With half of the global workforce still working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new use cases for the PC are emerging for both consumers and employees remaining at home. But working and staying at home isn’t always simple, with only 30% of people having a space where they can shut the door, according to HP's research. Yet 72% of knowledge workers want a hybrid remote-office model moving forward, and 48% of Gen Z are considering an expansion of their freelance business in the future, requiring solutions with enhanced collaboration and micro-mobility features.
"While the PC is more essential than ever, what’s most important of all is people. Our innovation engine continues to be grounded in deep customer insights that help keep people connected, engaged, and contributing in this new world," says Alex Cho, president, Personal Systems, HP Inc. "We are looking beyond the device people use to what will improve their experience – from software that provides lighting control for video calls, peripherals that enable a more customized experience, to how services can make it easier to monitor and manage devices for a multitude of devices."
To improve the way we work and collaborate, HP introduced a series of new laptops, some of which have audio subsystems designed in collaboration Bang & Olufsen, AI-enabled processing to maximize audio reproduction for speech, music, and movies, as well as microphone arrays and new cameras optimized for high quality video communications.
But with the rapid increase in video calls and audio conferencing, wireless earbuds are now also a workplace essential. And instead of developing true wireless earbuds that respond to the needs of those working from home and remote working environments, HP decided to cooperate with one of the industry pioneers, Australia-based Nuheara. In fact, this is just the first product to be manufactured by Nuheara under a three year umbrella supply agreement between the two companies.
As HP describes it, the Elite Wireless Earbuds are "the world’s most advanced earbuds for collaboration, with personalized audio tuning, adjustable noise cancellation, and sound situation presets. Flow through the day with earbuds that seamlessly switch from a conference call on a PC to listening to music on a phone via the simple Windows 10, iOS, or Android app."
As far as specifications and details, these are TWS earbuds that follow the familiar design of existing Nuheara products, using single dynamic 9.2mm neodymium drivers, and featuring a combination of passive and Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) that benefits from the company's experience in the form-factor. This allows users of the Elite Wireless Earbuds to experience superior sound by blocking out unwanted external sounds with state-of-the-art noise canceling, combined with personalized audio tuning and customizable sound situations.
The physical design is also optimized to allow hours of comfort with premium foam and silicon tips, while each earbud can be calibrated by the user, using the sound tuning app, which both assesses the user hearing profile, and calibrates the earbuds to both a custom profile and user preferences. Apart from advanced Active Noise Cancellation, the Elite Wireless Earbuds also allow customizable transparency modes, speech amplification, and sound direction customization.
As HP details, users can adjust the earbuds by using the Tap Touch control to switch between devices and/or audio settings, switch to a low power independent/dual ear to ear use, and they can access the HP Elite Wireless Earbuds app to choose presets that match their listening environment at a precise moment, such as the office, at home or the gym.
The USB-C charging case complements the experience by offering fast-charging of the earbuds, reaching a full-charge in 120 minutes or providing ~1.5hrs of use with just 15 minutes of charging. The charging case is able to provide 3 complete charging cycles to the earbuds.
Being a Bluetooth 5.0 design the HP-branded earbuds allow individual use of both left and right earbud, multi-device switching, and convenient fast pairing, in this case optimized for Windows 10 (Windows Swift Pair) as well as applications for Android and iOS devices. The HP Elite Earbuds App is available for iOS on the Apple App Store, for Android on the Google Play Store and for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store. The app also allows controlling phone calls, music streaming, and voice assistant features.
Commenting on the launch of the co-developed product, Nuheara CEO Justin Miller says: "The Nuheara team is delighted to be developing products with technology powerhouse HP. Nuheara’s co-development of the new HP Elite Wireless Earbuds over the last six months is further validation of the strong engineering and manufacturing team we have built here in Perth, Australia."
The HP Elite Wireless Earbuds are expected to be available in April 2021. Pricing will be available closer to availability. HP also says the Elite Wireless Earbuds will be offered as a bundle option with their new Elite Dragonfly Max laptop or available separately for purchase.
www.nuheara.com | www.hp.com
