From Dr. Dre’s Beats to Sennheiser, audio is an ever growing market in a world enjoying more and more media on the move. One company believes they can reinvent the wheel through a Kickstarter campaign and release earphone users from the constraints of cables.
The Product
HearNotes are completely wireless earbuds. the HearNote company have opted to move away from Bluetooth technology, utilising a Kleer dongle which plugs into your phones audio socket. HearNotes will last over 4 hours on a single charge and claim to produce audio to match some of the biggest audio devices on the market.
The Good
If you’ve ever traveled and shared audio playback with a friend or partner, you’ll have experienced the frustration of one person moving, yanking the earphone away from the other. HearNotes allow two users to wear one bud each with the fear of losing an ear after a sneeze.
There is also an inherent convenience about the device being completely wireless, but lets not forget that there are a huge amount of wireless and NFC/Bluetooth audio devices on the market.
The Bad
The price of HearNotes is a little insane. The entry level Kickstarter backing begins at $239 (already sold out though). Now of course, if the audio is really good, you could argue it’s worth the price…except for the design.
The dongle is large and clumsy. We’re already sweating at the thought of it snapping of in a pocket. This could be a great device with protective casing incorporation but the decision to use a Kleer dongle was to provide great sound, but came at a cost to design practicality. Also, the earbuds themselves appear to be quite big.
The Verdict
To us, this seems like a poorly designed device with the dongle being a huge inconvenience. For us a small wire is a better sacrifice. What’s most interesting about the HearNotes is the Kickstarter reception they’ve received after just a short campaign. Already less than $7000 away from successful funding, these will surely fly past a $75,000 funding target. There is a lot of people out there who believe this design is the way forward.
What do you think?
