Hands-on with Vinci, the Alexa-infused Android headphones
Vinci is the latest Android gadget to hit Kickstarter. Android has been used to power nearly every gadget imaginable, but we doubt any of you ever thought someone would cram Android into a pair of headphones.
The Kickstarter campaign promises to deliver two different Vinci models. The base version ($99.99 on Kickstarter, $199.99 final retail price) features a Cortex- A7 processor with 1GB of RAM, 3.2-inch 480×360 touch screen, WiFi, 3G connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0, 16GB of RAM, 3.5mm line in, gyrometer, proximity sensor, optical heart sensor, GPS, compass and a 1,500 mAh battery. The Vinci Pro ($149.99 on Kickstarter, $299.99 final retail price) adds in an AKM4367 DAC chip, an extra 16GB of storage, wireless charging and active noise cancellation.
In addition to playing music from the internal storage or from your smartphone over Bluetooth, Vinci can stream music from Spotify, Amazon Music and Sound cloud on its own over WiFi or its 3G cellular connection. But what makes Vinci even more impressive is its integration with Amazon’s Alexa. Users can interact with the headphones using simple voice commands to find new music, get the weather forecast, ask for directions and more.
We’ve been playing around with a Vinci pre-production unit for the past few days now. The hardware is impressive, but the software is still being tweaked. The headphones are comfortable, even if they are on the heavy side. Vinci has also done a great job of fine tuning the audio experience. Audio quality and bass levels are comparable to what you’d get with a pair of Beats headphones, but we’re hoping that the final software will include an option to fine-tune the output.
For more details, be sure to check out the Vinci Kickstarter page.
