- This video is sponsored by LG
but guys, I still gotta call a spade a spade here.
This is LG's Tone Free HBS-FN6,
or as I'm gonna be calling it the AirPods competitor.
I've actually got both variants of them in white and black.
And the most exciting thing about them is the feature
that doesn't immediately disqualify them
for everyday use for me, the size of the charging case.
Yes, my friends, the most important thing to me
when it comes to wireless earphones is whether it passes,
the does it fit in this pocket test.
And not only does it fit really nicely
in that totally otherwise useless pocket,
but because of the glossy finish,
it actually slides in and out really, really nicely.
In fact, compared to an AirPods Pro case,
it's a little bit on the thicker side,
but it's actually smaller in the X dimension
and not much different in the Y dimension.
Not bad.
Not bad at all, especially considering
that one of the big features
according to the front of the box anyway,
is their UV nano,
which is a disinfecting light that is included in the case.
You see, yeah, actually, you can see it in there
to kill apparently 99.9% of the bacteria
that are gonna end up on the ear tips of your earbuds
when you put them in your case to charge.
They were very specific about this.
I am to inform you that the Tone Free FN6
is the only one that has been approved
by official organizations such as TUV.
Actually kind of a big deal.
It charges via USB type C.
They rated for six hours of music playback
from the earbuds themselves,
and then the case is rated for another 12.
So while the case only has two extra charges
for the earphones in it,
the earbuds themselves actually run for quite a long time
and part of the reason they're able to squeeze
better battery life out of these is that
while they are noise isolating,
they do not have active noise cancellation.
Which is a feature that can suck up
quite a lot of battery life.
They really wanna sit
at quite an aggressive forward facing angle.
Honestly the form factor of them
reminds me more of the AirPods Pros
and less of the regular AirPods due to the short stem.
Why am I even putting in the white ones?
I was so excited about those BatsPods
AirPods clones a little while ago
just because I wanted black AirPods Pros.
So why don't I just open up the ones
that have got a little nice little Short Circuit thing on it
and everything here?
Wow would you look at that?
They wrote me a handwritten note.
I actually know people over at LG who are big enough nerds
to write a message like that.
Oh wow.
I'm impressed.
I was gonna say I bet they send the same note to everyone
but it's totally not.
This one's to me and this one's to Colton.
Dear Colton, hope you are smiling,
reading our little surprise to show our gratitude.
Little do they know
that he's not allowed to keep their samples.
Colton is never getting it.
You got more ear tips
although I actually found the medium ones out of the box
sufficient for me.
I often switch to small
but I don't think I'll be doing this with these.
USB cable, no wall wart and just like a little (indistinct).
Now as with a lot of their audio products
one of the big headline features
for LG is their collaboration with Meridian Audio.
Oh wow, look at that.
Just got a notification everything
in spite of the fact that this is not an LG phone.
I got the same auto magical pairing process
that you would expect out of something like AirPods
or Pixel Buds, and they're connected.
I didn't have to press a pairing button or do anything
although it does have a manual pairing button
if you do end up needing that down the line.
If I understood the product packaging correctly,
it also features wireless charging.
How do I tell if it's working?
Yeah, look at that.
Awesome.
The Meridian Audio collaboration is a funny one for me
because it's at the point now
where I honestly can't tell who's paying who
'cause on the one hand, LG wants Meridian's expertise.
So they created some EQ profiles
that are supposed to kind of simulate
the natural crosstalk between the right
and left to give it a more open soundstage.
Like if you were listening to actual stereo speakers,
and that kind of tuning obviously has a value.
But on the other hand,
LG spends so much of their product page
basically talking about Meridian's expertise
when it comes to building speakers
and digital sound processors and all this kind of stuff.
Look at this, it's ridiculous.
I don't know who's getting the most out
of that relationship there.
The Tone Free app is surprisingly well rated
for like a Bluetooth speaker included app, 4.2 stars.
Device is currently using the latest software.
Nice.
So controls are handled with tapping.
I don't have the music app open
so I guess that's not gonna do anything.
Apparently you can long press as well.
Where's the button?
I think I activated it there.
Okay.
While they don't have active noise cancellation,
they are quite noise isolating.
I'm not hearing any of the regular, you know, AC hum
or anything here in the office.
But they still include an ambient sound mode.
So, it'll pass through some of the external audio.
There we go.
It's working now.
First time, I think it wasn't actually on.
I wouldn't describe it as natural sounding
as the AirPods Pros, for sure.
But if the idea is just like,
hey, I'm crossing the street right now.
I need to make sure that nothing hits me.
