JBL is crowdfunding solar powered wireless headphones

by Mark Tyson on 17 December 2019, 11:11

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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.



HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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I like this, but completely improactical for this country..

they spec 50k lux as the daylight required to match those times with inly 3.5hrs usage p/day.

Our sunny summer here might hit that lux but thats only ideal conditions fir a few weeks a year.
rabidmunkee
I like this, but completely improactical for this country..

they spec 50k lux as the daylight required to match those times with inly 3.5hrs usage p/day.

Our sunny summer here might hit that lux but thats only ideal conditions fir a few weeks a year.

utterly agree with that.

Having spend a while with a godo quality Solar USB charger for a mobile phone, I can confirm .. it needs more than our normal daylight!
I have a solar charged watch (two, in fact) and the instructions state you only need 5 minutes of normal daylight per day to maintain optimum charge during their idea of normal use… I've had it hung in the window for almost a month and it hasn't budged from Medium!
Now, I know the window means it's only getting about half of whatever solar is outside, again because the instructions say so, but it's so weak and unsunny here.

Still, kudos to JBL for great ideas… and shame on me for continually confusing them with JML!! :D
Ttaskmaster
Still, kudos to JBL for great ideas… and shame on me for continually confusing them with JML!! :D

I have to admit I thought of JML as well :D
The use cases are very niche.

Most of the time these kinds of systems just add problems which could be solved with just using a decent battery to start with and really, I'd rather pay for that than R&D and parts for a system which just won't work properly.