{"id":8828,"date":"2023-11-23T15:50:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T15:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/urbanista-malibu-review-superb-solar-average-audio\/"},"modified":"2023-11-23T15:50:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T15:50:48","slug":"urbanista-malibu-review-superb-solar-average-audio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=8828","title":{"rendered":"Urbanista Malibu Review: Superb Solar, Average Audio"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Somewhere in a<\/span> quiet corner of Urbanista\u2019s Stockholm HQ, there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a finite list of evocative toponyms on this planet, isn\u2019t there? How long before we\u2019re offered the Urbanista Chongqing? Or the Urbanista Slough?<\/p>\n

Right now, though, Urbanista is yet to exhaust the world\u2019s supply of poignant place-names. And so here\u2019s the Malibu wireless speaker, available in a most un-Malibu-like choice of black or gray finishes.<\/p>\n

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In many ways, the Malibu is a wireless speaker like all the others\u2014but, as with the company\u2019s Phoenix<\/a> and Los Angeles<\/a> wireless headphones<\/a>, there\u2019s a point of difference here. The top of the speaker is almost entirely made up of Exeger\u2019s<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not quite a USP\u2014fringe brands Abfoce and Cyboris have solar-powered speakers in their lineups, too. But these brands don\u2019t have the hard-won credibility of Urbanista, and they don\u2019t boast the extraordinary efficiency of Powerfoyle<\/a> either.<\/p>\n

Left to its own devices, the Malibu\u2019s battery is good for around 30 hours of playback. That\u2019s as long as you\u2019re listening at moderate volume, anyway. The sort of digital audio file size you\u2019re streaming isn\u2019t a factor, as the Urbanista is only compatible with the bog-standard, low-energy SBC and AAC codecs.<\/p>\n

But with light shining on its Powerfoyle surface, the Malibu can extend its playtime handily. We\u2019re not talking about an Urbanista Los Angeles\u2013style scenario here, you understand; those headphones can actually gain<\/em> power, even as they\u2019re playing. But Urbanista suggests that even some moderately sunny days while the Malibu is doing its thing can extend that battery life from 30 hours to something closer to 45 hours. And free energy is not something to be sniffed at.<\/p>\n

Solar Sounds<\/p>\n

\u201cModerately sunny\u201d is a relative term, of course. During the course of my time with the Urbanista, it was charged by a combination of internal light and the pathetically watery glimmers of a rainy British October that was even grayer than the Malibu\u2019s Desert Gray finish. And even then, it was able to play for nearly 40 hours before I had recourse to mains power.<\/p>\n

I can only imagine how long it would go for during a Malibu summer\u2014indefinitely, presumably. Either way, the speaker\u2019s IP67 rating should mean it\u2019s able to stand up well to these extremes.<\/p>\n

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As is standard Urbanista practice, the Malibu is flawlessly built and finished from a selection of materials that combine tactility with robustness. Apart from the Powerfoyle, the Urbanista is made from a combination of strong plastic and a quantity of acoustic cloth.<\/p>\n

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