Urbanista Los Angeles overview: solar-powered headphones ship on a lofty promise

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Photo voltaic-powered headphones are a tantalizing prospect. The battery lifetime of wi-fi fashions has improved loads through the years, but it surely’s nonetheless removed from excellent, and people large headbands present the right floor for a sheet of photo voltaic cells to supply steady charging.
Urbanista isn’t the primary firm to aim to make good on this concept — JBL introduced a pair of its personal in 2019 that it was subsequently compelled to delay as a result of pandemic — however its Los Angeles are the primary solar-powered headphones to have truly made it to market. Though the design is nearly similar to the corporate’s present Miami headphones, a layer of PowerFoyle photo voltaic cells on the headscarf permits them to repeatedly suck up photo voltaic power when uncovered to gentle. Urbanista reckons the typical listener ought to have the ability to go months with out having to cost them up.
It’s an attractive thought, one which has the potential to take away an merchandise from the record of gadgets folks need to cost regularly, however can it dwell as much as the expectations? And even when it does, are these $199 (£169 / €199) solar-powered headphones price holding charged within the first place?

Verge Rating

7.5 out of 10

Good Stuff

The photo voltaic charging works
Tight, punchy sound
Good noise cancellation

Unhealthy Stuff

Controls too shut collectively
No 3.5mm port for wired connections
Tight becoming on massive heads

Urbanista’s Los Angeles have a fundamental, uninspired design that’s broadly in keeping with the corporate’s present Miami headphones. My overview pattern was a reasonably boring black, however there’s additionally a extra colourful “Sand Gold” possibility in the event you’re feeling extra adventurous.
The place issues get attention-grabbing are with the Los Angeles’ headband, which has a layer of Powerfoyle materials produced by Exeger for capturing the sunshine that ultimately will get became battery energy. Sadly, this materials is black no matter which shade you choose to get the headphones in, and from the press pictures, I don’t assume it seems nice with the gold possibility.

Urbanista’s app reveals precisely how a lot energy is being gained and misplaced. Right here the headphones have been being utilized in direct daylight, taking part in music with ANC on, and gaining energy.

Screenshot: Urbanista

For probably the most half, the headphones’ photo voltaic charging capabilities aren’t one thing that you must actively take into consideration. They’ll routinely cost no matter whether or not you’re carrying them and listening to music or whether or not they’re turned off (though software program caps their photo voltaic charging at 90 % to guard the battery). However if you wish to get a extra in-depth thought of what’s happening beneath the hood, Urbanista’s companion app gives an awesome interface that reveals the headphones’ energy draw versus its photo voltaic charging. There’s a whole lot of enjoyable available messing round with the app, seeing what influence turning ANC on and off has on battery drain or how a lot solar energy you possibly can achieve from placing the headphones in probably the most direct daylight yow will discover.
I believe the profit most individuals will get from the Los Angeles photo voltaic charging is as a metaphorical parachute, slowing the battery drain so that you don’t need to recharge them so typically. How efficient this parachute finally ends up being will differ loads relying on whether or not you employ them to hearken to music inside at your desk or on the subway or whether or not you put on them whereas out and about in a sunnier a part of the world. However as a baseline, listening to them in a pitch-black room with ANC off ought to get you 80 hours of listening.
In my expertise utilizing them on cloudy fall days within the UK, I typically noticed Urbanista’s app reporting both minimal energy drain or else including an virtually equal quantity of energy to the quantity being consumed. It was much less frequent for me to see the headphones truly gaining energy as I used them, however this did occur once I used them in direct daylight (as you possibly can see from the screenshot above).
The occasions once I noticed the headphones gaining probably the most energy from photo voltaic charging have been after they have been sitting unused within the solar. I’m positive you may get into the behavior of leaving them on a sunny windowsill, positioned in order that the headscarf was pointing immediately on the solar to maximise the profit, however in the event you’re going to make that effort, then you definately would possibly as properly plug them in. The great thing about the Los Angeles headphones is that you simply don’t actually have to consider it, and obsessing over leaving them to cost within the solar feels prefer it’s lacking the purpose.

The headphones might be comfortable on bigger heads.

This small emblem is the one seen indicator of their solar-charging talents.

