It’s decades-old tech, but it’s the first time I’ve seen solar charging built into a small pair of earphones.
Urbanista’s Phoenix Solar Powered Wireless In-Ear Headphones offer an innovative charging feature that makes them stand out from other similar products.
They aren’t a brand I was too familiar with, but after spending a bit of time with them I’m extremely happy to be acquainted.
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(Urbanista)
The Phoenix earphones come with a lightweight charging case that is on the bigger side, but that’s all due to its unique solar charging feature.
This makes them the perfect camping and hiking companion as you never have to worry about your headphones going flat again.
Even on an overcast day, I managed to get about 6.6mA hourly gain, peaking at 7.5mA. You’ll need to keep the earphones inside the case to charge it through solar.
You can keep track of the earphones with the Urbanista app. Here you can see the effectiveness of the solar charging and adjust the sound settings, including EQ.
The earphones are comfortable to wear, but I felt some slippage while jogging (could’ve just been my heavy foot).
Each earphone has touch controls, which allow for easy navigation through songs and answering or ending phone calls. The earphones have responsive gesture controls, with a double tap to play, pause, answer, or hang up on a phone call, triple tapping skips to the next song, and a long press toggles the sound mode.
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They offer “hybrid” active voice canceling, which basically combines multiple methods of noise cancellation to provide better noise isolation. Hybrid ANC uses both feedforward and feedback noise cancellation techniques to block out ambient noise – and it works a treat.
When walking or running, I’d recommend using the default sound setting as I found the earphones’ microphones redirect sound and pick up heavy wind while ANC is on.
The earphones are easy to connect to an iPhone via Bluetooth, but the device does not automatically disconnect when you put the headphones away in their case. I’d love to see a firmware update here to recognise when they’re packed away.
The Urbanista Phoenix earphones retail for approximately $229 at JB HI-FI, check them out here. Urbanista also offers a premium over-ear product called Urbanista Los Angeles, which features a solar charging panel built into the head strap. Look out for our review on them in the coming weeks.
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Overall, the Urbanista Phoenix offers a unique feature that sets them apart from other earphones in their price range. While they may not be suitable for all occasions, they are comfortable, and have responsive touch controls that make them easy to use – oh, and they look great.
If you’re in the market for a new set of earphones and want a sustainable charging option, the Urbanista Phoenix earphones are definitely worth considering.
Quest Daily was supplied with a review unit of the Urbanista Phoenix for the purpose of this piece.
