2 months ago
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I don’t remember the last time a charging station excited me until I checked out Anker’s new releases at a briefing in NYC. The company demoed a handful of new wireless solutions but the MagGo 3-in-1 Foldable Wireless Charging Station is what stood out to me. As the name suggests, it charges up to three devices at once and is fully foldable, giving it a fully portable form factor.
I folded and unfolded the charger a few times (the first few were for testing purposes and then a few more because it was fun) and it works as expected. You simply bring both ends of the charger to the center one by one. When fully folded, the charger curls up in a tiny ball-like factor that’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
GIF: Artem Golub / Gizmodo It supports QI2 15W fast charging and is good for simultaneously replenishing your Apple Watches and iPhones. A five-foot Type-C cable charges the wireless charger.
Anker’s budget audio sub-brand, Soundcore, also had a few new releases: the Space One Pro and the Aerofit 2. The Space One Pros are the company’s new midrange over-ear headphones offering. For $200, the headphones feature what Soundcore claims is its “most premium noise-canceling to date.” Apparently, it works on a four-stage noise-canceling system. These are 1) a total of six mics on both earcups 2) an expanded acoustic chamber 3) an adaptive ANC 3.0 algorithm and 4) high-sensitivity drivers. Most of these are standard ANC features found on all audio peripherals that provide noise-canceling capabilities, so I’m going to hold my amusement for these headphones until I get to test them out myself.
Anker promises an ergonomic headband with soft earcups along with a foldable design thanks to a new FlexiCurve Structure—we’ll have more to come on that after we’ve spent some time with the headphones.
The Aerofit 2 are the company’s new running-focused open-ear buds. They feature a hook design that wraps around your ears for a snug fit. For just $100, these buds offer wireless charging too. With fast charging, they allegedly last four hours on a five-minute charge.
I thought JBL’s new portable speakers were cheap at $50 and $80, but Soundcore’s new $25 Select 4 Go is significantly cheaper if all you’re looking for is an entry-level portable budget speaker. It shares three big features with JBL’s new line. First, it’s fully waterproof at IP67, it sports a little loop-style handle so it can attach to your bag, and offers Auracast capabilities so you can pair two Select 4 Go speakers for a nice stereo effect. For $25 speakers to offer Auracast capabilities is surprising and I’m looking forward to seeing how well it compares to JBL’s recent releases.