You can definitely hear the things around you better.
I can hear my own voice better.
It's the kind of thing I would normally leave off
if I'm not using active noise canceling headphones.
I wonder if part of the problem
is that I was in immersive mode.
Hey, Brandon, can you talk to me for a sec?
- [Brandon] (clears throat)
I'm talking to you
while you're wearing those headphones.
- Yeah, it's definitely less natural sounding.
That's fine.
I don't need you to.
Interesting.
You can actually you can tune it though.
So you can have a little bit of ambient sound and a lot.
Find my earbuds.
This is cool.
So, some vendors lock their find my earbuds feature
depending on what kind of phone you're using.
But LG maybe because they are realistic
about how much mobile phone market share they have.
Seems to allow the feature to work with the app
regardless of which phone you have.
So, theoretically whoops allow.
What just happened?
So it's not for when they're in the case.
It's for actually finding the individual earbuds.
Okay, so left.
It's pretty quiet.
It gets a little louder, actually.
Yeah, it keeps getting louder.
Okay, that's not bad, that's usable.
Like obviously, you'd have to walk around
your house to find the thing.
One thing LG points out is that these ear tips
rather than actually feels a little stickier
than the regular silicone ones.
It's apparently made from a medical grade ear gel.
In terms of the fit,
I would describe them as very similar to the AirPods Pros,
which are my everyday carry.
So, I consider that to be pretty high praise.
Although I guess it's kind of easy to have a similar fit
if you also have a very similar design.
Time for some Laszlo "Supernova."
The song I'm allowed to play definitely for sure.
You know, I gotta say not every audio company partnership
has ended up turning into products
that legitimately sound better.
But LG is clearly benefiting from Meridian's expertise.
There's clearly defined bass, but it's not overpowering.
It's tight.
I'm probably talking really loud right now
'cause yeah, sorry, Brandon between the fact
that I'm actually listening to music,
although not at an unreasonable volume
combined with how their noise isolating
means that it's kind of hard to hear what I'm saying.
I kind of wanna play around
with the different profiles though.
So I automatically went to natural
because that tends to be what I prefer,
but let's see what bass boost sounds like.
Still reasonable.
Fuller for sure, but not overpowering and not muddy.
Thank goodness.
Brandon, did you ever watch the video
on the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless two's.
Their EQ control app was unusable.
Thank you LG or Meridian
or whoever is responsible for this being the EQ control.
This is exactly how EQ control should work.
One thing that I wish they would improve actually
is that it'd be nice if it gives you a live preview
of what it's gonna sound like as you're moving it around.
As it is right now you have to actually click Save
to hear your amped up bass.
As someone who actually likes the sound like that inside
your skull sound of in ears,
the immersive profile doesn't really do anything for me.
But the good news is that both natural
and bass boost are actually
really nice (indistinct) EQs
and I think a lot of people aren't gonna end up
playing around with the custom ones,
although it's really cool
that they let you have two of them.
I probably end up with bass boosts.
It actually really clean sounding.
I definitely like the black one more.
I think it's too bad
that they decided to go with a glossy finish on the white.
'Cause this matte black looks
and feels in the hand a lot better
even though surprisingly, the glossy white so far
is less of a fingerprint magnet.
I think this one actually I'd expect to look kind of nicer
on a day to day basis but when it's clean.
This is like that's pretty sleek.
You know, I'm surprised.
It automatically detects taking your earbuds out.
One thing that I hope is not unavoidable
is that it looks like it stopped playing
when I took one out.
Okay, it looks like you can start playback again
with just one in your ear
'cause it is supposed to know if it's in your ear or not
and automatically pause playback.
Yeah, and it paused it again.
So that's something you will have to restart
if you just pop out one earbud at a time.
Man, see I don't know
if there's a 100% right answer for everyone
when it comes to that.
That's another thing that might be kind of cool
to add to the app is a do you want that behavior or not?
One thing that I just noticed is that it doesn't disable
the touchpad when you're holding the earbud
in your hands so it doesn't seem to be clever enough
to know if it's right up against an ear from the sensor here
or if it's just like kind of casually
rolling around in your hand.
That's another thing that's probably quite tunable
in a software updating given what a nice bass
they're starting with here.
So solid battery life, good features,
the wireless charging and all that good stuff,
good sound quality right out of the box
and an easily tunable EQ.
This is a great start.
It's sponsored by LG
but I don't know if you guys are familiar
with the FTC guidelines.
I'm not allowed to say anything
that I don't actually think.
These are really solid,
just like the idea of subscribing to Short Circuit.
Make sure you do that so you don't miss
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