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Anker's new smart audio brand Zolo reveals its first product
It’s no secret that Anker is one of the premiere bang for your buck brands out there. The company which was founded by a couple of ex-Google employees first began with cables and external batteries, but quickly expanded to include all sorts of electronics including audio product. We’ve reviewed a few of their products in their past, each earning a good review and a spot on at least one of our best lists. Now the company is starting a new venture: Zolo. This new brand is going to focus entirely on smart audio products and their first venture is a Kickstarter for a pair of truly wireless earbuds dubbed the Liberty+ Zero-Compromise Total-Wireless Earbuds.
Now you’re probably thinking, “Oh great, not another pair of terrible wireless earbuds.” Truly wireless earbuds always come with a compromise, which is something that Anker – er, I mean Zolo has been quick to point out. Whether it’s bad battery life, terrible sound quality, or a shotty Bluetooth connection, a truly wireless pair of headphones is most likely going to come with a few pain points. Getting rid of those pain points was the inspiration for the Liberty+ earbuds which they tout as the first “no compromise” pair of true wireless earbuds.
In order to solve some of these issues, Zolo had to get a little creative. For better sound quality, the company is using Graphene coated drivers. Graphene is 100 times harder than steel but weighs significantly less, which Zolo claims results in a cleaner sound that you won’t find in other earbuds. The next issue to solve was battery life which (thanks to Anker) is spec’d at 3.5 hours of constant playback on the ‘buds and up to 48 hours when you consider the charging case.
Finally there’s the connection issue. Zolo added an LDS antenna into the earbuds which, when paired with the upcoming advancements of Bluetooth 5.0, they claim will have “unbreakable connectivity with 10m”.
The Liberty+ still has other features as well, like the “smart” capabilities that make it fully compatible with voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and the Google Assistant. Besides that it has a hydrophobic coating that makes it resistant to sweat and water damage, so feel free to bring these with you on your next workout.
If these headphones seem too good to be true, just wait it gets better. When these go on sale in October of this year they’re going to retail for $149, making them one of the most affordable and feature packed pair of truly wireless earbuds you can get. Of course due to the nature of Kickstarter, you can secure yourself a pair for as $79 by backing the campaign and getting in on the Early Bird Special.
Are these the true wireless earbuds we’ve all been waiting for? We’ll have to wait and see for sure but unless something is drastically wrong with them, the Liberty+ ‘buds seem to be winners.