LG Tone Free T90S reviewed: LG’s best yet

Several attempts in, LG’s flagship earbuds are the closest they’ve been to best in class. Are the LG T90S worth buying?

You don’t have to look far to find noise cancelling earphones today — it seems like every brand makes a pair, and for many, that’s true.

Earbuds are a dime a dozen, and earbuds with active noise cancellation now fairly democratised, devices need to stand out to make a difference in the market.

There needs to be a reason you turn to a device. Great sound, a brilliant experience, or something else.

For some brands, that something else is what makes them stand out. The unique selling point of an extra feature or two plus a solid sound and experience.

In LG’s Tone Free series, that has largely been the idea, bringing features virtually no other earphone or earbud has offered. Graphene, a wireless transmitter for wired connections, and an ultraviolet cleaner.

And in the latest pair, the T90S, LG is bringing it all together in a newer, smaller design. Does it work? Are they the best earbuds LG has offered yet?

Design and features

Another year, another generation of earbuds, and this time, LG is really aiming to be a little different. The latest take on its “Tone Free” earbuds, the T90S keep some of what we’ve seen in the past, but redesign the casing.

There’s a graphene driver, audio worked on with Meridian, head-tracking technology with Dolby Atmos support, plus apt-X, four microphones, noise cancellation, IPX4 water resistance, and yes, support for Bluetooth. You’ll even find a USB port that can do a little more than simply charging the case, just like on previous models. It even has the ultraviolet bacterial cleaning technology LG calls “UV Nano”.

However, the design has changed throughout all of this. Gone are the stems on previous models, and now the T90 earbuds feature a smaller design with a little nub that comes out slightly. They’re a much more compact design that now look nothing like the AirPods.

In-use

A series of earbud tips makes the T90S easy to wear and use, and the smaller design is certainly more compact and comfortable, too.

Grab the app for either iOS or Android, and you’ll find the touchpads on the outside of each bud are customisable, giving you a quick way to tweak pause, playback, noise cancellation modes, and even volume.

Most of the controls are easy to use, but it’s worth noting that these are more tap-pads as opposed to gesture supported touchpads. There’s no swiping to control volume here, much as you might want it.

Auxiliary wired jack for wireless control

One of the clever features specific to LG is sticking around, though, as LG keeps its aux headphone jack on its case, something no other earphone offers.

The idea isn’t one you’ve probably seen on a pair of earbuds prior, unless you’ve owned a previous LG T90 generation: the USB-C port normally used to charge the case can double up as a sort of transmitter for another wired source.

For instance, if you wanted to listen to the inflight movie using the LG T90 earbuds, you’d bring the special USB-C to 3.5mm cable and plug one end into the case and the other end into the headphone jack on the plane. And just like that, the T90 earbuds would shift over into wire free mode.

It essentially expands what the LG T90 earbuds can connect to. Not just your phone, tablet, and computer, but also the headphone jack on a gaming controller or the inflight entertainment terminal, or just about anything else with a headphone jack.

Performance

Of course, none of this is useful if the performance from the earbuds isn’t great to go with it.

As usual, we’re testing that out using the Pickr Sound Test, which you can try for yourself, and that starts with electronic and a decent balance with good bass.

First feelings are a great place to start, with a clear balanced sound on Daft Punk and Tycho, though the bass carries a reasonable amount of heft. And yet throughout, it can still sound a touch restrained at times.

You can feel it in other genres, too: the punch of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut To The Feeling” is clear, but the dynamics just aren’t as impactful there. Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” delivers the same feel: there’s a good snap, a solid punch, but it can feel a little lacking.

We found that typically across the board — from rock to pop and so on — the sound was good enough and balanced, but it just came across lacking something.

The more we dabbled, the more it seemed that LG’s sound tweaks may have been the culprit.

By default, LG’s profile of “Immersive” is set, but we had switched to “Natural” to hear the standard sound signature of the T90S. It’s here that the restraint appeared, while “Immersive” sees the dynamics returned.

We’re not sure if you’re necessarily being afforded a “standard” sound for LG’s T90S. In a way, it’s reminiscent of the NuraTrue, where the profile made the earphones work better, but forgoing it left you with a flat and unimpressive experience.

It isn’t quite the same with the LG T90S, but the vibe is: pick a profile and your sound will change. Pick the wrong profile and, well, you won’t always get the best sound. These aren’t so much flat earbuds with their own style, it seems.

However, some tracks definitely fare better than others.

With the excellence of David Bowie, The Beatles, and Paul Simon, well-engineered tracks just seem to stand out that little bit better.

Noise cancellation

The noise cancellation is a little better, quelling most of the noise and only letting some in.

You don’t get a lot of control in what the active noise cancellation does, but it does deal with the background noise quite well, so you also might not need it.

Spatial audio

LG has also added a bit of spatial audio on this generation of the LG T90, thanks in part to LG including Dolby Atmos support.

