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OpenAI is setting up new guardrails intended to reduce exposure to sensitive or potentially harmful content.

GameStop appears to be having some trouble loading in the late morning on January 21, 2026, with the site not launching for some – so stick with TechRadar's live reporting on the outage.

High-end SSDs have already shot up in price, and more affordable models are likely to follow, so the time to buy is now.

While there isn't anything terribly innovative about Sony's new $230 LinkBuds Clip earbuds, they're attractively designed, sound good and feature strong voice-calling performance.

Employees might have shared SSNs to help an advocacy group try to “overturn election results in certain States”.

I feel as though I'm going mad when I say there was once a time when Ryan Murphy TV shows were fresh, bold and innovative. Nip/Tuck was a scathing satirical putdown of cosmetic surgery culture in the early 2000s, Glee – while completely unhinged – dominated the television zeitgeist in a way no other show was daring to, and the first three seasons of American Horror Story were bona fide masterpieces.

Unsurprisingly, Murphy's track history likely means that streamers like Hulu and Disney are all but happy to throw money his way and wait for the next big thing to materialize... except, this isn't really happening anymore. While shows like 9-1-1 are getting more grandiose by the minute (Angela Bassett in space? Really), others including American Sports Story and Grotesquerie fell off the radar and were quickly cancelled.

Then All's Fair became the 0% Rotten Tomatoes stinker that took the internet by storm, guaranteeing a second season purely by fully leaning into its own stupidity. I really didn't think Murphy could top his own dreadfulness, but new FX series The Beauty easily clears any flop he's ever previously produced.

Why? Because at least All's Fair knew how terrible it was. At least Grotesquerie didn't pretend to be a success story. The Beauty is masquerading as something much more significant than it actually is, without contributing anything to the cultural zeitgeist aside from making sure you have the safest sex possible.

The Beauty on FX is The Substance-turned-STD, and everything about it is wrong

I know that you won't want to watch this series based on the above trailer, but let me set the scene for you anyway. Two FBI agents (played by Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall) travel across Europe to unravel the mysterious death of a group of supermodels. None of them appear to know each other, but all have the same symptoms – a virus, burning alive from the inside and spontaneously exploding upon death.

This either sounds like the recipe for absurd hilarity or insightful social commentary, but The Beauty is neither. After you've finished being baffled by Bella Hadid's out-of-place cameo, you're left feeling nothing aside from wondering how the series was green lit in the first place. We had The Substance last year, so we hardly need its knockoff little sister.

It doesn't take long for The Beauty to hit you over the head with its intended messaging of "what will people risk in order to be beautiful?". You could argue that a plethora of shows and movies have mulled over this age-old question already, ironically beginning with Nip/Tuck itself. Truthfully, we know what people would risk to be attractive (everything), and the critical analysis ends there.

Murphy is clearly churning out old ideas here, and there's nothing of merit or value contained within any single scene. The decision to make the killer virus a sexually transmitted disease (STD) is morally ambiguous, particularly when you consider Murphy's deft handling of the AIDS crisis in Pose. Is this meant to be an ironic nod to real-life history? Is it merely intended to shock whoever is watching? Condom sales might increase after this, but not much else will.

Go girl, give us nothing

I can't even remember their character names they are that forgettable. (Image credit: FX)

But let's put the gory gimmicks and missed narrative opportunities to one side. What else do we have left? Peters and Hall are secretly lovers, but don't have an ounce of chemistry between them. This makes flogging an already dead horse even trickier, because there's almost no incentive to watch. Murphy has already told us how our exploding supermodels die thanks to the mutant sex virus, so where's the payoff?

There's also the gauche notion that "fat is bad" that plays through the center of the story, and that's neither fitting for 2026 nor is it an original thought. 20 years ago, Murphy could have been lauded as daring by tackling body image head-on, but now it's just uncomfortable to watch slim actors in fat suits. Again, there's nothing of value to making this a worthwhile endeavor.

So we're left with a mis-matched, tone-deaf, mundane splatter of madness on our screens, and I'd rather have been blasted straight in the face with the VFX department's guts like an Italian horror movie from the 80s. Perhaps that way, I'd have felt something.

During the international press tour, I saw star Ashton Kutcher talk about The Beauty as if nobody has dared to make television like this before. I have to wonder if he's actually ever watched TV before now, and that's before I consider that his ex-wife Demi Moore examined this same topic in an infinitely more successful way.

