What goes into designing a solar-powered Bluetooth speaker

After releasing two solar-powered pairs of headphones, you’ll have thought that it’d be easy for Urbanista to use the identical know-how to a Bluetooth speaker. However with the Malibu, which is being proven off at IFA in Berlin forward of its launch later this month, Urbanista says it had an entire new set of challenges to beat.

That’s as a result of the corporate’s strategy to its photo voltaic powered merchandise hasn’t simply been to place some solar-absorbing materials on an present system and name it a day. As a substitute, Urbanista product director Marten Sahlen and the corporate’s model and advertising director Tuomas Lonka inform me the corporate spends loads of time making the merchandise extra energy environment friendly within the first place, to allow them to get the utmost profit from the additional sun-provided energy.

However relating to Bluetooth audio system, that’s extra of a problem. “True wi-fi and headphones are a bit extra simple when it comes to environment friendly energy consumption,” Sahlen tells me. “Whereas [the Malibu], as a speaker, consumes exponentially extra.” Which is smart when you consider the quantity that a mean Bluetooth speaker performs at versus a pair of headphones.

The best way Urbanista describes it, it feels like mainly each a part of the Malibu was designed with energy effectivity in thoughts. Take its form, which is completely different from loads of the opposite cylindrical Bluetooth audio system available on the market. This permits it to accommodate a pair of two.5-inch speaker drivers as a result of, as Sahlen explains, larger speaker drivers are barely extra energy environment friendly at a given quantity than smaller elements. The corporate additionally opted for barely costlier elements that had been extra energy environment friendly versus the options.

Exeger is as soon as once more supplying Urbanista with its PowerFoyle photo voltaic charging tech.

In fact, the opposite factor that impacted the Malibu’s design was the necessity to discover house for sun-harvesting materials referred to as PowerFoyle. PowerFoyle, made by the corporate Exeger, is (comparatively) versatile, however solely as much as a sure level. “You possibly can’t bend it in a number of instructions on the identical time,” Exeger’s CMO Sofie Lowenhielm says. Ultimately, the Malibu has round 50 p.c extra PowerFoyle by floor space than Urbanista’s Los Angeles over-ear headphones.

That leads to a barely sq. look, with a ridge across the high edge to boost up the playback controls across the mainly flat PowerFoyle floor. Round again there’s an influence button and USB-C port for wired charging, and there’s additionally an connected lanyard for carrying the speaker round.

Urbanista hopes to supply two major listening modes for the Malibu. There’s an everyday listening mode, after which there are plans for a extra energy environment friendly mode that may be activated with an extended press of one of many speaker’s buttons. Doing so will optimize the speaker for energy consumption over sound high quality, and Urbanista estimates that it’ll roughly double the playtime the speaker provides on the expense of extra power-hungry bass output.

The speaker can be offered in black and grey.

When all’s stated and completed, Sahlen tells me the Malibu ought to provide round 20 hours of playback in case you’re listening to it in a pitch black room, rising to round 40 in case you’re listening with its low energy mode (although the group emphasised that the power-saving function is in energetic growth and so they don’t have last numbers). Wired beforehand reported that the usual listening time can be nearer to 30 hours, however Lonka tells me that this has modified by means of the event of the speaker.

In a quick listening session, it was clear why Urbanista has determined to make this energy saving mode optionally available reasonably than the default. In its common listening mode, the Malibu delivers a chunky and weighty listening expertise, very similar to you’d count on from a rugged Bluetooth speaker marketed with images displaying it beside the pool. However with the ability saving mode turned on, a number of the bass’s affect will get lowered, and the sound separation isn’t fairly as distinct. I can see it being very listenable for podcasts or the radio, however in case you had been to hearken to say, EDM, I believe you’d miss the additional bass response.

There’s nonetheless a USB-C port for conventional wired charging.

Add daylight and the battery life predictions go up, clearly, however by how a lot is a really troublesome query to reply given the sheer variability in daylight around the globe, all year long, and even over the course of a single day. PowerFoyle can even solar-charge indoors, which is one other variable to contemplate. However, as a tough guideline, Sahlen says the speaker’s battery life ought to enhance by round 50 p.c when used repeatedly exterior on a mean sunny day, extending from 20 hours to nearer to 30. Mix that with the truth that the speaker will repeatedly cost when not in use (daylight allowing), and it has the potential to final a very long time between plugged-in prices. Simply bear in mind that daylight is successfully trickle-charging the speaker, that USB-C port is there for when you could cost it up at any type of pace. 

As with Urbanista’s Phoenix wi-fi earbuds, it’ll be potential to trace the Malibu’s historic photo voltaic charging information through the Urbanista app. Lonka says the hope is that displaying customers this information will assist “train” them the best way to get probably the most out of the Malibu.

Urbanista has at all times pitched photo voltaic charging as a extra sustainable method to energy its merchandise, however there’s additionally upcoming EU regulation about making batteries user-replaceable that it might want to adhere to by 2027. The corporate nonetheless must put processes in place to fully adjust to this regulation, however the Malibu is already designed as a way to take it aside and change its battery with out having to cope with any glued elements, Sahlen tells me. And that’s with out compromising its IP67 score for mud and water resistance.

After I reviewed the Los Angeles headphones in 2021 I couldn’t fault their solar-charging smarts, however had one or two points with their match and sound high quality. With match not being a difficulty right here, and sound high quality expectations being completely different for an outdoorsy Bluetooth speaker, the Malibu has apparent promise. Count on it to go on sale in “late September” for $149.

Images by Jon Porter / The Verge