LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Review

LG launched its new TONE Free FN7 wireless earbuds in India on the first week of 2021. With the launch, some great offers also came. This pair of earbuds don’t come with a price tag of ₹18,990 just for premium built and sound but for the advanced features if offers like Active Noise Cancellation & the new UVnano charging cradle, which sanitizes the earbuds using ultraviolet light. At this price, why should anyone buy it? Well, I have been using the LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 wireless earbuds for more than half a month now, and I guess it’s time I talk about these wireless earbuds.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Review

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Build & Design

The LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 wireless earbuds come in an excellent compact package. In the box, you can find a pair of these buds, a charging case or cradle as LG calls it, with an integrated battery, a short USB-A to USB-C cable, and extra earbud tips in three different sizes.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 ANC Retail Box

The charging case provided with these earbuds is perhaps the most premium one if I keep the Apple AirPods case aside. The body has a premium finish to it, and there are two LEDs on the front- One for charging status and another for UVnano. The UVNano status LED turns blue while the earbuds are being cleansed. The process takes around ten minutes but only works when the case is charged with the USB cable.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7
LG TONE Free HBS-FN7

The case is compact and is just over an inch thick. The carrying case supports Qi wireless charging, and it can be charged wirelessly by placing it on any Qi wireless charger. The pairing button is there on the left side of the case, and there is a USB-C port is on the back.

The two earbuds rest on gold charging pins and are magnetically held inside. The magnetic pull is quite strong, and there is no way any earbuds would fall out of the case. The design of these earbuds is quite premium, and there’s nothing flashy with some crazy ideas trying to stand out in the crowd, which I liked. That’s because, though some earbuds may look good, they aren’t the best ones in terms of comfort, and that’s what I would like to discuss next.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Fit & Comfort

There are plenty of TWS earbuds in the market. While some brands try to mimic the popular ones’ look and feel, LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 is different, and it is not inspired by any other brand design. It stands out because of its own shape and design (also, LG has a crazy design team), and the size is also just perfect, not too small or big. There are no compromises here in terms of audio or battery life, even with such a compact size.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Fit & Comfort

Wearing these wireless earbuds is so comfortable. Even when I wear the buds for a long time, I never faced anything uncomfortable. These earbuds are super lightweight, and so wearing them doesn’t feel like putting some weight on my ears. Automatic ear detection is there so that whenever I remove or put the earbuds, the music will pause or play automatically. As I mentioned earlier, these earbuds don’t compromise in terms of audio as well, so let’s talk about that.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Audio Quality

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 has a solid audio output that is perfected in collaboration with Meridian. And that doesn’t just show on paper; I can say with 100% surety that these earbuds are perhaps the best in a particular area. When it comes to differentiating between different kinds of sounds, be it instrumental or vocal, these buds work excellently. LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 wireless earbuds produce rich sound with deep bass while maintaining the perfect balance among highs, mids, and lows.

The equalizer helps in tweaking the kind of sound output one desires. Using the LG Tone free app, EQ profiles can be changed, or you can even configure a custom profile. In some cases, I would say that when I compared these with the AirPods Pro, these are the ones that produced the most pleasant audio output. Audio quality depends on a series of factors, and the preference may change from person to person; still, these are some of the best wireless earbuds I have experienced in a while.

The sound leakage is also minimal with these buds, and the Active Noise Cancellation is good. There is an Ambient Mode to let users hear their surroundings, and that also works fine with these buds. Overall, I’m very much impressed with these wireless earbuds in terms of audio quality, and overall I enjoyed listening to music wearing these.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 ANC During Calls

In terms of audio quality during phone calls, I would say just one thing – EXCELLENT. These earbuds use three microphones for phone calls – the upper mic is used to detect and reduce external noise, the inner mic is used for ANC, and the lower mic picks the voice. I tried several phone calls using these buds while I was stuck in heavy traffic, and I’m impressed by the call quality. The audio via the mic of these buds delivered clear & loud audio to the person on the other side, suppressing noise and amplifying my voice. There were no issues in terms of hearing the voice of the person on the other side.

