Case study in amazing design
Recently received my Bragi Dash and it is the best thing I backed on Kickstarter.
Project was launched in February 2014 with a total funding of ~USD3.4million.
(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hellobragi/the-dash-wireless-smart-in-ear-headphones)
So what’s so great about yet another pair of headphones?
Well for starters there are no wires. Zero. Zilch.
No wires connecting your earbuds to the phone. No wires connecting the earbuds to each other.
There have been earlier iterations of earphone technology by Platronic, Jabra, Sony but they were just clunky and ugly (something similar to the first Macintoshes. Not bad but definitely not a quantum leap)
Unboxing and first love (again)
The Bragi Dash is a thing of beauty. It’s like seeing the iMac for the first time in 1998.
The thing I love most about is how quickly it is to “onboard” and use it straight out of the box.
There’s a set of touch controls built into the earbuds. No annoying need to pull out the phone to control the earphones (ahem, Apple Watch). The decision to split left and right ear functionality is brilliant and allows for double the function.
Left controls activities tracking (strangely, walking is not listed, I think it falls in line with running).
Right controls music and calls (this is probably from habit of right handed people wearing bluetooth headsets for calls)
The control area does take a while to get used to (you can’t really see what you’re touching and there are no haptic vibrational feedback to gauge if you’re on the right track. A good iteration would be to have a dot to introduce tactile feel in the next generation)
A super nifty feature I like is the ability to turn on audio transparency. It actually helps to improve clarity in the human vocal frequency range I can hear conversation at a noisy cafe one table next to mine. (Another kickstarter does this. I would think they would introduce the functionality of the other through a firmware update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dopplerlabs/here-active-listening-change-the-way-you-hear-the)
Hardware
Overall the hardware is awesome. It feels premium in the choice of materials (the plastic casing, the charging cradle, the metallic housing for the cradle)
The one small annoyance is the metallic contacts on the earbuds:
When fitted properly, you don’t really feel it. However when adjusting it to fit in ear it can be somewhat annoying.
Packaging
The guys at Bragi really put a lot of thought into the unboxing experience. (It’s like meeting a girl for the first time. She can be pretty. But with the right clothes and make up it can really help to accentuate the beauty further 😜)
The unboxing experience is absolutely amazing. Each page is a clear concise instruction as to what to do:
Buy one…maybe version 3
Should you buy one now? Yes and no.
As with all things kickstarter, version 1 is always going to have huge drawbacks. The one thing from stopping me recommending this amazing tech is the battery life. 3 hours for one charge is not enough (granted the cradle will provide 5 charges, but I think I may need something longer than 3 hours)
The second thing is the size. It’s too big to fit into pockets. Especially with a phone and wallet taking up both sides of my pocket real estate. I am hoping they may redesign it to have no cradle and an ingenious way to carry it around (without losing the individual buds)
And of course, speaking of loss. With the connectivity hardware, software should be built in to track the earbuds (there are small enough to be lost easily if not habitually placed in the cradle)
But yes, overall if they have it at the nearest retail, do try it out. For gen 1 it is definitely the best Kickstarter project I’ve backed and I’m very happy to have contributed and wish the Bragi long term success in this and upcoming projects. Looking forward to more amazing stuff.