Our only two wins are the brash pop soundtrack and a cameo role from the icon that is Isabella Rossellini. I don't know what Murphy has got on her to get this appearance, but God is she so much better than this. We all are.

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Where do I even start with reviewing The Beauty? It's the bargain bin version we knew we didn't need, with absolutely nothing original to say.

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As attackers hide longer and deeper, behavior-first detection becomes the only reliable way to expose them.

Huawei FreeClip 2: Two minute review

In 2025, open earbuds became the trendy new kind of headphone to buy, and the market was dominated by sports loop-style buds. By the end of the year, though, cuff- or hook-style open-ears had dethroned them, and the Huawei FreeClip 2 are some of the big new buds to use this form factor.

My favorite open-ears of last year were the Huawei FreeArc, so I was hopeful that this new option would deliver something special – perhaps even enough to dethrone the big names on this particular block, like the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds or Shokz OpenDots One. However you might as well call these the FreeClicarus, because the company has flown too close to the sun.

The selling point of the FreeClip 2 is this: they’re some of the lightest, thinnest and therefore most comfortable clippy ear-cuff type earbuds to date. This is clear from the size of the charging case, which is the smallest I’ve ever seen in such buds, but also from the design and build of the buds themselves.

However even with the ‘heaviest’ cuff-style buds, I’ve never had a problem with weight, and in the FreeClip 2, the reverse was true. Buds like this rely on gravity to lock them firmly around your ear, and if they’re light, they just won’t sit right. I found the buds didn’t naturally sit properly, so needed some adjustment every time I used them, and were far too easy to knock off if they received a bump or swipe. They never fell out during exercise, but they did when I was pulling up my hood, putting on a bike helmet or bringing my noggin too close to my neck.

There are other aspects of the bud that are poorly designed. The touch controls are too finickety, requiring a precision and soft touch that I defy anyone to have at any point, let alone when they’re running or walking. And like all Huawei hearables, the companion smartphone app requires so many hoops to jump through, you’ll feel like an elephant at a circus (on Android, at least – on iOS or HarmonyOS, the process is simple). And, perhaps most damning of all, the audio quality just isn't very good.

You might now be wondering why I gave a modestly positive score to the FreeClip 2, and that's for two reasons. Firstly, it's because these issues aren't terrible. Secondly, it's for two really handy perks that the buds offer which alternatives don't.

Firstly, as I've already said, they're lovely and lightweight, and they were more comfortable to wear for runs or walks than alternatives. Secondly, the maximum volume is really high, fixing a common open earbuds issue – hearing your music properly. Despite their issues, the dearer-than-they-should-be pricing and being a let-own compared to the FreeArc, I can see these being a reliable buy for certain users.

Huawei FreeClip 2 review: Specifications

Component

Value

Water resistant

IP57

Battery life

9 hours (earbuds), 38 hours (total)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 6.0

Weight

5.1g / Charging case: 37.8g

Driver

10.8mm

Huawei FreeClip 2 review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

• Released on January 21, 2026
• Priced at £179.99 (roughly $240, AU$350)
• Premium price for clip-style buds

The Huawei FreeClip 2 were announced in December 2025, and put on sale on January 21, 2026 (today, at the time of writing). Just in time for your New Year Resolution to run more – unless you live in the US or Australia, where the things don’t sell.

At £179 (roughly $240, AU$350), the FreeClip are fairly premium cuff-style buds. They match the highly-rated Shokz OpenDots One, though undercut the $299 / £299 / AU$449 Bose Ultra Open Ears. Most earbuds with this form factor I’ve tested have been cheaper, though, with some great options at half the price that we’ll explore near the bottom of this review.

For some Huawei-shaped context, the original FreeClip were released two years prior for about the same price. If you want any open earbuds regardless of the form, the Huawei FreeArc came out in early 2025 for about half the price, and they’re the best sports-loop-style open earbuds I’ve tested to date.

Huawei FreeClip 2 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Incredibly light case, comfortable buds
• Too flexible and light to fit properly
• IP57 protection

When I first took the Huawei FreeClip 2 out of the box, I thought Huawei had left them in the wash too long and they’d shrunk. The case is absolutely tiny. I’m talking about 5 x 5 x 2.5cm, smaller than any other charging case I’ve ever seen, and at 37.8g I don’t recall testing any lighter either. Lovely for popping the case in my pocket.

