Urbanista is overhauling its photo voltaic charging headphone lineup with the announcement of second-generation variations of each its Los Angeles over-ear headphones and Phoenix true wireless earbuds. Each merchandise are nonetheless constructed across the identical Powerfoyle photo voltaic charging materials from Exeger however have been up to date to incorporate extra power-efficient inside elements, adaptive (slightly than merely energetic) noise cancellation, and extra streamlined designs.
Each are nonetheless in improvement and aren’t occurring sale till roughly halfway by way of the 12 months, however once they’re launched, they’ll be priced barely cheaper than their first-generation counterparts. The second-gen Los Angeles are resulting from value $179 (versus $199 for the originals), whereas the second-gen Phoenix will value $129 (down from $149).
At their core, each the headphones and earbuds are nonetheless designed to supply formidable quantities of listening between prices by topping up their battery ranges with gentle. Precisely how formidable is tough to say due to the variability within the quantity of sunshine (outside daylight is finest, however they’ll nonetheless cost from indoor ambient gentle) they could be uncovered to, however Urbanista’s present battery life estimates vary from weeks to an infinite quantity of listening.
With 10 hours of “low” gentle charging per day, for instance, involving a mix of indoor gentle and daylight by way of a window, Urbanista reckons somebody listening to the brand new Los Angeles headphones for 4 hours a day would be capable of go upward of fifty days with no need to cost. However much less listening or extra gentle might make its playtime virtually infinite, the corporate estimates.
In the meantime, Urbanista says the second-gen Phoenix earbuds might provide nearly 16 days of listening with the identical 10 hours of “low gentle” charging and 4 hours of listening per day. This rises to over 100 days of playback with two hours of every day listening and stronger daylight publicity and even “infinite” listening in the event that they’re persistently uncovered to sufficient gentle. Ten hours of every day photo voltaic charging feels optimistic given how a lot time my very own headphones and earbuds usually spend in pockets or a backpack, so we’ll have to see how this interprets to real-world utilization. Fortuitously, each gadgets have conventional USB-C ports for when their batteries inevitably run dry.
Urbanista has made quite a few tweaks to each gadgets to handle gripes with the unique fashions and convey them updated with fashionable headphones, whereas sustaining their novel photo voltaic charging smarts.
The brand new Los Angeles cans, for instance, now include a great old school 3.5mm jack for wired listening. This was an annoying omission on the unique Los Angeles mannequin, which the corporate made within the title of maximizing energy effectivity. (Apparently, 3.5mm jacks can result in extra energy draw. Who knew?) However by choosing the precise elements and integrating them in the precise manner, Urbanista has minimized the battery drain related to the characteristic.
From weeks of listening, to infinity
One other tweak highlighted by the corporate’s press launch is that the brand new headphones needs to be extra snug with a decrease “clamping power,” which I discovered was an oddly annoying situation with the originals.
Apparently, regardless of Urbanista’s claims that the Los Angeles have extra power-efficient innards this time round, the rated battery lifetime of the headphones (aka the quantity of listening you’d get with no photo voltaic charging in a pitch black atmosphere) has really dropped from 80 to 60 hours. Urbanista product director Mårten Sahlén tells me that the corporate determined to make use of this enhance in energy effectivity to place a smaller battery within the new Los Angeles to make them lighter and extra snug. Sixty hours, Urbanista reasoned, continues to be greater than the 30 to 40 hours provided by a lot of its rivals and also needs to be longer in follow mixed with the photo voltaic charging.
The brand new Phoenix wi-fi earbuds have seen no such cuts and now provide a complete of 40 hours of playtime. That’s 32 hours from the case (up from 24 final time) and eight hours from the buds themselves (identical as earlier than). In any other case, the earbuds have been iterated on in an identical option to the Los Angeles. Their internals are actually extra power-efficient, and their total measurement has been lowered to make them extra snug.
Elsewhere, the enhancements are extra minor. The Los Angeles now help multipoint for the primary time, which means the headphones can connect with a number of supply gadgets without delay. It’s not a brand new characteristic for the Phoenix earbuds, however Sahlén tells me it’s being upgraded to make it simpler to handle by way of the companion app. On-ear detection can be not new however has been upgraded for the brand new fashions, and the Phoenix has an improved IP54 score slightly than IPX4, which suggests it’s now protected in opposition to mud along with water splashes.
The Exeger Powerfoyle photo voltaic charging materials itself is essentially the identical as what’s within the first-generation fashions. That’s to not say the fabric hasn’t improved because the launch of the original Los Angeles in 2021. However the upgraded supplies have already been making their manner into the first-generation headphones and earbuds with every subsequent manufacturing run.
Whereas Urbanista was an early adopter of Exeger’s photo voltaic charging know-how, a handful of different firms have additionally introduced plans to combine the know-how. TP Imaginative and prescient introduced a partnership in late November to convey Powerfoyle to Philips-branded sports headphones, and earlier right now, 3M introduced a pair of Bluetooth ear defenders with photo voltaic charging for industrial customers. However Urbanista advertising director Tuomas Lonka doesn’t appear fearful in regards to the incoming competitors and thinks the corporate has the benefit of a number of extra years of expertise with the know-how.
“It’s nice that there’s extra merchandise out out there utilizing this know-how,” Lonka says. “Individuals get extra conscious of it, imagine in it, shoppers will in all probability begin preferring it within the merchandise.”
Plus, with extra firms working with the know-how, Lonka thinks your entire business will profit from one another’s learnings. “Plenty of this stuff that we’re creating, we’re sort of determining on the go,” he says. “If we see others undertake the know-how, we are able to possibly take some issues to enhance our personal product. So I believe total for the entire ecosystem round Powerfoyle it’s nice that there’s extra gamers coming alongside.”