﻿Hi I’m Gidon from thetechnologyman.com. LG’s Tone Free FN7s are the latest wireless
earbuds in the Tone Free range. I looked at the cheaper FN6s in the summer. The FN7s
most notably add Active Noise Cancellation, but also have improved sound, better phone
call quality and longer battery life. They look very similar to Apple’s AirPods
Pros and share most of their features too. But they should be a fair bit cheaper - check the
link below for the latest prices since these earbuds seem to fluctuate in price hugely.
I’ve been testing them over the last month or so, comparing them mainly to the AirPods Pros,
but also the cheaper FN6s. I’ll let you hear how they
sound in direct comparison to Apple’s offering, and you’ll also be able to
hear how their ANC and microphones compare. And as usual I’ll run with them to see just how
secure their fit is. So let’s take a closer look. Overview
In the box you get the earbuds themselves inside their charging case, a USB-C charging cable,
3 sizes of ear tips including the ones already fitted, and a user manual.
The compact case looks identical to that of the FN6s, apart from an additional UVnano LED
on the front that I’ll come back to. The earbuds are slightly bigger and
together weigh around 1g more than the FN6s, making their cases not interchangeable.
There’s a USB-C charging port at the back and a pairing button at the side.
They also support wireless charging via any compatible Qi charger.
I cover pairing in detail in my review of the FN6s, but these work in the exact same way,
supporting Google Fast Pair with a compatible Android phone and
pair almost as quickly to iOS devices. Charging with a USB-C cable or wirelessly
takes around 2 hours and the earbuds themselves take around an hour to charge when empty.
And like the FN6s they support fast charging, with a 5 minute charge providing one hour playback.
You can still only pair to one device at a time which is awkward if you use them regularly with
a phone and a tablet say. This is one area where the AirPods Pros are far more convenient - if
you have multiple Apple devices. The AirPods Pros can switch between these devices automatically.
They’ve up’ed the battery life of the FN7s to 7 hours, although this is with ANC turned off.
The case can provide two full charges so you can get up to 21 hours of usage which is decent.
In comparison the FN6s have 6 hours of listening time and the AirPod
Pros have only 5 hours, with ANC turned off. Like the FN6s, the charging case has built-in
UV-C LEDs which have disinfecting capabilities that are meant to kill 99.9% of bacteria.
There is now a UVNano status LED that lights blue whilst the cleansing is in progress which
takes around 10 minutes and only works when the case is being charged with the USB cable.
The earbuds are very slightly larger than the FN6s with a more bulbous head - the stem is
the same length. They’re almost identical in size to the AirPods Pros. They feel more
premium than the FN6s with a glossy finish to the front of the stem and a raised dimple that
helps locate the touch controls, both features differentiating them from the rather plain FN6s.
I like the design of these earbuds and their fit in my ears is excellent. The FN7s have new ear
tips with a spiral internal design which is meant to improve fit, but I already found the FN6s very
good. I had no problem running with these earbuds - they barely moved even over longer sweaty runs.
And they have IPX4 sweat resistance too. The FN7s also add haptic sound feedback
to confirm taps and this works quite well and is another useful feature when running,
although touch controls are still tricky to use when you’re not sat still.
You can customise the touch controls in the TONE Free app.
By default a single tap of either earbud will pause and resume playback or answer a phone call,
a double tap of the left and right earbud will turn the volume down or up respectively or end
a phone call, and a triple press on either earbud will skip forward a track. A long press on either
earbud will switch between Ambient mode and ANC mode. You don’t hear a spoken audio prompt like
on the FN6s to indicate the mode you’re in - just a sound - so it’s sometimes difficult to know if
you’re in the right mode without opening the app, especially with music playing.
There’s also ear detection which automatically pauses and resumes playback when you remove and
reinsert either earbud. Audio quality
I already found the audio quality on the FN6s good but these have a new sound unit
and do sound better, even though they are still built around a 6mm driver.