Like other models we’ve seen prior including last year’s generation in the T90Q, the technology hasn’t changed dramatically, supporting either stationary spatial — where the music sounds more immersive and you don’t turn your head — or tracked spatial — where you do turn your head.

But just like last year, if you do decide to turn your head, the tracking may not necessarily catch up. It can be that little bit slow to reorient itself around your head, and you may find sometimes you’re hearing music from one channel more than others.

You’re also not getting the proper Atmos experience here, at least on iPhone. Over in the world of Apple, Atmos playback in music is limited to devices made by Apple or Beats (which is owned by Apple).

On Android, things are a little different. For instance, Apple Music now supports Dolby Atmos on Android, and recent devices can handle the head-tracked spatial. Not as many tracks on Android seemed to pick it up, but those that did saw slightly better head-tracking and reliability when we tested the earbuds on the Moto Razr 50 Ultra.

iPhone owners with the LG T90S won’t have as much fun, but Android folks looking for a decent Atmos experience will get it here.

Battery

Battery life is much the same: good enough, but hardly groundbreaking.

If you go by what’s on the box, there’s an expectation of 9 hours for the earbuds with three more charges in the charging case. Unfortunately, that’s if you opt to skip active noise cancellation, and since these are ANC earbuds, who would?

With noise cancellation switched on, the battery life is roughly halved to 5 hours of use time, with an extra 15-20 in the case, depending on how often you charge it.

That’s fine, but hardly amazing. You’ll definitely get by, but LG isn’t winning the battery argument with this pair.

Value

One of the bigger reasons to consider the T90S, however, is the price. Found at a hair under $300 in Australia, the $299 T90S achieve really solid value.

While most noise cancelling earbuds attract a near-$400 price point, LG is undercutting the competition by a good hundred bucks, and looking good doing so.

These aren’t just another pair of AirPods lookalike earbuds anymore. They have decent sound, neat features, and a great price tag, too.

What needs work?

It’s not all perfect in T90 town, though. LG has made improvements, but it could still make a few more.

When listening in spatial on Android, you may find the sound goes in and out, almost as if the volume is wavering alongside the fidelity of the track. It’s not a consistently strong rendition of spatial sound, and can sound thin at times before opening up to be more spatially sound.

The lack of variability in the noise cancellation is another factor. This is largely just cancellation on, cancellation off, and transparency’s hear-through. That’s it. We’d love a little more control here, as you can with other brands, and a little more strength.

The sound is also nice (dependent on the profile you pick), but can sometimes feel like it lacks personality. It’s a good, balanced sound, but it doesn’t exude the warmth in the way that Sony can deliver, nor does it quite have a firm character of its own. Sometimes the buds just don’t connect.

What we love

But there are little improvements that we love, notably that LG didn’t give up and continued on. However, our favourite change is the design.

We’re still not sold on the ultraviolet lighting used to “clean” the earbuds — it kind of does, but also not really? — but at least the buds are much smaller. The case is much more pocketable, too, with LG making the design a lot more portable in general.

LG has also provided a few extras, thanks in part to the app. There’s a whisper mode to let you whisper on calls, as well as a conversation mode to boost the voice of someone you’re talking to in real life while wearing the earbuds. You may end up looking ridiculous wearing earbuds and talking to someone, but you can do it with the T90 and the LG app.

LG T90S vs the competition

There are clear reasons to consider the LG T90S, for sure, and the extras are a part of it.

However, LG’s biggest problem is more the competition which just generally feels better in just about every way. Make no mistake, the T90S aren’t bad earbuds at all, but there are better pairs out there.

Take the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds, a pair that won a Best Pick from us in 2023 and still continues to be a favourite of this reviewer, so much that we benchmark each pair of noise cancelling earbuds against that pair. We did it with the T90S as well: LG’s are good, but the sound, app, and head-tracking are all consistently stronger on the Bose equivalent.

Sony’s WF-1000XM5 also sounds slightly better, and while they don’t offer head-tracking, the app is easier to control overall.

And if you’re in the world of the iPhone, it’s hard to look past Apple’s AirPods Pro, which still offers one of the better experiences across the board, provided you’re using Apple Music with spatial audio, of course.

LG’s T90S earbuds aren’t bad at all. They deliver a great combination of sound, technology, and design. But they just don’t quite measure up in totality to the competition right now.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

There are clear reasons to consider the T90S, not least of which are those unique points that make it stand out. The decent albeit slightly restrained sound will be fine for most people, but the extras could just seal the deal.

Bacterial cleaning that may or may not work, experimental features activated by the app such as the conversational mode, and a Dolby Atmos mode that works on Android. There are great reasons to consider LG’s earbuds.

While they could still be better and the sound could be improved, the LG T90S are LG’s best yet. You just get the feeling with this solid base of everything, all the company needs to do is tweak things that little bit more to achieve perfection in the next generation. And then it’ll stand out in a big way, giving buyers more than just great sound and a great experience, but great unique selling points alongside.