After two weeks of listening for a few hours a day, together with whereas sitting at my desk subsequent to a west-facing window, in addition to on the London Underground with ANC on, Urbanista’s app reviews that I’m nonetheless at 81 % energy. It’s an impressively small quantity of battery drain, even whereas I used them in conditions with no pure gentle or in overcast circumstances.
I don’t assume anybody’s going to get away with by no means having to attach the Los Angeles headphones to a USB-C charger. However based mostly on my expertise, I may see them lasting for a month or extra of standard utilization throughout winter and even longer in the event you’re utilizing them in sunnier circumstances.
I may see these headphones lasting for months while not having a cost
Aside from the photo voltaic cell-equipped headband, the Los Angeles look and performance like a typical pair of wi-fi noise-canceling headphones. Their controls will look acquainted to anybody who’s used a pair of wi-fi headphones up to now 5 years. On the suitable earcup, there’s a trio of buttons for quantity up, down, and a center playback management button that additionally turns the headphones on and off. On the left, there’s a customizable shortcut button that responds to both a brief or long-press to toggle noise cancellation, transparency mode, or a voice assistant.
It’s a smart collection of buttons; I simply want the quantity controls weren’t so stupidly shut collectively. You’ll be able to be taught to dwell with them, however just a bit extra spacing would make that pause button a lot simpler to really feel together with your finger in a pinch. It could even have been good for there to be a devoted shortcut to place the headphones into pairing mode relatively than having to manually disconnect from a earlier gadget first.

Playback controls on the suitable, and ANC and USB-C charging on the left.

Branding on the headphones is minimal.

On the left earcup, there’s a USB-C port for when the solar’s rays aren’t sufficient to maintain these headphones charged, however sadly, there’s no 3.5mm jack for wired connections. Urbanista tells me it omitted the bodily jack to maintain the headphones’ energy consumption as little as attainable. In equity, the Los Angeles’ battery life is 30 hours increased than Urbanista’s Miami headphones, which “solely” ship 50 hours, suggesting that these energy optimizations have labored. However a 3.5mm possibility would nonetheless be helpful for in-flight leisure or work calls the place I don’t wish to danger a Bluetooth disconnection, and it’s a disgrace the Los Angeles don’t have this flexibility in-built.
Away from the daylight and into the bowels of London’s Underground community, I used to be pleasantly stunned by the Los Angeles’ noise canceling efficiency, which pretty efficiently drowned out the screeching of the tube because it flew by way of subway tunnels. It’s not as succesful as class leaders just like the AirPods Max or Sony WH-1000XM4, however I believe the extent of ANC provided by the Los Angeles is sweet for the value.
A cosy match helps with noise cancellation
The flexibility of the Los Angeles to cancel out noise is helped by the truth that they match snugly in your head whilst you put on them. They have been initially so comfortable that they have been uncomfortable to put on throughout my first few days of use. However as the headscarf softened over the course of two weeks, the headphones turned from “uncomfortably comfortable” to only “comfortable” on my barely massive head. If in case you have an opportunity to attempt them on before you purchase them, I’d take it. Simply to be protected.
The Los Angeles provide a wealthy, rounded sound that has a whole lot of influence. Take heed to techno, just like the recently-released 7 Songs by Humanoid, and the thumping bass line has weight and influence however manages to remain simply shy of turning into overwhelming. However swap to one thing extra layered, like Bloc Celebration’s We Are Not Good Folks, and the constraints of this bass-first strategy change into extra obvious. The Los Angeles simply don’t go away that a lot area for the remainder of the observe to make itself heard, and within the case of Bloc Celebration’s observe, you lose a number of the definition and crackle of the overdriven guitars within the course of.
The Los Angeles don’t sound unhealthy by any means. Removed from it — they’re a really listenable pair of headphones. However their sound has a weight to it that may squash extra delicate components of a observe. There are far worse headphones round for this worth, however in the event you’re craving to listen to each final little bit of element in a track, then the Los Angeles aren’t thinking about offering it to you.

Contained in the cups.

The Los Angeles from the suitable.

Making a pair of headphones that may be charged by gentle with out trying like they’ll cost by gentle isn’t any small feat, and the most important praise I pays the Los Angeles is that they combine this performance so seamlessly that you simply mainly overlook they’re capable of photo voltaic cost in any respect. That’s, till you have a look at their battery stage after a number of days of use and uncover it’s solely gone down by 10 %. The one vital compromise is the dearth of a 3.5mm port for non-compulsory line-in listening. For some folks, this received’t be a problem. For others, it’ll be a dealbreaker.
As a pair of headphones, the Urbanista Los Angeles make a few missteps. Their controls could possibly be clearer and extra spaced out, and their match could possibly be extra comfy on bigger heads. However they finally succeed at being a really listenable pair of headphones, even when their sound high quality can’t compete with costlier pairs from the likes of Sony and Sennheiser.

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