They have a slightly richer sound with deeper bass. Their sound isn’t quite as
bright as the AirPods Pros and they don’t have quite their clarity either especially at louder
volumes, but the default “Immersive” EQ profile lives up to its name and has a sound I imagine
most people will like and some might even prefer. And you can easily switch to another EQ profile in
the app depending on what you’re listening to and your tastes. Or even configure a custom profile,
but like with the FN6s I found the presets tuned by Meridian sounded better than what I could
achieve dragging around the frequency graph. The earbuds don’t have support for the aptX
codec but do support the still higher quality AAC codec.
Their good seal also makes sound leakage even at maximum volume minimal.
And maximum volume whilst not as loud as the AirPods Pros is enough in most cases.
You can listen to a sound test and hear for yourself how they sound with different EQ profiles
and compared to the AirPods Pros. You’ll need to listen with decent headphones for
the best experience. Let me know down in the comments which earbuds you prefer the sound of!
ANC &
Ambient Mode
The FN7s are the first earbuds I’ve tested that have similar ANC performance to the AirPods Pros.
They too are focussed on trying to reduce high frequency noises from for example
background conversations or an underground train. You don’t get anything like the eerie
silence of high end over ear noise cancelling headphones like Sony’s XM3s or XM4s but they’re
not a million miles off the pretty decent Soundcore Life Q30s I reviewed recently,
which is an impressive feat for in-ear earbuds. The FN6s had an Ambient or Transparancy mode
to let you hear your surroundings, but it didn’t sound very natural. It’s improved on
the FN7s and is quite usable which together with their secure fit, makes them a very
capable set of earbuds for running. Again you can listen to a sound test
comparing the FN7s’ ANC and Ambient modes against that of the AirPods Pros.
Microphone quality
The earbuds use three microphones for phone calls - the upper mic is meant to detect and
reduce external noise, the inner mic is used for ANC if this is switched on and the lower mic picks
up your voice - but a lot more clearly than on the FN6s. I tried them with the background noise
from a simulated noisy coffee shop and also with a large gym fan pointed directly at me.
I also used them making phone calls on a number of windy walks,
which is a pretty harsh test for any earbuds.
They did a pretty good job with the coffee shop background noise.
They don’t manage to cancel out the unwanted noise to the same degree the AirPods Pros do,
but the mic can still be heard quite clearly. The simulated wind test and in the real life
windy walks, they don’t do such a good job, but do fare a little better than the FN6s.
The AirPods Pros are still the only earbuds I’m able to use for phone calls in nearly all
environments in place of my phone. Performance
I found I got a little less than the quoted 7 hours of battery life, but I usually have ANC
or Ambient mode turned on and the volume at 70% or higher - especially when running.
The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.0 and I found the connection reliable. Range was about average,
maintaining a connection even when my phone was in the next room over 10 metres away.
I can’t really test the cleansing claims of the charging case, and it’s not a feature I’d
personally pay extra for. But it’s still reassuring to have, more so if you share
your earbuds. Conclusions
I’ve tested quite a few wireless earbuds this year, but these earbuds from LG are difficult
to fault. They sound good, have an effective ANC and ambient sound mode, a very secure fit,
a compact case, decent battery life and usable and customisable touch controls that
mean I can usually leave my phone in my pocket. A lot will depend on what price they settle at,
but they should be a viable alternative to Apple’s AirPods Pros and at a lower price. Apple’s
earbuds are still better for phone calls in many situations, and their seamless pairing is very
convenient if you happen to own multiple Apple devices. But the LG FN7s have longer battery life,
a more secure fit in my ears at least, more complete touch controls and the UV cleansing.
And they’re available in black as well as white. But I’d love to know what you think? Would these
earbuds make your shortlist, or if you already own a pair, what do you think of them? And if
there’s another pair of earbuds you want me to look at, let me know down below!
And as always, if you have any questions, please ask - I read
every comment and will do my best to respond. I do hope you found this video useful. Please
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