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LG's new Tone Platinum Bluetooth headphones aim for premium
It’s hard to say exactly what it is that LG makes since they do a little of everything. Similar to companies like Samsung, LG is a major player in a number of different markets from mobile phones to home appliances, and even audio. They were one of the first companies to incorporate a neckpiece into their headphones and it has been a very successful (if not weird) design choice. Still, it works. Now the company is set to announce their newest pair of wireless ‘buds, the Tone Platinum headphones, next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
MWC is where plenty of companies make announcements with regards to mobile devices such as phones and tablets (hence the name), so it’s not too surprising to see the company preparing some new headphones to go along with a new phone or two. LG claims that the purpose of the new model is not only to look good, but also to sound good and it has partnered with Harman Kardon to prove it. Not only do they have the Harman Kardon logo on the side which Harman says is confirmation of quality in itself, but they also have aptX for higher quality streaming.
The headphones keep the classic design of the Tone series, with earbuds attached to the neckpiece that houses the the Bluetooth components and the battery. No word on battery life yet but if it’s anything similar to the previous Tone headsets then we can expect about 10 hours of constant playback. On that band there also appears to be some playback controls and switches for hands free operation. The exact specs such as driver size and Bluetooth version have yet to be released, but we’re sure we’ll hear more about it at MWC. However, one thing that was announced was that these will have small microphones that will cancel out unwanted noises during phone calls. Whether or not that functionality extends to music playback remains to be seen, but if you spend a lot of time on phone calls it’s still a handy feature to have.
Pricing is unavailable at the moment (seeing a trend here?) but seeing as these are being marketing for “professionals and avid music lovers”, they’re probably aimed at the premium market which means they won’t be cheap. The LG Tone Platinum headphones will be available some time in March in the United States and other parts of the world soon after.