Solo 5 arrives in Brazil for R $ 2.5 thousand
Fashion in the early 2010s, the wave of big headphones (headphone) seems to have passed, giving space for earbuds the small wireless headphones, which work via Bluetooth and fit in people's ears around. But that does not mean that the market is going to walk towards a single type of hearing aid. A brand that made big headphones into a fashion accessory, Beats wants to show the model that made it famous, the Solo Pro, can still be a symbol of style. This Tuesday, the 21st, the company launched in the country the fifth generation of Solo Pro, which will cost R $ 2.5 thousand.
We recognize that AirPods have changed the market. Larger phones will have to coexist with that category. We believe they will be complementary products, a company spokesman told state, passing through Brazil. Purchased by Apple in 2012 for $ 3 billion, Beats imagines that people will have more than one type of headset in the Solo category would be aimed at those who want to enjoy music in more relaxed situations. AirPods or the PowerBeats Pro line would be reserved, for example, for gym and physical activities. We recognize that the market size for larger headsets is smaller now, but we still have a very strong foundation, he said.
With 30 million units of the Solo Pro line sold to date, the new model wants to keep its users away from the noise of the outside world. For this, it has a complex noise cancellation system. There are external microphones monitoring the environment in real time, measuring not only the intensity of the noises, but the most active frequencies in it. Two other microphones monitor the noise that reaches the user's ear.
The filter then considers the perceived noise and adjusts the cancellation in real time, with the help of algorithms using a different logic than headphones that use a fixed filter, which always cancels the same frequencies.
The accessory has an extra chip compared to the AirPods Pro, the latest earbud model from Apple and which brings noise canceling as a differential. According to the company, Solo Pro 5 monitors the environment 50 thousand times per second, while this value would be 200 in Apple foninhos. The impact of this system felt on the battery: with the use of noise cancellation, it lasts 22 hours. When the system is deactivated, it is possible to reach up to 40 hours of autonomy. But just use a 5-watt charger to get 3 hours of battery life with just 10 minutes of charge, the company promises.
The algorithm system also detects the level of sound leakage caused by several factors, such as earrings, glasses, hair and piercings, for example. To be efficient, a headset needs to be as close to the ears as possible, but all of these elements can cause sound leaks, which are detected and softened. The two internal microphones are responsible for monitoring these noises and the sound leak. In addition, they also allow to identify the music heard by the user so that the cancellation does not affect the recording frequencies.
This, however, does not mean that the user will listen to music as its creators imagined. Solo Pro is not a reference phone, that is, it does not preserve frequencies exactly as the artists produced in the studio. If you plan to mix and produce music, this phone is not for you. The Solo comes with a factory equalization, which enhances frequencies the way the company's engineers imagine making the music sound better.
With each generation of Solo, his sonority changes with what is most popular in music, said the executive. The first Solo doesn't sound like the current one. In the beginning there was a lot of bass to play synthetic bass from styles like hip-hop and dubstep. Today, it is tuned for medium frequencies, more present in pop music, he said.
