twister6
Android Expert
This is a review of LG Tone+ (HBS-730) Stereo Bluetooth headphones with enhanced multimedia and call controls: LG TONE+
With Note 2 being multimedia powerhouse, at some point you realize that having a wired headset becomes simply inconvenient. Either if you are watching a movie or listening to a music you don't want to be restricted by wires tangling around your phone, and would like to have controls in your hand without reaching out for the phone. Also, if you are enjoying listening to music or working out with your phone as a music source - you want to have a crystal clear stereo sound with all hands on controls while Note 2 is securely hidden out of sight. Oh yeah, and you also might want to use your Note 2 to make phones calls sometime
Well, HBS-730 does it all and in Great Style!
Let's first start with a design. It's a cleverly designed necklace, something you might have seen in one of those sci-fi movies. My review sample came in white color, although it's also available in black, and I found it to be very discrete with cloth I usually wear to work and outside. This neck strap is made out of memory flex soft rubberized material, it's very light weight (I weighted it on my digital scale to be exact 34g), and sits very comfortable around your neck. You literally forget it's on. Also, the design makes it very convenient to stay on either if you walking or exercising, etc. The ends of this neck strap house all the controls, with one side has call/phone control button and volume up/down, as well as on/off switch and covered micro-usb charging port, while the other side has multimedia Play/Pause control button and FF/REW buttons. Every control button is within a comfortable reach and easy to operate without a need to look at it. The headphones are earbuds with a magnetic tip to attach securely to a shaped opening at the end of the neck strap. There are two small plastic rings that can be moved around the flex necklace area to adjust the length of headphone cable when earbuds are in use, and also to help manage cable from dangling when earbuds are not in use. Everything is designed with a high level of ergonomics, from the material to fitment and access to all the controls. Earbuds itself come with 3 sets of silicone tips to ensure a comfortable fitment. You can wear these for an extended period of time without fatigue. Also, AC adapter with micro-usb is included to recharge HBS-730, but any cable could be used since its a universal micro-usb connector. I even tried charging these from my laptop and it worked perfectly since it only requires 400mA of current.
Now, about the actual functionality and performance of these headphones. This was probably the easiest and fastest pair up I ever had, literally took seconds from turning on/off switch and selecting headphones auto-discovered on Note 2. No need for any codes, etc. Regarding endurance, these offer one of the longest lasting rechargeable batteries with 15hr of talk time, 10hr of music play, and a decent 15 days standby time, all that with charging time under 2 hours. I have been using mine for a few days now, and while talking and playing music - there is still plenty of juice left. As for Bluetooth performance, I was able to leave my phone in the kitchen while walking around different rooms on the first floor of the house without any problem. Even went down to the basement, although further away from a stairwell resulted in signal chopping off. I know some people might have high expectations to cover ridiculous wireless distances. I haven't tested straight line max distance yet, although why would I even want to leave my phone 15-20ft away while walking with headphones? As to a sound quality, don't expect too much bass. The headphones do offer 3 modes of EQ with Normal, Bass boost, and Treble boost modes. Bass boost mode does make the sound a lot fuller and adds more definition to the bottom end, but don't expect to get your ears rattled while listening to dubstep lol!!! The mids and highs sound super clear and crispy. In no way these have thin sound, it's rich and full, even without exaggerated enhancement of bottom end. Multimedia controls perfectly integrate with Note 2 where you are able to play/stop/pause, skip to next/previous, and even fast forward and rewind. Every control has an audible feedback. Volume has multiple adjustment granularity on top of phone's volume control while playing music. While making calls, I noticed the volume adjustment is actually reflected with a bluetooth volume bar on a screen.
With phones becomes multimedia all-in-one devices, we forget that you can make calls with it too That functions flawlessly with a great noise reduction and echo cancellation. I was outside making a call with wind noise around me and the person on the other end heard me crystal clear without any problem. When you receive the call, you get a voice notification about incoming call and a gentle vibration of the neck strap. There is even a feature to have two separate sources paired up with one set of HBS-730 headphones and being able to switch between two devices in call-waiting fashion.
Between how comfortable these to carry without a need for wires or clips or trying to keep earbuds somewhere in the pocket - those are attached magnetically to the neck strap, great sound quality and integrated controls, incredible battery life which is amazing for such integration of functionality, and flawless integration with a phone and switching between calls and multimedia - HBS-730 deserve a definite recommend from me. Oh, also forgot to mention - they also offer text-to-speech option to read your SMS messages (via app from Google play).
