You can now get a set of solar-powered headphones from Adidas
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| Adidas Headphone |
Solar-powered devices are nothing new; for more than ten years, Logitech has been selling wireless keyboards. But what about an audio headset that incorporates scarcely noticeable solar cells? We had only ever tried one of those before this week. There are now at least four.
Adidas unveiled the RPT-02 SOL on Tuesday. These self-charging Bluetooth headphones cost $230 and have Exeger's Powerfoyle solar cells integrated right into the headband (via Engadget). The Urbanista Los Angeles solar-powered headphones we examined last year used the exact same technology, and they claim to have the same 80 hours of "reserve" battery life, even in very dark environments.
Although my colleague Jon Porter tested the solar technology in the Urbanistas, we haven't yet tried the Adidas headphones. We observed astonishingly little battery drain when using them indoors without letting them charge in the sun. As Jon stated, "The beauty of the Los Angeles headphones is that you really don't have to worry about it." Although the Los Angeles model from Adidas lacks active noise reduction and fancy audio codecs, the Adidas model does offer IPX4 water resistance, a microphone, and a USB-C connector for backup charging. Additionally, Zound's predecessor, according to Engadget, had amazingly good sound.
The Powerfoyle panels are now being added by Urbanista to a pair of true wireless earbuds (well, technically, to their charging case), and Blue Tiger recently launched what it calls the "world's first solar-powered communications headset," which features the Powerfoyle cells once more and a noise-cancelling boom mic. The Blue Tiger Solare costs $220.
Even at this early stage, the success of this technology wasn't certain. Similar headphones were crowdfunded by JBL on Indiegogo in 2019, but the project was ultimately canceled and refunds were given. Another Indiegogo project for Pearl Audio's solar-powered earbuds is reportedly "under evaluation."
But the technology, at least for low-power gadgets like these, genuinely works. And not having to worry about charging devices is really pleasant.
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