LG Tone Free Fit review

It’s been a couple of years since LG has been plonking UV lights in their earbud cases. It’s got all the studies to back up the reasoning for this move but whether it works or not is up to you to decide. The Tone Free Fit can only banish 99.9% of bacteria but it’s better at keeping 100% of the sweat and dust away thanks to the IP67 rating. Adding to that, you get wingtips for a more secure fit for sweaty workouts and outdoor activities. It’s the first pair of in-ear that I don’t mind wearing and shoving through the local train at peak hour in Mumbai.

Sonic chops are good with a very impressive equalizer with a couple of presets, thanks to the LG and Meridian partnership. The Natural and Treble presets may not impress audiophiles but it's not half-baked like many in this price range. I prefer a warm sound and I found Bass Boost was impressively calibrated without sounding bloated. The Immersive preset works well for Dolby Atmos soundtracks on Apple Music but you will have to keep switching to it whenever there’s a Dolby Atmos soundtrack in your library, otherwise it’ll sound blurred. It was not worth the daily effort so we moved back to Bass Boost for regular use.

My Heart, My Life by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook sounds fantastic for this price. These are detailed in the mids but may sound a bit thin in the highs while listening to something with complicated harmonics such as Nusrat and Michael’s track. 

These are fitness earbuds so you may not be inclined to feel the emotional tugs of Nusrat’s voice. Heartquake feat. Cuco (Picard Brothers Remix) by L’Impératice will be something we listen to in the gym and the Bass Boost preset brings out proper energy to this rhythmic dance music. Albeit, the small 6mm drivers show their shortcomings. The Oppo Enco X2 with 11mm drivers and an additional 6mm planar diaphragm driver have more volume and better bass clarity for obvious reasons.

For the price of ₹19,990, the Tone Free Fit are out of their depth. LG has never been able to price their earbuds properly, and that was the case even with the flagship buds we tested last year. At the time of writing this review, these are going for a 52% discount on LG’s website, pulling the price down to ₹9,490, which makes these fairly priced buds.

Albeit, there are more issues with LG’s Tone Free Fit other than the price. There was a lot of signal interference while in crowded spaces like gyms, public transport and jogging tracks. The left bud would start disconnecting while exercising outdoors. It may be a defective unit issue with us because we couldn’t trace the problem with other reviews. Make sure you try them before you buy. The signal and connectivity issue didn’t happen at home but only in spaces with a lot of people (and presumably gadgets).

Battery life is phenomenal with around 10 hours on a full charge and 20 more from the case. It’s a bit chunky case but pocketable. You may not be able to open this with one hand though and that’s something that I find very important while traveling at airports and other places. AirPods and Oppo open easily with one hand which makes them a good fidget toy as well.

You get multipoint pairing which works well and ANC does a good job too. The ANC is good at cutting out AC and other lower-frequency rumbles but not so great with mids. That means the gym’s music might leak through while working out.

You can also remap the touch controls to your liking and taste. Double tapping to change volume and triple tapping to fast forward are better left as they’re if you rarely manually shuffle through your playlist.

With medical-grade silicone tips and bacteria-banishing UV lights added as a sweet bonus, the cleanliness campers will certainly look to LG for better hygiene and cleaner sound chops in the gym while having IP68 water and dust resistance. The wingtip fit is great for folks who move around a lot while listening to music. The Tone Free Fit sound fantastic but not for the price that LG is demanding. There are also missing features like wireless charging, and we had major connectivity issues with our unit.

Not to mention that almost a 50% drop in price after launch is a bit alarming and a mockery to folks who bought this at full price. You can grab these if a secure fit is your concern along with IP rating but there are much better options in the TWS market and many of them sound better and have more features too.