With AirPods coming already over two years old, and no update date set in stone, other companies are starting to take the scene. The latest to announce truly wireless earbuds is Tivoli Audio with Fonico.
These earbuds feature simple Bluetooth pairing, voice control with Siri, Assistant, or even Skype, and up to 3.5-hours of battery on a single charge. Keep reading to learn more.
Tivoli Audio announces the Fonico AirPod competitor
AirPods are great, and I can’t leave my house without them. But, when it comes to new technology, AirPods are quite behind. They don’t use Bluetooth 5.0, nor do they offer any type of noise isolation at all.
Tivoli Audio’s Fonico offer probably one of the best alternatives to Apple’s AirPods with better features and still retain quite a bit of battery life. Most AirPods competitors on the market feature abysmal battery life, but Tivoli was able to get 3.5-hours of listening time out of each bud, with a total of 14 hours of extra battery in the carrying case. For comparison, Skullcandy’s Push wireless earbuds only have 12 total hours of playback life including the case’s battery. In all, Tivoli’s Fonico will offer 17.5-hours of battery life including the case’s charge time.
The earbuds feature an IPX5 waterproof rating, which means that they’re safe from sweat and rain. Each bud includes multifunction controls and a mic for voice commands, plus there are two sets of ear adapters for the perfect fit. The carrying case is magnetic and quite small to fit in your pocket without any issue. The case recharges over MicroUSB, sadly, which means no USB-C here.
These earbuds offer passive noise isolation by means of rubber tips that seal your ear off from outside interruptions. That means you should be able to block out most outside noise with these buds. Plus, the winged tips on the sides make it so they’ll stay in your ears when doing more strenuous activities like working out or running, which AirPods currently fail to do.
Pricing and availability
You can purchase them for $129.99 from Tivoli Audio’s website. This is more affordable than Apple’s $159 price that they still charge, and makes them a great contender in the truly wireless earbud market. Will Tivoli Audio’s Fonico really give Apple a run for its money? Only time will tell, but Apple needs to hurry up and release a new set of earbuds before they’re left completely in the dust.
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