Although its built-in 750mAh battery can be charged traditionally via USB-C and offers up to a respectable 50 hours of battery life, the real appeal to these headphones is the solar charging. They’re due to ship in early summer for $199 /£169.
Although Urbanista’s site promises “infinite playtime” from the headphones, the exact amount of power these headphones can generate while solar charging varies. One hour spent in the sun should generate enough power for three hours of playtime, but on a cloudy day that drops to just two hours, the company says. In a worst case scenario on a long-distance plane flight, Wired notes you’d need around eight hours of light exposure to get an hour of listening.
So you can do some calculations:
- 750mAh = 50h
- 15mAh = 3h
Assuming 3.8V cell, 1h of solar charging is occurring at 60mW. Seems possible and reasonable power level? But yes a bit pointless unless you spend all day out in the sun with these things on.
The helmet is kinda interesting as well, but nowhere near bright enough:
https://journal.pocsports.com/poc-launches-the-omne-eternal-the-worlds-first-self-powered-helmet-with-endless-energy/
