WAVe Battery-Powered Headphone Case REVIEW

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I love wireless headphones for many reasons. First, they eliminate cables — which have always been a nemesis of mine — and second, they make it easier to use with newer devices like the iPhone 7 Plus. There is rarely an occasion where I don’t have my Sony Wireless headphones with me when I’m working remotely. I typically grab my MacBook Pro, my headphones, and a backpack and head out the door. The only thing that I don’t like about wireless headphones is discovering that they are out of juice when I get to my destination. I will pull them out of their case, pair them to my phone, and then get a disappointing notification that the battery is dead. At that point, I’m forced to deal with the ambient noise that tends to overpower my thoughts making work difficult. So, what do you do in this circumstance? You can plug your headphones into a portable battery, but then you have a dangling cable from your head again. PolarPro, an innovative company that focuses on designing products that help capture the most epic content possible, has designed a wonderful option for charging wireless headphones on the go — the WAVe case — which just started a Kickstarter campaign today.

The WAVe is a battery powered headphone case that allows you to charge your headphones and other portable devices while you are on the go. While PolarPro has typically designed accessories for action cameras — like lenses for GoPro cameras and DJI drones — the company seeks to offer solutions for users no matter where their adventure takes them. The WAVe certainly fits that description. The case is ‘universal’ and will work with most popular wireless headphones. There are two main styles of WAVe available — the Contoured Design which works with headphones the size of the Beats Studio Wireless headphones and the other is the Universal Design, which works with most flat folding designs like Bose SoundLink headphones. While PolarPro lists a few styles of headphones that work with the WAVe cases, they stress that the case design is universal in nature and can be used with most headphones that fit the size of the case. The details specs are listed below.

Because this case solves a big problem for me, I was very excited to get my hands on it for testing. PolarPro was gracious enough to send me a prototype prior to the Kickstarter launch so that I could work with it and give my opinion of it.

The WAVe case looks like a standard headphone case. It’s got a hard shell exterior to offer protection for your headphones and it zips up so that your headphones are secured within. On the inside of the case is a pocket for cables or headphones along with an outlet port for cable management. The built-in battery resides in the headphone storage cavity. It’s small — only about 4 inches long and 1–2 inches tall. There is a short (about 4 inches) Micro USB cable built into the battery for charging your headphones and then a full size, standard USB port for charging any other devices you might have. On the exterior of the case, you will find a Micro-USB port for charging the internal battery. There is also an on/off switch and button that illuminates when the battery is charging.

It’s very easy to use the case. You simply plug your headphones into the battery and slip them into the storage area. As I mentioned above, I have full-size flat folding headphones so, they were a little bit of a tight fit. I ended up having to flip the Micro USB cable upside down to plug into my headphones for charging. While this worked, it wasn’t my preference as there is a slight bend in the cable and I don’t want to chance causing too much stress on it. I think that a flat cable might work better for this reason. Once you have the cable plugged into your headphones, you simply switch on the battery from the outside of the case. I rather like this option because it means that you won’t be using the battery unnecessarily. While I was testing the charging capabilities of the battery, I plugged in a full-size Lighting cable and found that the space inside the case gets a little cramped. I was still able to plug in the cable, but it was a tight fit.

There is a small set of icons on the outside of the case that glows while devices are charging. What’s really cool about this is there is an image of a pair of headphones and the other looks like a smartphone. When you are actively charging a device, it will glow. For example, if I have the headphones plugged in and the switch turned on, the headphone icon will glow. If I plug in a phone, the phone icon will start glowing. The two work independently of each other so you will always know what is charging and what is not. Also on the outside of the case is a button that isn’t labeled. If you press it, it will glow depending on the status of the battery’s charge. I personally have only seen this glow when the case is charging and then when I press it.

All in all, I really like the design of this case. It’s sleek, practical and really uses the most of a small amount of space. PolarPro had a very creative idea with the WAVe and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

To learn more, visit the Kickstarter page for the WAVe or visit polarprofilters.com
Find PolarPro on Facebook and Twitter.

Originally published at macsources.com on February 8, 2017.