuds bottom line

The Free Pro 3 earbuds are very decent headphones for cycling that become almost impossible to overlook when you consider their price. They’ll save you around £100 on the RRP of the Jabra Elite 7 Active buds and are in the region of £85 cheaper than the Sony LinkBuds. 

They don’t top the pile in any one category – the LinkBuds deliver more refined, balanced sound quality; the Shokz OpenFits have hooks that slip round the top of your ears for a confidence-inspiring fit; bone conduction headphones keep your ear canals open and provide peace of mind in busy traffic. 

However, if you want a pair of cycling and running headphones that score highly in most areas at a seriously tempting price, the EarFun Free Pro 3 earbuds are in a class of their own.