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For its audio division, LG gone to great lengths to highlight its collaboration with long-time hardware manufacturer, Meridian Audio, and it’s not hard to see (or hear) why. According to LG, the case kills about 99.9% of bacteria on the earbuds between uses – which is kind of comforting if someone in your house, say a girlfriend, likes to borrow your earbuds without telling you and doesn’t ever clean them. On a typical workday, I managed to get through just over seven hours of semi-constant use, with the headphones connected at all times. That’s in addition to the FN6 being used to send and receive audio during a Zoom call. That’s pretty impressive, and while it might not see you through to the end of a full day on a single charge, LG’s got you covered with speedy charging in the case. The other issue you’ll encounter is that the buds might drop the connection every so often. It happened less frequently after we updated to the latest software, but right out of the box the buds might cut out on you every once in a while should you choose not to update. Battery life The LGs don’t manage the rhythmic aspects of the recording with quite such assurance, though. They don’t quite have the fluidity the tune demands, and ultimately end up sounding slightly lumpy when they really should undulate.
Speaking of conversations, call quality is another soft spot for the FP8. Friends and family we spoke to said we sounded echo-y and less crisp compared to other earbuds, but said we came in louder than traditional speaker phone. The result makes us leery about using these as your go-to pair for business calls and are probably best suited for short phone calls when possible.When placed into the charging case – and only when said case is connected to a power outlet – the FN6 earbuds are subjected to a 10-minute UV light cleaning process that supposedly eliminates 99.9% of bacteria. Don’t expect a car-wash level cleanse, but it is reassuring to know the FN6 lead a much cleaner lifestyle than most earbuds – particularly at a time when hygiene is at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
The EQ is where you’re likely to invest most of your time, but be warned, it’s quite more technical than others we’ve tested. Instead of keeping things simple by categorizing the different frequencies (lows, mids, highs), this EQ has you adjusting what look like decibel levels, which, unless you’re an audio expert, requires a steeper learning curve. You can skip the entire process of creating your own music profile by selecting from the four available presets: Immersive, Natural, Bass Boost, and Treble Boost. It’s a strange thing to admit in the midst of a pandemic, but there’s a case to be made that the LG Tone Free FN6 couldn’t have been released at a better time. With the Meridian EQ set to ‘natural’ (who doesn’t want their music to sound natural, after all?) and a Qobuz-derived 24bit/88.2kHz file of A Tribe Called Quest’s We The People…playing, there’s more than enough sonic talent on display to make the HBS-FN7 a decently engrossing listen. Bass sounds (of which there are plenty here) are textured and carefully hefty, with more than enough detail available to make the difference between actual instruments and machine-derived sounds obvious. There’s plenty of control on display, too, so the tune rumbles forward at the correct sort of pace – there’s no overhang and, as a consequence, the tempo is convincing.
Noise-cancellation is a success of the slightly qualified kind, too. Set to ‘high’ there’s an unarguable reduction in external sound, though nothing like as comprehensive as, say, Sony’s WF-1000XM4 can achieve, let alone Bose’s spookily effective QuietComfort Earbuds. Set it to ‘low’ and the effect on ambient sound is negligible. But call quality is good – incoming callers sound crisp and complete, while we have no complaints from people in receipt of our phone calls either. Verdict
The one area the LG needed to improve was its audio reproduction – and with Meridian's help it absolutely did. While previous versions of LG’s Tone earbuds had muddied sound, harsh trebles and a severe case of sibilance, the FP8 now have a more lively sound that really focuses on accentuating the mids and lows with better overall balance. Once the audio information is on board, it’s dealt with by a pair of 6mm full-range neodymium drivers, the tuning of which has had significant input from British hi-fi pioneer Meridian. It’s not the first product on which these companies have collaborated, but it nevertheless brings quite a bit of audio credibility to the HBS-FN7 proposition. So take your time to really understand the sort of product you’re looking for. Think about the sort of features that you need. Which ones are “nice-to-have” and which ones are absolutely critical. If you’re looking for a cheap option then don’t even consider the products that are all signing all dancing because you’ll be paying for features that you don’t need. Choose your retailer wisely
We’re always happy to see aptX Low Latency involved if for no other reason than a lot of us tend to consume video content while on the move – but LG hasn’t quite got around to it yet. Taking the FN6 wireless earbuds out of the circular charging case, and it’s hard not to make immediate comparisons with Apple’s top-end wireless earbud. However, there are a few subtle differences to be found, and the earbuds themselves are incredibly stylish. The Tone Free app offers you the opportunity to rearrange the touch-surface settings if you fancy. It’s also where you’ll find a selection of Merdian’s EQ settings (‘bass boost’, ‘treble boost’‘natural’ and ‘immersive’, none of which need much explanation) plus the place to store a couple of your own. With a wide array of washing machines in its product portfolio, LG knows a thing or two about cleanliness, so it makes a lot of sense to see the inclusion of a UV cleaning mechanism with the FN6. Sure, the feature is nothing new, but this is one of the first times a big brand (Philips also has a pair of self-cleaning earbuds) has jumped on the technology. However, not everything passes the eye test. You have to commend LG for trying something different by integrating UV lighting into the charging case, but there’s no ordinary way to determine whether the feature effectively sanitizes the buds. Something that we do know doesn’t work properly are the touch controls, which are highly sensitive to touch and often misinterpret commands.
In terms of design, the LG Tone FP8 borrows a few pointers from the Apple AirPods Pro. Both sets of buds use silicone eartips that fit snugly into the ear canal by way of an ear-conforming shell that extends out to a small nub that runs outside the ear. Aesthetically there are a lot of similarities – but not enough to make them exact replicas of one another. Granted, while I did grow more accustomed to the quirks of the touch sensors and the expected amount of time needed for a touch to register, it still made for an imperfect system. And even though music is supposed to stop playing when you remove the earbuds, I never found this to be a guarantee.
EXCLUSIVE: LG’s answer to the AirPods Pro sound good and keep your ears clean
How they’ll hold up to higher decibel sounds like an airplane engine remains to be tested – another unfortunate downside of the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic – but so far we’ve been relatively impressed with the FP8’s noise cancellation chops next to our overworked air conditioner – the next best environment for a noise cancelling test.
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