Just to get a visual of how these look, here are some pictures I took:
With Note 2 being multimedia powerhouse, at some point you realize that having a wired headset becomes simply inconvenient. Either if you are watching a movie or listening to a music you don't want to be restricted by wires tangling around your phone, and would like to have controls in your hand without reaching out for the phone. Also, if you are enjoying listening to music or working out with your phone as a music source - you want to have a crystal clear stereo sound with all hands on controls while Note 2 is securely hidden out of sight. Oh yeah, and you also might want to use your Note 2 to make phones calls sometime
Well, HBS-730 does it all and in Great Style!Let's first start with a design. It's a cleverly designed necklace, something you might have seen in one of those sci-fi movies. My review sample came in white color, although it's also available in black, and I found it to be very discrete with cloth I usually wear to work and outside. This neck strap is made out of memory flex soft rubberized material, it's very light weight (I weighted it on my digital scale to be exact 34g), and sits very comfortable around your neck. You literally forget it's on. Also, the design makes it very convenient to stay on either if you walking or exercising, etc. The ends of this neck strap house all the controls, with one side has call/phone control button and volume up/down, as well as on/off switch and covered micro-usb charging port, while the other side has multimedia Play/Pause control button and FF/REW buttons. Every control button is within a comfortable reach and easy to operate without a need to look at it. The headphones are earbuds with a magnetic tip to attach securely to a shaped opening at the end of the neck strap. There are two small plastic rings that can be moved around the flex necklace area to adjust the length of headphone cable when earbuds are in use, and also to help manage cable from dangling when earbuds are not in use. Everything is designed with a high level of ergonomics, from the material to fitment and access to all the controls. Earbuds itself come with 3 sets of silicone tips to ensure a comfortable fitment. You can wear these for an extended period of time without fatigue. Also, AC adapter with micro-usb is included to recharge HBS-730, but any cable could be used since its a universal micro-usb connector. I even tried charging these from my laptop and it worked perfectly since it only requires 400mA of current.
Now, about the actual functionality and performance of these headphones. This was probably the easiest and fastest pair up I ever had, literally took seconds from turning on/off switch and selecting headphones auto-discovered on Note 2. No need for any codes, etc. Regarding endurance, these offer one of the longest lasting rechargeable batteries with 15hr of talk time, 10hr of music play, and a decent 15 days standby time, all that with charging time under 2 hours. I have been using mine for a few days now, and while talking and playing music - there is still plenty of juice left. As for Bluetooth performance, I was able to leave my phone in the kitchen while walking around different rooms on the first floor of the house without any problem. Even went down to the basement, although further away from a stairwell resulted in signal chopping off. I know some people might have high expectations to cover ridiculous wireless distances. I haven't tested straight line max distance yet, although why would I even want to leave my phone 15-20ft away while walking with headphones?
As to a sound quality, don't expect too much bass. The headphones do offer 3 modes of EQ with Normal, Bass boost, and Treble boost modes. Bass boost mode does make the sound a lot fuller and adds more definition to the bottom end, but don't expect to get your ears rattled while listening to dubstep lol!!! The mids and highs sound super clear and crispy. In no way these have thin sound, it's rich and full, even without exaggerated enhancement of bottom end. Multimedia controls perfectly integrate with Note 2 where you are able to play/stop/pause, skip to next/previous, and even fast forward and rewind. Every control has an audible feedback. Volume has multiple adjustment granularity on top of phone's volume control while playing music. While making calls, I noticed the volume adjustment is actually reflected with a bluetooth volume bar on a screen.With phones becomes multimedia all-in-one devices, we forget that you can make calls with it too
That functions flawlessly with a great noise reduction and echo cancellation. I was outside making a call with wind noise around me and the person on the other end heard me crystal clear without any problem. When you receive the call, you get a voice notification about incoming call and a gentle vibration of the neck strap. There is even a feature to have two separate sources paired up with one set of HBS-730 headphones and being able to switch between two devices in call-waiting fashion.Between how comfortable these to carry without a need for wires or clips or trying to keep earbuds somewhere in the pocket - those are attached magnetically to the neck strap, great sound quality and integrated controls, incredible battery life which is amazing for such integration of functionality, and flawless integration with a phone and switching between calls and multimedia - HBS-730 deserve a definite recommend from me. Oh, also forgot to mention - they also offer text-to-speech option to read your SMS messages (via app from Google play).
Just to get a visual of how these look, here are some pictures I took:
