Review of Anker Innovation Conference: Fully updated charging products, and new earphones have highlights
On October 23, Anker Innovations held a large-scale new product launch event in New York.
Like the press conference held in October last year, this new product also covered the four brands of Anker, Soundcore, Nebula, and Eufy. New products for charging, audio, projector and smart home products were all unveiled at the conference.
Anker: Comprehensive renewal of charging products
The update of charging products is still the focus of this release. And this year’s Anker also puts the focus of charging products on the GaN series.
At the meeting, Anker released four charging products using GaN gallium nitride technology:
Power Port Atom Ⅲ Slim 30W GaN charger
PowerPort Atom III Slim 4-port GaN desktop charger
PowerPort Atom III Pod 65W GaN charger
PowerPort Atom III Duo 60W GaN charger
Among them, the Power Port Atom Ⅲ Slim 30W GaN charger adopts a long flat design, and the plug has a folding structure, which is convenient for storage and prevents the plug from wearing other equipment. The ANKER Logo and the classic blue round-edged LED reminder light are retained on the fuselage.
Only one USB-C interface is reserved on the main body of the charger, which supports 30W PIQ 3.0 and PD charging. It can be used to charge MacBook, mobile phones and Switch. 30W charging is basically enough.
The PowerPort Atom III Pod 65W GaN uses Anker’s common small-volume design, and the body is dominated by a rounded curve. The plug retains the folding design, supports Power IQ3, PD’s USB-C interface, and blue status indicator light.
The whole machine will not be much larger than the previously launched POWERPORT ATOM PD 1 30W charging head. Compared with other 65W charging heads, it also has a volume advantage. It is also very convenient to charge it at any time if you want to put it in the bag.
PowerPort Atom III Duo is equipped with an interchangeable interface structure. Users can replace five different plugs according to their needs to adapt to British standard, American standard and other plugs. The charging head itself also supports 60W charging, so there is no problem to cope with the needs of the notebook side charging.
PowerPort Atom III Slim 4 is a conventional multi-port desktop charger. It bids farewell to the vertical design of the traditional multi-port charger and uses a simple tablet and a charging cable. The charger uses Anker’s commonly used white-gray color scheme, and the Anker Logo and indicator light are added directly above the charger, which looks a bit similar to Anker’s wireless charging pad.
The charger comes with a USB-C charging head that supports PIQ3 45W, and three USB ports that support Power IQ fast charging to meet the conventional multi-device charging needs.
After the release of the GaN series update, Anker also introduced a concept called “Power, Now in Color”.
Before, most of Anker’s charging products were mainly black and white. Later, the products that focused on GaN charging technology also used Anker’s commonly used white as the main color. Now after launching “Power, Now in Color”, Anker has launched a new color version for some of its products, such as the PowerPort Atom III Slim 4-port GaN desktop charger released today, PowerCore III Sense 10000mAh, PowerCore Silm 10000mAh, and two mobile power banks. The wireless charging board will be launched in the Anker official website in the future, such as dark night green, haze blue, cinnabar red, matte brown and other new color versions.
In order to fit the iPhone 11 Pro series, Anker also introduced a dark night green color USB-C to Lightning cable and a dark night green color 10000mAh mobile power bank.
When it comes to wires, Anker also released the third-generation “pull line” PowerLine+Ⅲ at the press conference.
Anker officially stated that the newly launched PowerLine+Ⅲ Lightning is 35% thinner than conventional cables, but its service life is 35 times longer than conventional cables. Although, there should be no users who will really use this charging cable to pull a car, and they will rarely use the charging cable in extreme environments, but if the cable is more durable, PowerLine+Ⅲ is basically enough. However, in extreme cases, PowerLine+Ⅲ can also be used normally.
In addition, Anker also launched a charging cable with USB-C to DC interface this time, providing a new choice for users with different needs.
In addition to the two power banks mentioned in “Power, Now in Color”, Anker also released a power bank called PowerHouse.
This mobile power supply is mainly for larger power-consuming devices. The official said at the press conference that the power of PowerHouse can be fully charged to MacBook twice, and it also supports access to solar charging panels for power storage. It provides conventional charging ports such as USB-C, and is also equipped with a power socket, which is convenient for users to directly charge the laptop with a plug.
However, Anker did not officially announce the details of PowerHouse at the meeting, and it is expected that the details will be released later.
Soundcore: Launched the first Astria coaxial acoustic architecture headset
At the Anker Innovation Conference in 2018, the focus of the audio department Soundcore was basically on wireless speaker products.
The Model Zero series released last year is a main design speaker product. Soundcore has also invested in Dolby Audio sound effects on it, and the speakers have passed the Hi-Res certification, hoping to ensure the sound experience while maintaining the main design.
One year later, Soundcore shifted its focus to the popular true wireless headphones, and launched the first Liberty 2 Pro headset with Astria Coaxial Acoustic Architecture (ACAA).
Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro uses the “bean-like” design common to true wireless headphones, with a Soundcore logo attached to the front of the headphones. The details of the physical buttons are not visible around the headset, so it still uses light touch as the main control method, which can be controlled with the APP.
The design of the charging box is flatter and rounder, and the volume is not too big.
The biggest highlight of Liberty 2 Pro is its coaxial ring iron unit design.
Anker adopted Lou’s deeply customized balanced armature moving iron unit in Liberty 2 Pro this time. When designing the internal structure, it also aligns the moving coil, moving iron unit and the user’s ear canal with a coaxial structure. The official stated at the press conference that such a design and collocation can improve the resolution of the treble, the mid-frequency will be fuller than before, and the sense of hearing will theoretically be better than that of the old product.
Indeed, the “Pro” of Liberty 2 Pro is actually mainly reflected in the unit configuration.
You know, there are not many true wireless headphones that use the upper ring iron structure, and there are not many products that choose the balanced armature moving iron unit. Soundcore chose to innovate in structure and units this time. The purpose is still to hope that the sound of Liberty 2 Pro will be the main selling point, and the approach is still very consistent with traditional audio manufacturers.
Soundcore is priced at $149.99, and it is expected that we will be able to see more details of this headset when it is officially on sale.
Nebula: When the 4K projector is launched, it also brings a Soundbar that supports Fire TV
Projector and home audio-visual department Nebula, this time launched products aimed at home audio-visual scenes.
First, they launched the Cosmos Max 4K, a home projector that supports 4K. This projector can achieve a maximum projection screen of 150 inches and a maximum projection of 1500 ANSI lumens. The body is equipped with 4 speakers that support Dolby sound quality to enhance the audio and video experience. The product will be launched on the crowdfunding platform on October 23, at which time the price will be announced directly.
In addition, Nebula also brought its first Nebula Soundbar equipped with Fire TV system.
This Soundbar has the function of Fire TV. In addition to viewing the resources of movies and TV series on Amazon, it can also control the TV like other smart Soundbars.
However, Anker Innovation’s conference is only aimed at foreign markets. If Nebula Soundbar is to enter mainland China in the future, other smart TV services may have to be replaced.
Eufy: There are security surveillance cameras as well as new sweeping robots
Eufy, which used to focus on home security and smart home, has released a series of smart home products this time. Among them, the new product they highlighted is the Eufy Cam 2, a wireless camera that supports Apple HomeKit.
Eufy Cam 2 is also equipped with Eufy Security’s AI face recognition technology, Apple HomeKit service support, users can also use Siri control. The battery life of Eufy Cam 2 can also reach the level of supporting the previous generation Eufy Cam, and the official said that there will be other configuration updates.