Wireless headphones are increasingly popular both by design and from smart device maker pressure. Appealing though they are, there are some drawbacks to wireless headphones - most notably that they require periodical recharging and that isn't always convenient.
JBL thinks it has the answer to your battery anxiety nightmares with its new Reflect Eternal Self-Charging Headphones. The headphones are still at the prototype stage but rather than waiting for development to complete and mass producing this product as normal, JBL has decided to whip up some PR and funding by using crowdfunding.
The JBL Reflect Eternal: Self-Charging Headphones are now on IndieGogo featuring pretty big discounts to those willing to pay up early, for a product with estimated shipping of about October 2020. If you wait until October these headphones will come with an RRP of £124 but at the moment there is an opportunity to be an 'early adopter' and snag a set for £75 (sadly the £56 early bird offer was claimed by 250 people already) with free shipping.
From the name you might not guess that the JBL Reflect Eternal: Self-Charging Headphones are solar powered - but that is what makes them 'eternal'. JBL uses Exeger Powerfoyle technology which turns light into power which is stored on the internal 700mAh Li-Po battery, Powerfoyle can convert both light from the sun or artificial light into worthwhile amounts of portable headphone-powering energy.
JBL reckons that if a user spends an average of 2.5 hours per day outside you will never have to recharge these headphones via the wired connection. However, if you only grab an hour of daylight, your 24 hour battery will get extended to 42 hours of playtime. JBL provides a slider on the product homepage so you can check all sorts of daylight time to battery extension combinations. On the headphone top band you can press a button to see how much charge is left, see below.
Beyond the headlining self-charging features, do the new JBL Reflect Eternal headphones have what it takes to attract customers? Well, other key features of these headphones are the; 40mm drivers for JBL signature sound with Dynamic Frequency Response Range of 20Hz-20kHz, USB Speed-charge port (12 mins = 2 hours of use, 2hrs for a full charge from empty), hands free calling support, multi-point connection support, Google Voice Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Ambient Aware and TalkThru technology, IPX4 rating, Bluetooth 5.0 with A2DP V1.3, AVRCP V1.5, HFP V1.6.
JBL Reflect Eternal: Self-Charging Headphones are available in black, green or red finishes. The IndieGogo campaign has 29 days left to run but unfortunately it seems to be limited to residents of the US and Germany.
