The Swedish audio and accessory maker Urbanista just announced a new set of true wireless earbuds that you might never need to charge with a cable. And no, we’re not talking about wireless charging. Instead, the earbud case gets power from the sun (or indoor lights) to recharge your buds.
Last year the company released some over-the-ear headphones with a solar panel strip on the top, but now it’s ready to go even smaller. They’re called the Urbanista Phoenix wireless earbuds and look pretty interesting.
The Phoenix buds use unique Powerfoyle solar panels to draw power from not only the sun’s rays but also from indoor lights. As a result, every time you put the buds back into the charging case, it’ll have some juice to keep them charged.
As you can see, the earbuds feature an in-ear design, which offers advanced features like active noise cancellation and a transparency mode. So, these aren’t just your typical cheap buds with a neat charging feature. They’re also IPX4 water resistant, offer Bluetooth 5.2, multipoint support, and a USB-C charging port to quickly top it off when necessary or you don’t have enough sunlight.
Urbanista says the Phoenix should get 8 hours of playback in the buds and an extra 32 hours from the charging case. That’s likely with ANC disabled, which is on par with other buds from Samsung and Apple. Additionally, every hour the case is in direct sunlight, it’ll add at least an hour’s worth of charging power.
Being able to charge from the sun certainly sounds great, but we’ll want to test out how much indoor lights contribute to the overall power. The Urbanista companion app will show owners the charging status and power levels, not to mention options for EQ adjustments, changing the touch controls on the sides of the buds, and more.
The company says its “world’s first Powerfoyle-powered wireless earbuds” will be available in Q4 of 2022 and retail for $149.
Source: Urbanista
