14 DAY TRIAL // Every once in a while, a specific product from a company rakes in enough sales to astound everyone watching. Such is the case with the LG Tone HBS-700/730 audio headset, to the point where the company decided to revamp it.
And said revamp consists of the addition of Bluetooth support, rending the gadget wireless and, thus, easy to pair with any phone, tablet, MP3 player, etc.
Bluetooth isn't that hard to include these days, and could have been more broadly available on peripherals years ago.
However, the number of smartphones and other BT-capable gadgets was rather low at the time, so it didn't make much sense to add BT (especially since it was an added cost) to audio devices when so few audio “source” devices would be there to give them a role.
Now, though, smartphones are all over the place and pretty much every PC, mobile or otherwise, has Bluetooth too, as does more or less every other “smart” device.
So, since the LG Tone sold so well these past three years, raking in 2 million buyers since 2012, LG figured it had a good candidate for an upgrade.
Wireless support isn't the only thing going for the Tone Ultra though. There's the improved around-the-neck design that earned it a 2013 Red Dot Design Award, thanks to the memory alloy that lets the Tone Ultra return to its original form no matter how roughly it's handled.
Sure, one can still bend it out of shape if they really, really, try, but then it would defeat the purpose of actually paying money for it.
Speaking of which, the price is unknown, and will probably stay that way until sales begin this December. The United States and China will be the only regions of availability at first.
That said, the LG Tone Ultra was tested by the Golden Ears, an audio equipment evaluation website, and scored high, in no small measure thanks to the multiple Bluetooth access function (two devices can provide signal at the same time, like an MP3 player and phone, for voice calls with background music).