Avis: Urbanista Malibu Wireless Solar Speaker

Somewhere in a quiet corner of the Stockholm HQ of Urbanista, there is a list of emergency place names. Since its inception in 2010, the company has been on a kind of virtual world tour, naming each of its products after a location of lesser or greater resonance. But there is a finite list of evocative toponyms on this planet, isn’t there? How long before we’re offered the Urbanista Chongqing? Or the Urbanista Slough? Right now, though, Urbanista is yet to exhaust the world’s supply of poignant place names. And so here is the Malibu wireless speaker, available in a most un-Malibu-like choice of black or gray finishes. In many ways, the Malibu is a wireless speaker like all the others—but, as with the company’s Phoenix and Los Angeles wireless headphones, there is a point of difference here. The top of the speaker is almost entirely made up of Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cell material, which means the Malibu, like its headphone siblings, can harvest the power of light, whether natural or electrical, to contribute to the life of its 3,600-mA battery. It’s not quite a USP—fringe brands Abfoce and Cyboris have solar-powered speakers in their lineups, too. But these brands don’t have the hard-won credibility of Urbanista, and they don’t boast the extraordinary efficiency of Powerfoyle either.

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