A new Chinese startup founded by DingTalk’s former CEO Chen Hang launches a new line of wireless earbuds, its first consumer electronic product, on Tuesday on the US crowdfunding site Indiegogo.
Why it matters: The earbuds are the first batch of releases from Chen Hang’s new startup called HHO, which he founded after leaving Alibaba’s workplace collaboration app DingTalk in July 2021. Chen’s new project focuses on helping local Chinese manufacturers to produce and sell products directly to overseas consumers.
Details: The main selling point of the earbuds are their light control feature. Called GPods, the earbuds beam lights along the spine. It also supports customized control for the color and pattern of the light. A corresponding app uses an algorithm to pick and generate color patterns from any picture chosen by the user. The color can change to match the beat of the music.
- The earbuds have a premium setup with 10mm dynamic drivers and high-definition audio coding technology via Bluetooth version 5.2.
- The earbuds also support Active Noise Cancellation, offering a cleaner sound in noisy surroundings.
- The earbuds can reach five hours of listening time with a full charge and 20 hours of listening time when used with the charging case. But the listening time drops to only three hours when noise cancellation technology and light effects are turned on. Additionally, the earbuds are equipped with fast charge technology. A charge of ten minutes gives the user two hours of battery life.
- The product has an IPX4 rating, which means it can bare water splashes from any direction, enabling it to work in light rain and similar situations.
- The product is priced at $89 to $99 on the crowdfunding platform and released through HHO’s sub-brand HHOGene.