Like most clip-style open earbuds, the left and right buds are interchangeable, so you can pop them in your ears or the case either way around. But the process of putting them in the case is quite confusing, with an arrangement that seems… illogical. You can see what I mean in the pictures; it’s different to any other cuff buds I’ve tested, and I constantly put them in wrong and only noticed when the lid wouldn’t close properly. I found this quite annoying, but it’s the price to pay for a small case.

Onto the buds themselves: a spherical bud (or Acoustic Ball, according to Huawei), counterweight (Comfort Bean, apparently), and the connector loop (Airy C-bridge Design), all in a 5.1g package. The loop is quite elasticky, so there’s a lot of flex between the components, but I never noticed any ill effects when the buds were in my ears.

(Image credit: Future)

I noticed something with the bud – sorry, the Acoustic Ball – that I’ve not heard on other clipping buds. Sometimes when I put them in my ear, the audio wouldn’t be at full power, and I’d have to readjust them before they sounded right. Usually this kind of bud just falls into place, and I wasn’t used to this kind of micromanagement. It was also easier than I’m used to, to knock them out of place – they had a solid fit when exercising, but I kept hitting them out of my ear with bike helmet straps, hoods and hats. I think the frail design and light weight have resulted in some fit reliability problems.

There are touch controls on the buds: stroke the counterweight – I mean, Comfort Bean – for changing the volume, double-tap any part of the buds to play or pause, tripe to skip. The tapping was generally okay, even though my touch wasn’t always picked up, but I really struggled with the swiping – it’s really hard to intuitively reach the right spot behind your ear to find the trigger, and in my experience it was rarely picked up correctly anyway.

You can pick up the Huawei FreeClip 2 in three colors: blue, black or white. They’re rated to IP57, so they have limited protection against dust and can be immersed in shallow water for a limited time.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Huawei FreeClip 2 review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

• Fantastic listening test
• Battery life is 8 hours, 32 hours with case
• Fewer other features than some rivals

A recurring problem with Huawei earbuds is that their app situation is, I'm sorry to have to say it, a bit of a nightmare for Android users (an app-solute nightmare?) and that’s no different for the FreeClip 2. Own an iPhone? You’re in the clear – the companion app can be pinched straight from the App Store.

On my Android phone I had to go into a web browser, download and then install an APK for the Huawei AppGallery and use that to install the Huawei Audio Connect app (I then, for good measure, deleted AppGallery). That’s quite a lot of admin just to turn off touch controls.

It might not be worth it. The app lets you pick between four presets (and lets you create your own with a 10-band equalizer), and lets you toggle a few features like touch control, wear detection and head control (you can shake your head to reject an incoming call). Okay, there’s a ‘Find-My’ feature for lost buds or case and drop detection, two useful features. The app also has an Experimental Features menu which, for now, just has a toggle for adaptive volume – since this is labelled as under development, it didn’t feel fair to evaluate it for this review.

(Image credit: Future)

I will say, wearer detection is rarely present on open earbuds, and even more rarely is it fully functional. One thing I noticed over my testing process is that on the FreeClip 2, it works very well. Sometimes, it’s the small things!

The battery life is a little longer than the rivals, with the earbuds lasting 9 hours before you need to pop them back in the case. The case, despite its short stature, offers a decent amount of mileage too: 39 hours in total. It’s not class-leading, but it’s still very good.

The FreeClips support Bluetooth 6.0, a figure I don’t always see in buds like these, and I never had any connection issues; they were fast to pair every time I used them. They can also pair with multiple devices simultaneously so you can use them with both your phone and, say, a running watch.

• Features score: 4/5

Huawei FreeClip 2 review: Sound performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Single 10.8mm driver
• Music sounds lifeless
• Lovely, high max volume

Each Huawei FreeClip 2 earpiece has a 10.8mm driver, just like its predecessor – it seems that the improvements in this sequel are in the design department, not the audio sector. That’s a shame because while we didn’t receive the original model, I saw some negative responses to its audio quality, and I’m going to level (I think) those same complaints at the new model.

