You might not be able to tell this simply by looking at the latest ranking of the world’s top true wireless earbuds vendors, but unlike smartphones and tablets, LG actually makes some pretty decent alternatives to Apple’s market-leading AirPods.
Meet the new premium contenders
The
freshly unveiled T90, T60, TF7, and TF8 are set to join said family “in major markets” around the world “from the end of August” at unspecified prices, which is rarely a good sign. The ultra-high-end LG T90 Tone Free model in particular is likely to prove rather prohibitive for the masses with not only state-of-the-art active noise cancellation and the company’s proprietary UVnano technology in tow, but also Dolby Head Tracking.
Even though Samsung’s own super-premium Galaxy Buds Pro have supported that functionality since their early 2021 commercial debut, LG claims the most technologically gifted member of its 2022 Tone Free lineup is the “world’s first” of its kind to offer Dolby Head Tracking “across all content and devices.”
Put simply, the feature promises to deliver a “more natural” sound experience by, well, tracking your head when you listen to your favorite tunes, watch movies, or play games, always aiming to center the action around the user and thus help better immerse yourself in your content.
That’s definitely an intriguing (albeit potentially gimmicky) proposition, and as long as LG can keep the T90’s price around the $200 mark, we’re also excited to see (or rather hear) the “incredibly dynamic yet balanced and crisp sound” in action while enjoying a battery life of up to 9 hours as well that can be easily boosted to a combined endurance rating of 29 hours when taking the bundled wireless charging case into account.
Impressively, the slightly lower-end LG T60 Tone Free come with the exact same solid battery endurance scores and the exact same premium graphene material promising to reduce vibration and improve overall audio quality as the T90 while lacking Dolby Head Tracking capabilities.
Perhaps even more remarkably, the entire 2022 LG Tone Free slate supports UVnano technology, which essentially means all of these new earbuds can be easily cleaned and kept clean, with their charging cases providing even wider coverage than before, “sterilizing all parts of the ear gels” with absolutely no effort from you.
Now meet the sporty options
The self-cleaning and long-lasting TF7 and TF8, mind you, can be easily distinguished from the self-cleaning T90 and T60 thanks to their fitness-friendly designs focusing more on providing a secure and comfortable fit for your most strenuous workouts than fancy audio technologies.
Of course, we fully expect these two models to sound great as well, sharing their Meridian skills and active noise cancelling chops with their less sporty siblings. Like the T60 Tone Free, the TF7 and TF8 Tone Free Fit do without Dolby Head Tracking while further stepping up their battery life to an outstanding 10 hours of uninterrupted listening time and the water resistance rating from a fairly modest IPX4 to IP67.
In contrast with this full new LG Tone Free lineup, Apple’s best-selling AirPods Pro can barely keep your tunes going for up to 4.5 hours on a single charge. Of course, that’s with ANC turned on at all times, a popular usage scenario that seems to knock the battery life of the 2022 Tone Free family down to around 5 hours. But hey, the AirPods Pro still can’t kill bacteria or very efficiently keep you protected against water immersion.
