These are the LG Tone Free FP9 true wireless earbuds. They come with active noise cancellation technology, a price tag of Rs. 15,990, and yes, a couple of party tricks that the AirPods Pro don't get. But does all that make these the best premium earbuds out there?
Hey guys, I'm Sohum, you're watching the EJ Tech Show, and this is my review of the LG Tone Free FP9 earbuds.
Fit and Comfort
The FP9s sport an in-ear design and they sit quite deep in the ear canal. Like with other in-ear buds, fit and comfort is all down to the eartips you use, and large eartips worked best for me. LG does provide eartips in extra sizes, and they’re made of hypoallergenic silicone. The FP9s fit me well, and never felt like they were going to come loose in my ears or fall out. Despite sitting deep in the ear canal, they were comfortable enough to wear for over a couple of hours at a stretch, and I surprisingly did not feel a lot of ear fatigue like I usually do with other in-ear style buds.
Design and Utility
The FP9s look quite understated and simple, especially in this White colour variant that I've got. Both the case and earbuds are finished in matte except for this one vertical portion on the earbuds that's glossy, probably to add a bit of visual flair. The earbuds feature thin stalks which also house the touch controls to toggle ANC, control volume and media playback. They also get in-ear detection, which pauses the music when you take one of the earbuds out and resumes it when you pop it back in.
If you're worried about getting scratches on the case, LG is currently offering the FP9s and a few other earbuds with a free cover, although I wish it was offered in more design options.
The charging case weighs less than 50g so it's pretty lightweight, and the earbuds themselves are around 5g each. There's a USB Type-C port at the back since there's no support for wireless charging, a feature that I feel should have been provided at this premium price point. Still, there’s an IPX4 water resistance rating for the case, which is good to see.
Now if you look closely, you’ll see that there's an additional toggle button on the side, and what it does is amazing. Once turned on, you can basically connect the case using this Type-C to 3.5mm cable, and use the earbuds wirelessly with whatever device you like! I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a great feature if you travel in airplanes a lot, or play video games on devices that don’t have Bluetooth connectivity, or have spotty wireless transmission.
Another cool feature I have to talk about is that blue light in the case you may have noticed—that’s not just for style. It’s actually UV Nano technology that helps rid your earbuds of bacteria and keeps your ears somewhat cleaner. That’s a handy feature in times like these, especially if you’re a bit of a germophobe.
Sound Quality
When it comes to sound quality, I was left quite impressed with the FP9 earbuds. They do tend to favour bass tones a bit, but the sound reproduction was always clear and punchy. I rarely found myself going above 70% volume, as the buds did get more than loud enough even at that volume level.
The sound signature isn’t exactly balanced, and if you’re someone that favours lower end frequencies, like me, then you’ll be pleased with what you hear through the FP9s.
It’s also worth mentioning that the FP9s are tuned by Meridian, a high-end audio brand, and you can certainly feel their influence when you’re listening to music on the earbuds.
Now the FP9s also boast of spatial audio, with can be enabled with this 3D sound stage preset, and it did make the movie watching experience a bit better. However, I don’t recommend using it for listening to music, because it can cause weird audio glitches.
Overall, though, I think the FP9s have been tuned quite well for mass-market appeal, and that’s also evident by the lack of the higher resolution LDAC codec support, with SBC and AAC audio being the only codecs available here.
Active Noise Cancellation
Like most other premium true wireless earbuds, the LG FP9s boast very capable active noise cancellation technology. As soon as you turn it on with a single long press on either earbud, you can hear ambient noise disappear. It doesn’t go away completely, and high frequency disturbances do sometimes make it through, but if you’ve got the music at anywhere above 50%, it should work well for you in moderately noisy environments.
You can also toggle how severe you want the noise cancellation to be, which I think is a good feature to include. Moreover, you can toggle the ambient noise on, which helps pipe in sounds around you through the mics, and can also be set to focus on voices in particular.
Calling and Gaming
An important part of any TWS experience is call quality, and it’s where a lot of premium earbuds drop the ball. However, in my usage, the LG FP9s worked very well, offering clear transmission on both ends of the call. I think the stalk design here helps with audio quality, bringing the mic closer to your mouth.
When it came to gaming, however, there was a bit of noticeable lag, especially when playing FPS games that required listening out for enemies. Even when I turned on the Game Mode in the Tone Free Lab, there was a significant enough delay between what I was seeing on screen and hearing through the FP9s.
Apart from that though, for everyday music listening, movie watching and other media playback, Bluetooth v5.2 on the FP9s provided clear transmission.
Battery Life
Under the hood, the LG FP9s get 68mAh worth of battery in each earbud, and 390mAh in the case. Thanks to that, they provided me well over five hours of battery life at a stretch with the ANC turned on, and the case managed to stay above 20%, even after 5 days of mixed usage.
The FP9s also support quick charging, that should get you around 1 hour of playback time in just 5 minutes of charging.
LG Tone Free App
The partner LG Tone Free App is available for both Android and iOS, and it provides a comprehensive list of features to help enhance your TWS experience.
Up front and centre, you can have a look at all the touch controls and how to trigger them, and below that, you’ll find the equaliser settings.
You also get a Touchpad lock, that stops the touch area from registering input. This is a really handy feature I wish other manufacturers offered.
Price and Verdict
You can get the LG Tone Free FP9s for Rs. 15,990 after cashback, and for the price, they offer quite a lot of value. Sure, they miss out on wireless charging and LDAC support, but there’s excellent sound quality, strong active noise cancellation and some bonus features that you just don’t get on any other pair of true wireless earbuds.