Music, frankly, sounds flat and lifeless, condensing different instruments into one musical line instead of a sonic spread and then, oddly elevating mid tones higher above treble and bass. It sounds like the guitarist forgot to plug their axe in, the singer is struggling to remember the lyrics, the bassist is pushing through carpal tunnel syndrome.

In The Roosevelts & James Mason’s This Is Life, the rhythmic acoustic guitar seems to take dominance of the mix over the bass and vocals (drums? Not here, officer). The same happened in ABBA’s Waterloo: the acoustic stings in the verse stood above everything else, but strangely when the instrument returned in the chorus it was barely audible. I listened to a recording of the fourth movement of Antonin Dvorak’s New World Symphony, and the brass overshadowed the entire instrumentation – even in the segments they’re barely present.

In short, I wasn’t wowed by the Huawei FreeClip 2’s sonic prowess – it’s not the worst I’ve ever tested, but it is for the price. However, the buds do one spec better than any other model I’ve reviewed, and it’s a department that’s crucial for open earbuds: volume.

Too many times, these open-fit headphones don’t go loud enough, and they’re hard to hear due to the background noise you’re not meant to be isolated from. The FreeClip 2, however, go really loud, and for this reason alone I’d still recommend them to some fitness users who’ve struggled with other options.

If the buds support any features like Dolby Audio or aptX, or codecs like LDAC or AAC, it isn't mentioned on Huawei's website or app.

• Sound performance score: 3/5

Huawei FreeClip 2 review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

Given the glut of cuff-style open earbuds at sub-$100 (or £, AU$ equivalent) prices, you can expect a premium product if you’re going to pay a premium price like this. I’m sorry to say that I don’t think the FreeClip 2 quite deserve to be called that, though; the feature set, fit and sound quality aren’t significantly better than the budget options on the market.

I think Huawei missed a trick by pricing these buds as they did. You can pay less and get just as much, or pay the same amount and get more from rivals.

• Value score: 3/5

Huawei FreeClip 2 review: scorecard

Category

Comment

Score

Value

These are priced like premium buds but perform like budget ones.

3/5

Design

The teeny tiny build feels good, although it brings problems. At least the case is small.

3.5/5

Features

It may be a little light in the feature department, but what it has works well. It's a shame about the app situation though.

4/5

Sound

They sound a little flat and lifeless, but the high max volume makes them a suitable pick for certain users.

3/5

Huawei FreeClip 2: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future)Buy them if...

You need something loud
Listening in a noisy environment? The volume you can reach makes these better than others on the market.

You want a small charging case
The tiny carry case for the Huawei FreeClip 2 is easily pocketable and won't weigh you down like some of the alternatives.

You find them as a gift with another gadget
They cost more than they should, but as a purchase gift with a Huawei tablet or phone, they'd be alright.

Don't buy them if...

You're an audiophile
It should go without saying, but it's doubly true of the Huawei. Don't buy these if you want a detailed sonic experience.

You're a cyclist or hat-wearer
Because of its build, headwear could really affect the FreeClip. Not for helmet-wearers or those who like a hat.

Also consider

Component

Huawei FreeClip 2

Shokz OpenDots One

Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

Water resistant

IP58

IP54

IPX4

Battery life

9 hours (earbuds), 39 hours (total)

10 hours (earbuds), 40 hours (total)

7.5 hours (earbuds), 27 hours (total)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 6.0

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

5.1g / Charging case: 37.8g

5.6g / Charging case: 52g

6g / Charging case: 43g

Driver

10.8mm

2x 11.8mm

12mm

Shokz OpenDots One

Shokz' debut options are a solid fit, sound great and come in a charging case that's small, though not Huawei small. They match the FreeClip 2 in price, though are slightly older so have seen some reductions.

Read our full Shokz OpenDots One review

Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

These top-price options have fantastic audio, even if they look a little more robotic than most alternatives. If you've got money to burn, Bose is ready.

Read our full Bose Ultra Open Earbuds review

How I tested

I listened to the Huawei FreeClip 2 for just over two weeks before writing this review. In that time I used it paired to my Android smartphone.

I used the FreeClip daily during that time. I worked out at the gym, went on runs and cycled, and also used it when not exercising at home and on walks around my neighborhood. I listened on Spotify and Tidal, watched on streaming services and played several games with them.

These are the latest in a busy line of earbuds I've tested at TechRadar, including plenty of open-ear options and various gadgets from Huawei.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed: January 2026

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