Urbanista Phoenix Review

Item: Phoenix
Rating: 82
Author: tfk, the5krunner

Urbanista, the audio company known for its innovative and eco-friendly products have launched an innovative pair of solar-powered true wireless earbuds called the Phoenix. These earbuds are the follow-up to Urbanista’s solar-powered over-ear headphones released in 2021 and, like their predecessor, they use Exeger Powerfoyle solar panels to extend their battery life with power from any light source. However, unlike the headphones, the solar panels are not built into the earbuds themselves, but rather into the Phoenix charging case.

Available globally in black or pink for $149 (£129, €149)

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good sound and great features plus feel-good eco-solar charging

82%

Urbanista Phoenix Summary Review

Urbanista has taken inspiration from Apple EarPods and crafted a sleeker product with an exceptional range of features and impressive sound quality. While some may argue that the sound quality could be improved at the given price point, or that the ambient/solar charging feature is somewhat gimmicky, these are minor concerns that do not significantly detract from the overall value of the product.

At Launch: $149 (£129, €149)

Pros

Good noise cancelling
Good sound
Well made
Look great
Easy to set up
Comfortable – easily over 3 hours

Cons

Only splash proof
Not super-HiFi quality sound but good.

Buy on Amazon

Urbanista Phoenix – Test Results

Overall the Phoenix worked well for me in an Apple environment and I have no problems recommending them.

More negative points I would make for the sake of balance include: in terms of noise cancelling, it should be noted that while it is effective, it may not completely eliminate all external sounds. Additionally, while the sound quality is good, as a HiFi enthusiast, I would prefer even higher quality for more demanding music listening. However, given the small size of the earbuds, the sound is quite impressive. Battery life appears to be close to the manufacturer’s claim of 8 hours, though it is important to note that it may degrade over time, as is typical of most batteries.

Urbanista Phoenix Specifications – What the heck does it mean?

Here are the specifications for the Urbanista Phoenix, however, I’ve put some plain English comments to explain what each one means in the context of the product and its competitors.

Solar and ambient light charging with Powerfoyle – any direct light will charge them, the brighter the light the better the charge.
Hybrid active noise cancelling – anti-noise is produced based on the ambient noise and the noise in your ear. Anti-noise cancels sound you don’t normally want to hear.
Transparency mode – lets you stop the noise cancelling. eg so that you can hear someone talking to you
Multipoint connection – Simultaneous connections to more than one other device eg your MAC and your iPhone
Playtime 8 hours
Total battery reserve 34 hours – so this gives you over 4 full top-ups of the batteries in the earbuds
Noise-reducing microphones – eliminate unwanted noise when you are speaking on an audio call
In-ear detection – saves power and stops playback when removed from your ear
Automatic power off
Touch controls
Voice assistant support – supports the voice assistant on your phone – eg Siri, Bixby or Google Assistant
IPX4 water resistant – protects only from splashing
USB type-C charging – that’s the latest stretched oval charging port (the one you want)
Bluetooth 5.2 version – that’s the very latest Bluetooth version with power-saving audio goodness
Driver type: 10mm dynamic, moving coil – this is the size of the speaker. 10mm is fairly good but larger gives better sound quality

Driver impedance: 16 Ohm ±15% – this is the resistance in the electrical circuits to letting your music through. So the lower it is the better. 16Ohm is OK.
Sensitivity: 97 ±3 dB SPL/mW @ 1kHz – this has nothing to do with sound quality…don’t worry about it.
Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz – this matches the sound range of a typical human ear. A slightly wider range is better than this for technical reasons but this is fine.
Microphone type: Mems
Bluetooth profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSP – this describes the kinds of Bluetooth connections the earbuds can make for example to send and receive audio. These are the ones you need although SPP is missing (not a problem)
Audio codecs: SBC and AAC – these kinda describe the compression of the music sent to your ear further limited by the quality of the source music. These will allow good-quality audio playback of the kind that almost everyone else uses. However, HiFi buffs will use HD codecs like aptX HD (but you won’t have HD source music so it doesn’t matter)