LG TONE Flex Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Neckband Earbuds HBS-XL7 - 32-Bit Hi-Fi DAC, Meridian Audio, Black

LG is the brand, have used their product for over 8 years and they finally started failing, weird electronic noise when connecting to a call, static and echoing, loss of volume or dead air for seconds. That's why I stuck with LG product, for its reliability and comfort. You forget you have them on. Old set didn't have retractable ear buds, these do, very nice. No hanging cords getting in the way. They can be recharge with the inclosed charging cord and I can take fewer cords as can charge directly from my powerbank. Microphone is loud and very clear. Very happy with my selection.

I don't like earbuds because they won't stay in place when I'm doing yard work or chores. I love the neckband style because I can use one side or both without losing my buds. They sound great too! These are high quality and connected to my phone with ease via Bluetooth. They are comfortable and a great value for the price.

In some ways this is better than the older versions, but the battery will die within 7 to 8 hours of talk time. The old ones would last 12 to 13 hours. This is the biggest drawback for this new version.I like not having a button for retracting the ear buds, as the new system seems to work better. There's no on/off switch any more, either. You just press and hold the answer/end call button to turn it on and off.However, there's only one answer/end call/power button, and it's on the left side. This isn't a big deal for me, because I've always been a left-eared person, so I always used the one on the left side on the old ones. This might be annoying for people who are used to using the right-side button on the old ones.The button on the right side is for the Google Assistant. At first I didn't think I'd use this, but I've discovered that I love it. It works WAY better than saying "Hey, Google," and it seems like the Assistant can understand me better. Voice texting is 100% easier and probably 80% more accurate than just using the phone's Assistant.While I don't know anyone else who has this headset, no one has complained about background noise, even when I'm working with noisy equipment while using it. I mostly use it for driving, and no one has mentioned that they hear any noise from my truck, so it seems to be good at canceling background noise.When it tells you, "battery life very low, please charge now," it's literally going to die and power off in about 20 seconds, and that's the only warning you'll get. That's a terrible design flaw if you ask me...EDIT 11/08/2021: I've owned 2 of these headsets for only a couple of months, and now the Google Assistant feature doesn't work AT ALL. This might have something to do with the Android 12 update that my Google Pixel 3XL just got last week, but it definitely makes this headset not worth the money! Severely decreased battery life, no separate power button, AND now no Google Assistant!?!? Buy something else!!

I've had an LG Tone Platinum in the past and I liked it for the most part but it broke pretty quickly particularly the back section. For such an expensive pair to see it break so easily is extremely disappointing. So it was nice to see this flex design solved that problem by simply having a better design.However what seems consistent is the retractable mechanism does not work well. In my platinum I'd say the left earbud mechanism lasted a little less than a year before the mechanism became extremely difficult to retract. On average it would take like 5 attempts before I could retract it because the window to trigger the retraction shrunk.Now onto this one... out of the box the left retract mechanism came out of the box with that small trigger window. And it isn't simply how it is because compared to the right one, that one actually has a substantial window to retract making every attempt take basically only once while the left one again required much more finesse averaging maybe 5 attempts to retract every time.Disappointed with this I requested amazon for a replacement... well now this other one is worse where both the left AND right retract mechanisms don't work well because of the small trigger window. I don't know what's going on but for whatever reason whatever LG has done on the manufacturing side related to this mechanism has a fairly large reject rate.Overall the sound quality I think is decent. The passive noise cancelling isn't as good as the Platinum so I would suggest replacing the silicone earbud tips with something else (memory foam?). It should be the same because the design looks nearly identical but I def have found a difference. I do think the Platinum sounds better but for the cheaper price I am happy with this.Battery life is very sufficient for what I need. It may not last as long as some of its competitors but it's long enough where I still average 1 charge a day and with the fast charge, needing a midday charge isn't that big of a deal. For reference, I tried to have it on all day even if I wasn't listening putting on Spotify or Audible. There were times it was inactive (~5%) but for the most part I was able to get it to last over 12 hours before it died. All in all I'm happy with the battery life.Connectivity is good. Bluetooth was easy and the range on this is better than the Platinum. I remember being very disappoint with the Platinum where if I left my phone downstairs in my house and walked upstairs the Platinum would not work. However this Flex can reach one end of the house to the other 1 floor apart no problem. It is even better than my router I got from Optimum Online which has trouble getting past this 1 wall for WiFi. So I am pleased I have this flexibility.I think the structure is solid. Comfort wise I think it is pretty good. I've always like neckbands for the functionality and comfort and this did not disappoint. The flex design is where I think is a huge upgrade letting it imo allow it to last much longer then the Platinum structurally. Neckbands face the problem when exercising to slip and bounce which this would as well. This is a heavier version compared to those where they are just a wire but personally I wanted this heavier design since I mostly use it outside of exercise. Moreover I can still use it doing yardwork very well without issues of falling or slipping. So again in this aspect I am happy with how this part is built.Honestly again if it wasn't for the really poor retract mechanism I would actually give this a 5 star. But being disappointed so many times (even on multiple models from LG) this is starting to get infuriating. I specifically wanted a neckband that can retract because I personally hate the dangling earbuds even if they have some magnetic mechanism. When they dangle it is so easy to get caught on something which is extremely annoying. So having the retract mechanism failing so much is a huge disappointment where I might as well get a different brand that will provide a better wire for the earbud (and arguably better quality) rather than the thin one LG needs for the retract mechanism. With this in mind I might just go for the $30 neckbands that are rampant all over Amazon rather than these $100+ versions.In the end I might just ask for a full refund from Amazon.

I have a hearing problem and had another model LG headset which I had broken. I was told by LG that this model would be compatible with our LG TV. At first, in setting it up I encountered an issue with the headset only being satisfactory in either Bluetooth Only or TV Sound Only. If it was in dusa mode, I could only hear a whisper in the earbuds. Trying various settings I was becoming very frustrated but finally found where I could select between Surround Sound or something that suggested Non-Surround Sound. When I selected the Non-Surround Sound the volume in the earbuds was suddenly working. Then I adjusted the Bluetooth volume to a higher setting and everything was working perfectly for me. Now my wife can listen to ther TV volume and I can use my headset and we are both comfortable being in the same room. I highly recommend this headset but you really need to try the various settings to make it do what you want it to.