For the most part, truly wireless earphones feel very much alike. True, you can get them in a variety of price ranges with a bunch of features, but they are essentially similar features with improvements as you go up in price. The LG Tone Free HBS-FN7, however, are different. These TWS earphones from LG come with a unique UVnano case that kills bacteria on your earphones to keep them clean and sanitary. Something that’s becoming even more important during this pandemic.
First things first, I’m really quite impressed by the design and the build of these earphones. That started off pretty much the moment I took these out of the box. The earphones come in a really pretty looking, compact charging case that’s probably one of the nicest looking cases I’ve seen on TWS earphones that aren’t AirPods.
There’s not a lot of unnecessary design flair on the case, though I would have liked to not have the ‘TONE’ branding on the lid either, but it’s a fairly minimal looking design and I appreciate it. You get a single button on the side for pairing, and two LED indicators up front: one for the charge status, and one for UVnano.
Comfort and Fit
Other than the sound quality, which we will discuss later, one of the most important things with a pair of earbuds is the comfort and fit. And these earphones are just really comfortable to use.
Moving on, as I mentioned earlier, sound quality is extremely important on a pair of earphones. And at Rs. 30,000, the LG Tone Free HBS-FN7 have a lot to live up to. They are competing outright against industry standards like the Sony WF-1000XM3 and the AirPods Pro.
In fact, I think these sound just as good (if not slightly better) than the AirPods Pro in most cases. Ranking wise, I’d say the Sony earbuds are still the ones to beat in the premium TWS segment, but these are definitely second, with the AirPods Pro coming in at third in the sound department.
Obviously, with wireless earphones, you need some way to control the music, volume, skip tracks and more. The LG Tone Free HBS-FN7 let you do almost all of that with ease.
Anyway, here is everything you can do with the touch sensors on the LG Tone Free HBS-FN7:
You can also customise these functions if you desire, with the Tone Free app that’s available for both Android and iOS devices.
To be honest, you can use these earphones without ever downloading the LG Tone Free app on your smartphone. However, if you want access to all the features and customisation for these earphones, I’d recommend you use the app on your phone.
You can also toggle between Noise Cancellation on, ANC off, and Ambient Sound mode from the app if needed.
At Rs. 30,000, you’d obviously expect these earphones to come with noise cancellation support, and they do. Once again, they are competing against industry standards set by the Sony WF-1000XM3 and the AirPods Pro, and these don’t hold up as well.
One of the standout features about these earphones is the built in UV sterilization within the charging case. LG claims that this can kill 99% bacteria in just 10 minutes.
For connectivity, the earphones use Bluetooth 5.0, which isn’t anything to complain about. Plus, they support Google Fast Pair so they can pair quickly with supported smartphones. They also support AAC and SBC codecs in case you’re wondering about that.
Battery
LG says that the earphones have their own 55mAh batteries, and the charging case comes with a 390mAh battery to charge the earphones a couple of times over. That’s a good thing to have, especially considering the battery life of these earphones comes in at around 4 hours with ANC turned on.
Pros:
- Great sound quality
- Excellent design and build
- Built in UV cleaning
Cons:
LG Tone Free HBS-FN7: Should You Buy?
At Rs. 29,990, the LG Tone Free HBS-FN7 are a pricey offering, even compared to the Apple AirPods Pro which come in at Rs. 24,990. At this price, recommending these earphones seems incredibly difficult, especially considering that Sony’s industry leading WF-1000XM3 come in at just Rs. 19,990 and offer better noise cancellation and sound quality.
