LG’s new LG TONE Free FN7 are high-end active noise-canceling earbuds. It is the successor to TONE Free FN6 and promises several improvements over its predecessor. LG TONE Free FN7 is priced at Rs. 19,999 and is now available across the country. I have been using it for the past few days and here is my detailed review of LG TONE Free FN7.
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LG TONE Free FN7 Review
The retail box includes two wireless earbuds, a charging case, USB-A to USB-C cable, extra earbud tips, and manuals.
Buds have a good design and are comfortable. They fit properly and never come out from ears automatically. You also get two different sizes of ear tips if the default one isn’t a good fit for your ear canals. This makes them suitable to use while running or doing exercise. IPX4 Water Resistance also makes buds suitable for daily use. Buds can survive water splashes and sweat.
Each earbud features a touch button to control media, music, and calls. You can perform different actions by single, double, and triple taps. To toggle ambient sound/ANC, long press and hold. Each tap triggers haptic sound feedback so you know your tap was recorded. You can also disable the touchpad if you want to avoid accidental taps.
The charging case is small and has a black soft-touch material layer. So, it gives a good grip to hold and prevents sliding off the table. The case can easily fit in your pocket. There is a pairing button, a status LED, a UVnano status LED, and a Type-C port. The case has a magnetic design inside that helps to get perfect alignment for each earbud. The circular charging case supports Qi wireless charging. Just put the case on a Qi wireless charger to charge it. It also has a USB-C port for wired charging. Unlike buds, the case doesn’t have any level of water resistance.
The charging case also features UVnano tech that uses ultraviolet light to eliminate 99.9 percent of E. coli and S. aureus bacteria from the speaker mesh of the buds. When buds are inside the case, the case will sanitize them in just 10 minutes. The UVnano status LED lights blue whilst the cleansing is in progress. At the time when the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic, this feature makes sense.
Pairing buds with the phone is easy. The first time, you need to open the case and press the pairing button on the case. After that, it will quickly pair buds with the last connected phone as soon as your open the case. Buds can only connect to one device at a time.
These buds also have a companion app called LG TONE Free. Install the app to have a personalized experience. The app lets you check the battery status of each earbud and the charging case. You can customize touchpad settings, manage equalizer settings, lock the touchpad, control ANC, find your earbuds, and update the software. The app is available for both Android and iOS.
If you do not like the default control settings on buds, use the app to set what to do on a single, double, or triple tap on each bud.
The app has a feature called Find my earbuds. You can use it to locate your earbuds. Buds will chirp loudly when you press the play button to locate the buds. It will work only if buds are paired with the phone.
I am very impressed by the music playback quality. It provides crystal clear music with good bass. LG has partnered with Meridian to offer customized equalizer and headphone spatial processing. I used the buds for listening to music, listening to podcasts, and calls. Honestly, it is one of the best sounding earbuds available in the market. Buds do not support aptX codec support higher quality AAC codec.
Buds have automatic ear detection. As soon as you take one of the buds out, it will pause the music. The phone automatically resumes music once you insert the bud in your ear again.
Each bud features three different microphones for noise reduction and echo cancellation. The upper microphone detects external noise and the inner mic cancels out unwanted noise when ANC is ON. The lower mic picks up and amplifies your vocals.
I also used buds for calling and had a great calling experience. Another person on the call can’t tell if you are using buds for calls. Buds cancel unwanted external noise and pick up your voice properly. So, your voice will be clear even if you are in a crowded space.
It also features Ambient Sound Mode. Enable it when you want to be aware of your surroundings. For example, you want to have a quick conversation with someone without removing buds from your ears.
If you receive a notification, it will read it for you. It can read SMS, WhatsApp notifications, and even emails. You need to enable this setting from the TONE Free app. The app also lets you select the speech rate as per your comfort.
I was getting around 4 to 4.5 hours of playback with ANC on. With ANC turned off, battery back up improves to 6 to 6.5 hours. The case can further take the total battery backup up to 20 hours. That’s quite good. The charging time of the case and buds is around an hour. Buds also support fast charging and 5 minutes of charging offers around an hour of music playback.
Final Words
LG TONE Free FN7 is impressive pair of buds. I have been using it for more than 10 days. It offers good music experience, an excellent calling experience, and an amazing battery backup. ANC does an excellent job. Features like UVnano Tech, customizable controls, equalizer make it even better. You will also have to pay a premium price for enjoying the premium features of the buds. It is priced at Rs. 18,990 where it directly competes against Apple’s AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000XM3, and Jabra Elite 85t. Competition isn’t easy but LG TONE Free FN7 manages to stand out.
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