Urbanista Malibu hands on: Fun in the sun

May 24, 2024

I had a listen to the Bluetooth speaker that potentially never needs charging, provided you have enough sunlight.

The Urbanista Malibu is a Bluetooth speaker that promises endless summer fun, thanks to a built-in Powerfoyle solar charging circuit. It might be a little late for the summer sunshine this year, unless you live in Australia, but the prospect of charging your Bluetooth speaker less frequently is sure to appeal to almost everyone.

I got the chance to give the Urbanista Malibu a quick listen on the show floor at IFA, and here's what I think.

I only had a quick listen to the Urbanista Malibu, but it shows great promise, with lots of volume and punchy bass response. The solar charging is just the icing on the cake.

The Urbanista Malibu will retail for $149 and comes in three colourways. The ones on display at the show were the classic Midnight Black, and a new addition, Desert Gray. The new speaker is expected to be available worldwide from late September 2023.

The Urbanista Malibu is about the size of a large hamburger, and it's lighter than you might expect. It's wrapped with a woven recycled fabric material around the edges and there's a large Powerfoyle solar cell on the top. I was surprised to find out that this panel doesn't look like your typical solar panel, instead, it could easily be mistaken for a design choice, as it resembles matte black plastic.

There's nothing much to see on the base, and on the rear, you'll find a USB-C port along with a shoelace-style carry handle. There's a rubberised embossed logo on the front, along with play, stop and volume controls on the rim.

Overall it's a pretty minimal look, but a pleasing one. The colours are subtle, too, opting for earthy tones rather than the outlandish day-glow colours of some competing brands.

When it comes to durability, you get an IP67 rating. This means it's waterproof and has a solid resistance against sand, dust and other particulates. If you want a speaker for the beach, this is well worth a look, especially when you factor in its solar charging capabilities.

Obviously, the big selling point here is the solar charging, but the Urbanista Malibu has another trick or two up its sleeve. If you own two speakers, you can pair them in stereo, without the need for an app. It works a lot like true wireless earbuds, where one speaker is connected to your phone, and then it will send the audio to the other without you needing to configure anything manually.

The speaker is also compatible with Urbanista's mobile app, which will allow you to tweak the sound to your tastes, as well as check the solar charge input in real-time - which is a cool touch.

As we mentioned, it's that solar charging capability that's the real draw here, but it does make it difficult to quote the battery life. In ideal conditions, you may never have to charge, but if you live in the UK like me, that's rather unlikely. Instead, you'll rely on the reserve battery which is a 3600 mAh pack, and should offer up to 30 hours of playback on a charge.

The listening conditions were far from ideal, in a busy section of the IFA show floor, but despite the surrounding chaos, the Urbanista Malibu manged to punch through the noise.

Really, I need to hear the speaker in a more familiar environment before I can deliver any kind of analysis of its performance, but at the very least I can confirm that it delivers some serious volume, along with some punchy bass.

It has dual drivers that fire from the front corners of the speaker, on each side of the Urbanista logo, and these are flanked by dual passive radiators to emphasise the lower frequencies. This means its quite a directional sound, but it's an impactful one.

It's too early to deliver a proper verdict on the Urbanista Malibu, but it seems promising upon first impressions. Paricularly if you mainly use your Bluetooth speaker outdoors, as many people do, the addition of a solar charging circuit makes perfect sense.

I can imagine this being a popular choice for beach bums and avid campers alike, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Prior to writing for Pocket-Lint, Luke had a long history in the PC gaming industry working on everything from marketing and PR to events and esports tournaments.Aside from PCs and gaming, he has a passion for photography and video and the technologies surrounding them, it started with filming his friends skateboarding on miniDV camcorders and escalated to cinema cameras and a University degree.These days he mainly uses these skills to make YouTube videos and can often be found strapping GoPros to racing drones in his spare time.