LG has a series of neck-worn earphones, but the Tone Active+ have a secret innovation hidden within. Demoed and awarded at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier, this wearable is now available in India.
But first, it does look like a two-headed eel. I was wary when lifting them out of their box but finally overcame my hesitation to do so. The part that goes around your neck is thin at the back and thickens twice over towards the two ends that line up under your jaw. Each side ends in an ear-bud and plastic tongue that truly looks like the open mouth of an eel. The ear-buds can be pulled out and are found to be attached to the neckphone’s body via the thinnest cables I’ve ever seen. They’re barely a thread and I have no idea what their durability would be but they look easily snappable. That’s a bit of a worry because to get them to retract, you have to give them a good tug whereupon they snap back, running back into the mouth of that waiting eel.
But leaving sea creatures aside, on the black and grey plastic body of the neckphones, on the thicker part, are a number of little buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing, track navigation, volume, and USB charging. But there’s one more thing...
Buttons on the ends of the neck-phones switch from earbuds to little inbuilt speakers. Once turned on, these give you a bit of a surround sound experience. Not like regular headphones or even little external speakers — in a way that hasn’t been done before. The sound is by no means loud and nor does it have any bass as such, but the wearer hears it from different directions. To others, it doesn’t sound as loud or directionally complete. It’s an experience difficult to describe but it’s innovative and could be a new way to make personal listening devices if anyone takes it further.
LG means these neck-phones to be used to ‘amp up your exercise’ and certainly you could use them for that. Purely to listen to music, it’s not the right device. However, it does sound great when you use it for voice — listening to audio books, the news being streamed, a podcast, or even a phone call. You can hear as much as a whisper or an indrawn breath.
These fascinating neck-phones cost all of ₹9,999 however.
(The article first appeared in The Hindu BusinessLine.)