Skip to main content

Urbanista Los Angeles hands-on review: Don’t let the sun go down on you

Man wearing Urbanista Los Angeles.
Urbanista Los Angeles
MSRP $199.00
“As long as you spend plenty of time in the sun, the Urbanista Los Angeles solar-powered headphones will free you from recharging.”
Pros
  • Solar charging really works
  • Secure fit
  • Real-time power meter in app
  • Huge 80-hour battery
Cons
  • Only works under optimal conditions
  • No EQ adjustments

Urbanista’s $199 Los Angeles — the very first set of solar-powered wireless headphones — are here. And, yes, they do indeed charge themselves when exposed to light, both natural and electric. But what’s it like to use them and just how much light do they need? We tried ’em out to see.

Power meter

Urbanista makes several models of wireless headphones and true wireless earbuds, but the company never felt the need to create a companion app for iOS or Android. With their simple operation, there was arguably no need for an app. But when you decide to sell the world’s first set of solar-powered headphones, you really need a way to show people how that whole solar thing works. So Urbanista created its first mobile app, and it’s, ahem, brilliant.

Once you’ve connected the Los Angeles to your phone via Bluetooth, the app lets you flip to a screen that contains a huge power gauge. On the left side of the gauge, in yellow, is the amount of power the headphones are slurping up from the ambient light. On the right, in red, is the amount of power the cans are consuming.

In an ideal world, there would be a constant balance between the yellow (your gain) and the red (your drain), so that if you started your day with a full battery, that’s exactly how you’d end the day. You could then, in theory, repeat that balancing act every day and never need to plug the Los Angeles into a charger.

Mad dogs and Englishmen

Urbanista Los Angeles.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Alas, and as you might have guessed, that’s easier said than done. Noel Coward famously wrote that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, and if you subscribe to that behavior, too, not only will you keep the battery from draining, you might actually end up harvesting more power than you expend. But unless that describes a typical day for you, you’re more likely to break even, or end up in a power deficit. That’s because the Los Angeles’ solar panel — totally disguised within a completely normal-looking headband — needs a lot of direct light.

As I type this in my home office, I’m sitting about three feet directly below a light fixture powered by a single 100-watt-equivalent LED bulb. And while the frosted glass of the lightshade diffuses the light sideways, the bottom of the shade is actually a clear lens, which if anything, concentrates the amount of light being aimed directly at my head. Still, the Urbanista app reveals that the Los Angeles is barely able to syphon 0.1 mA of power, while the headphone’s power requirements sit at 2.3 mA. In other words, I’m consuming 23 times more power than I’m absorbing.

Urbanista Los Angeles being held under a light fixture.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

It could be worse. Right now, I’m not using the Los Angeles’ active noise cancellation (ANC) or ambient sound modes, and I’m not listening to any music. If I were to activate these features, the drain would jump up to 7.5 mA, or as much as 10 mA, depending on my chosen volume level, etc. At that rate, the headphones’ impressively large 80-hour battery capacity would last exactly 80 hours and no more.

To significantly increase the amount of power being absorbed, I had to hold the headphones directly under the light, and even then, the power meter indicated I was barely running on a break-even basis.

None of this is a critique of the Los Angeles or its Powerfoyle solar technology — I don’t know of any solar panel that could provide significantly more power from the same amount of surface area. But it is a reminder that Urbanista’s promise of “virtually infinite playtime” should be seen as more aspirational than fully achievable. Still, it’s worth noting that on a bright October day in Toronto, I was able to go for a 45-minute walk with ANC on and tunes playing at 50% volume, and when I returned (after making a bit of an effort to stay on the sunny side of the streets), I had exactly the same amount of battery time remaining as when I set out.

Sunny sounds

Urbanista Los Angeles seen next to Urbanista Miami.
Urbanista Los Angeles (left) and Urbanista Miami. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Urbanista based the Los Angeles on its Miami wireless headphones, and the two models share more than just looks. Their sound signature is very close, with very good clarity across frequencies and with a slightly bass-forward approach that lends itself well to beat-heavy tracks.

I really like that Urbanista has found a way to maintain this balance throughout the volume range. There’s no distortion as you near the top of the dial and. as long as you’re in a quiet location, even the lower volume levels offer good overall sound quality.

Of course, if you don’t like the way the Los Angeles have been tuned, there’s not much you can do. Despite creating the app for these cans, Urbanista hasn’t included any EQ adjustments.

But one big change from the Miami to the Los Angeles is Urbanista’s decision to remove the 3.5mm analog input jack from the right earcup. Perhaps more room was needed for the Los Angeles’ bigger battery, or maybe it was a cost-saving measure. Regardless of the reason, it’s a strange choice for a set of cans that are intended to keep you free from the worry of running out of power. Should you somehow end up depleting the 80-hour battery, the lack of a an analog input means no more tunes until you find some sun, or a power outlet.

Stays put

Man wearing Urbanista Los Angeles.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

One of my favorite aspects of the Los Angeles is how securely they stay in place. I’ve got a pretty small head, and I find that some headphones simply don’t clamp strongly enough to keep them from shifting around. But the Los Angeles are impressively stable and didn’t budge the entire time I was wearing them. I don’t recommend working out with full-size headphones, but if that’s your thing, the Los Angeles will happily keep you company.

The only thing missing in the comfort department is more room for your ears. The ear cushions are deceiving: They wrap around a big section of the the earcups, making them look plush and deep. But they’re actually incredibly shallow, with only a few millimeters for your ears. Over time, I found this created pressure points.

