If you've been scouring the post-Prime Day shelves in search of overlooked bargains, you may have stumbled across the heavily slashed LG Xboom Buds on your travels. Having fallen from £119 to a measly £94 at Amazon, we imagine your eyes will have lit up at the prospect. £25 off? Sold!
Holster those pistols, young ranger. That's a tempting offer, and one that drops even lower via LG's official website, but not one we'd recommend you go for, especially when finer alternatives are more worthy of your attention.
The LG Xboom Buds do have their strengths. They're well appointed with features, offering a very respectable 30 total hours of battery life with the case, solid noise cancelling capabilities, Auracast audio sharing tech and an impressively in-depth app.
They're not terribly made, they fit rather well and, better still, their on-bud touch control system is one of the best you'll find at this level.
Sadly, their sound isn't up to scratch. LG's affordable buds are far too bland in their presentation to get us involved in our music at it plays, and while the Xboom Buds don't have any obvious defects or weaknesses, they don't evidence many shining strengths, either.
As we said in our review, "The wireless earbuds don’t necessarily over-emphasise any aspect of their delivery, but we wish that they had a bit more drive and spark, not to mention greater spaciousness, to give our tunes a more lively or large-scale aspect".
So what's the alternative? Well, they're not currently discounted at the moment, but the Sony WF-C710N are the obvious choice at this level. £99 is a small advance on the £94 of the LG, but for our money, they're a far more engaging and entertaining listen.
Or, if you want to be super savvy, you could hunt down the Sony WF-C700N, the C710N's predecessors, and enjoy superior sound and an excellent array of features for a very tasty £69 at Amazon.
Either way, if we were seeking a pair of affordable wireless earbuds, we'd go with Sony rather than LG any day of the week.
MORE:
These are the best wireless earbuds around
Best noise-cancelling headphones – tested by our in-house review experts