Noise Cancellation

LG HBS-FN7 ANC Comparison

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 wireless earbuds come with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). ANC isn’t something that you would find on budget earbuds, and on this pair of earbuds, the noise cancellation is excellent. There is no better way to test ANC other than the Delhi traffic. So I tried that, and damn, once I set the volume to near max, there wasn’t even a hint of any other sound around me. Also, doing a long touch on the buds toggles the ANC mode with Ambient Mode, which comes in handy in daily usage whenever you want to switch off ANC quickly to listen around you quickly.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 UVnano Sanitization

This is the biggest standout feature of LG TONE Free HBS-FN7, and LG is the only brand that offers a TWS with a UV sanitization feature. LG claims that this can kill 99% of bacteria in just 10 minutes. While I have no way of testing the effectiveness, I have no doubt either of what LG claims. The UVNano status LED turns blue while the earbuds are being cleansed.

The UV Sanitization works only when you put the cradle to charge. As soon as you put it to charging or put buds back while the cradle is getting charged, the UVnano feature comes into action. So, if you want to sanitize the buds daily, you can just put the cradle for a max of 10 min to charge as the whole sanitation process works for 10 minutes.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Connectivity

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 wireless earbuds come with Bluetooth 5.0, the latest and the best so far. The range is pretty good, as I noticed no lags or audio loss while moving around in my house. These earbuds support Google Fast Pair so that they can connect to a supported device quickly and very easily! With Bluetooth 5.0, it is also possible to put just one of them in an ear while driving. This is quite helpful because I can concentrate on driving, and when I receive a call, I can just tap once on the earbud on the left to receive the call.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Controls

Each earbud has a touchpad that can be used to control media, phone, and wireless assistants like Google Assistant and Siri. Single, double, and triple taps are customizable, and there are plenty of options like play/pause, voice command, volume up or down, previous or next track, and off. However, call controls can not be customized. A single tap receives calls while double taps end calls, and pressing and holding toggles Ambient sound or ANC.

The LG TONE Free app extends the controls & customization options. In the app, you can check battery levels for the earbuds as well as for the charging case. You can also customize the touch controls via the app. As mentioned earlier, there’s an equalizer with some presets and the option to create a personalized one.

LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 Battery

Each of the LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 earbuds has an inbuilt 55mAh battery, and the charging case comes with a 390mAh. With Active Noise Cancellation turned off, the LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 can last up to 7 hours on a single full charge, and paired with the charging case, which can provide two full charges, in total the users can get up to 21 hours of usage. When ANC is turned on, the battery life comes down to four hours, which is still satisfactory for daily normal use.

Also, these buds support Fast Charging. Just charging for 5 minutes would give you a playback time of 1 hour, which is just fantastic.  I have been using them every day, and I didn’t need to charge the case for at least 3 days.

You can charge the charging case via a USB Type-C cable, and it supports wireless charging as well. You can use any Qi wireless charger or a phone with reverse wireless charging to charge the case for LG TONE Free HBS-FN7. The case takes around 2 hours to get fully charged from 0%-100%. When put in the case, the earbuds take around an hour or so to get fully charged.

Final Verdict

Overall, the LG TONE Free HBS-FN7 wireless earbuds are perfect for audiophiles and professionals who want good audio quality, better microphones with ANC. These earbuds are also IPX4 water-resistant, so wearing them in harsh weather and during workout sessions is never an issue. Due to the great fit, I finally overcame the fear of dropping after three or four days of wearing them while running.

These buds can also make a sound via the LG TONE Free app if, by chance, you’ve dropped them somewhere and you’re near them. The Active Noise Cancellation on these buds works great in noisy environments. Overall, with such many features, it does justify the price tag of Rs 18,990. While not everyone will agree to the pricing, it is the audiophiles and the premium category users who will find this one most reasonable for the audio quality it offers.

An optimist to the core, I always see the glass half full. I like to take life as it comes and not to become too serious on the harsher aspects of it. Apart from this, I am an Engineer, a Blogger & a Researcher....

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