The controls are easy to access, with buttons set on on the side of each earcup where your thumbs can find them quickly. However, the play/pause, volume up/down, and track skip controls on the right earcup are very small, very close together, and quite tricky to distinguish by feel. I have no idea how you’d use them with gloves on.

Decent ANC

Urbanista Los Angeles.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The best noise-canceling headphones can all but eradicate external sounds, but don’t expect this level of performance from the Los Angeles. Think of it instead as noise reduction. When engaged, ANC takes the edge off of those annoying background sounds like traffic or the steady drone of a fan or airplane engine. But it’s only a reprieve from the very lowest frequencies — the higher pitches will still get through.

Transparency mode (or ambient sound as Urbanista refers to it) is similarly effective — it definitely brings in the outside world, but can’t quite kill the sensation that you’re still wearing headphones.

My biggest critique here is that the Urbanista app lets you decide if the ANC button will cycle ANC on and off, ambient sound on and off, or cycle through ANC on > ambient on > both off. But you can’t set it to simply bounce back and forth between ANC on and ambient on, which are arguably the two most important settings.

Fine for calls

As with most full-size headphones, call quality is pretty good. It’s not stellar, but perfectly adequate for talking, even in moderately noisy environments. At times, the environmental noise cancellation circuits can drop your voice’s volume as it attempts to hush the other sounds, but this will only be a problem if you insist on taking calls at busy intersections.

Who are they for?

The Los Angeles are essentially a good set of wireless headphones that happen to have a solar panel built into the headband. If you spend most of your listening time outdoors, in sunny or even partially overcast conditions, you’ll reap the promised benefits of unlimited power. But for most of us, that benefit will be fleeting at best: We may not have to plug the headphones in quite as often (especially given the impressive 80-hour battery), but we’ll still need to plug them in. Is that worth the $50 premium that Urbanista charges over the similar $149 Miami? Sun-seekers would probably say yes.

Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
Marantz’s powerful new integrated amplifier will run you $15,000
The Marantz MODEL 10 Reference Integrated Amplifier.

When legendary audio makers Marantz come out with something that they're calling "luxury," you know it's gong to be good. It's been eight years since the company launched a reference-quality line of stereo components, but today Marantz is announcing not one, but three models in its new 10 Series Collection. Along with the powerful, $15,000 Model 10 Reference Integrated Amplifier, the company will launch a new Reference Network Audio Player and an SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) player on an undisclosed later date.

With "available soon" as the only tease of a release date for the Marantz Model 10, the specs and details from the press release will have to do for the time being, so it's a good thing that there are some juicy ones. The Model 10 was inspired by "some of the most iconic hi-fi components in Marantz’s storied history -- yet at the same time, the engineering inside ensures that each component is both truly contemporary and ready to make the most of hi-fi’s digital future."

Read more
Best Walmart TV deals: 43-inch 4K TV for $218 and more
lg 55 inch oled 4k tvs deal walmart class b8 tv

Many of today’s best TV deals can be found among the current Amazon TV deals and Best Buy TV deals, but Walmart has a lot of savings going on as well. Among the Walmart TV deals you’ll find 65-inch TV deals, 70-inch TV deals, 75-inch TV deals, 85-inch TV deals, and more. We’ve handpicked some of the best Walmart TV deals, and you’ll find all of those details below. If it’s premium picture quality you’re after both QLED TV deals and OLED TV deals are part of the discounts, and while Walmart doesn’t carry any Sony TV deals there is still plenty of top TV brands to choose from and they’re highlighted by Samsung TV deals, LG TV deals, TCL TV deals, and Vizio TV deals.
TCL 43-inch S5 4K Smart TV — $218, was $350

The S5 is one of TCL’s newer models, so it’s making a nice surprise here among the best 65-inch TV deals. It delivers stunning 4K picture quality with four times the resolution of Full HD, as well as endless entertainment with easy access to your favorite streaming services. Google Chromecast is built right into the TV, allowing you to easily stream movies, shows and photos from your Android or iOS device. It also has 3 HDMI inputs, which makes it great for gamers who need to connect several consoles, or for anybody looking to connect some great peripheral equipment to their home theater.

Read more
Best headphone deals: AirPods, Sony, Sennheiser and more
Beats Studio Pro sitting on travel case.

All of the TV deals, gaming console deals, phone deals, laptop deals, and tablet deals going on today make for plenty of great reason to consider some headphones as well. A new set of headphones can make all of the content you view on those devices more private and more immersive, and there are a lot of headphone deals out there to take a look at. We’ve tracked down all of the best headphone deals to shop, and you can find them all below. And if you’d like to get more brand-specific be sure to check out all of the best Beats headphone deals, best AirPods deals, best Bose headphone deals, and best Sony headphone deals.
Apple AirPods 2 -- $89, was $129

Apple has long been known for making premium tech products that please the eye aesthetically and produce a simple yet impactful user experience. This is true of the Apple AirPods 2, which, despite being a few years removed from their original release, still hold up as a great set of wireless earbuds. Just like their newer iteration, the Apple AirPods 3, the AirPods 2 produce high quality audio that pack a punch whether you’re playing games, listening to music, watching movies, or relaxing with a podcast. It has an H1 chip that delivers a stable wireless connection, and manages to produce high-quality sound far better than many other wireless headphones. Battery life is about as good as it gets, with the AirPods 2 offering up to five hours of listening time on one charge, and more than 24 hours with the included charging case.

Read more