In this review we will examine the new Urbanista Lisbon, a pair of Bluetooth headphones that do not cost an exaggeration and which should guarantee good audio quality at the same time. However, as we will see in the course of the review there are some minor inconveniences that have bothered us a little. Let’s see the details
The Swedish brand Urbanista has accustomed us to excellent quality products, which is why we are loaded with expectations even with the new Urbanista Lisbon that are the protagonists of this review. We anticipate that we are facing a product of decent quality, though some details did not fully satisfy us. But let’s get to know them better!
Urbanista Lisbon review: technical characteristics in brief
- Auricolari True Wireless
- Compact design
- 9 hours of playback
- 27 hours of total playback time
- The wireless charging case provides up to 2 refills
- Touch controls
- GoFit universal silicone pads included
- Bluetooth 5.2
- Ricarica USB type C
- Compatible with iOS and Android devices
- Voice control Siri and Google
Urbanista Lisbon review: design and ergonomics
From a design point of view, Urbanist does not disappoint not even with these Lisbon. The packaging is minimal and elegant, with everything you need. The case of the Bluetooth headphones, which also allows them to be charged, is made of semi-gloss black plastic with the words “urbanista” slightly hollowed out. Simple, but effective. Opening and closing are facilitated by a spring mechanism. Inside we find the two housings with our headphones. There is the magnetic joint and the two pins for charging. Unique a demerit is the LED status indicator that lights up normally white and red when the battery is low. However, we would have liked a more precise indication, with 3 or 4 notches.
Finally, let’s take a look at our Lisbon Urbanists. The headphones are without rubber pads to make them adhere to the ear. Although there is a rubber coating with a high coefficient of friction which should prevent the ear muffs from slipping. Indeed we can say that they do not move easily from the ear, even while jogging. Part of it may be due to the rubber ring that helps hold them in place in the earlobe.
The headphones are also equipped with touch controls. After some practice you can make them your own. However at times we have them found unintuitive. To go forward or backward the audio tracks, for example, you have to hold down for 2-3 seconds. We will have preferred a faster gesture, such as the double tap in succession which is used to adjust the volume. We have also sometimes found the Urbanista Lisbon not very responsive to commands or “too much”: We have occasionally accidentally ended a call while using headphones. During the trial period we also encountered some issues with the connection being a bit unstable, but rarely. Battery life is good, in line with what was stated.
Urbanista Lisbon review: audio quality
Let’s move on to the central theme for a pair of headphones or the sound quality. We have conducted some simple objective tests before moving on to listen to our favorite songs. The frequency response test confirmed that the bass is reproduced well, starting from 10-2o Hz. Instead with the highs we encountered some difficulties. In fact, the Lisbon Urbanists have difficulty reproducing frequencies beyond 17 KHz. It is not the end of the world, but we are still below the optimal threshold of 20 KHz. The THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is equal to 0.5% at 125 Hz; it is not a striking result, but also good in this case. Finally, the dynamic range is 54 dB, so the headphones are able to reproduce both low and high volumes. Overall we are not facing the best Bluetooth headphones in the world, however we cannot complain either.
In general, the audio quality is not excellent, but not to be thrown away. Let’s move on to the field test in 3 areas: music, movies and TV series and calls. Listening to complex songs sometimes you feel a little difficulty on the part of the headphones, the music loses some volume and detail. However for the average listener this shouldn’t be a big deal. The limit we talked about in the high tones is perceived at times. The bass is quite good instead. In watching movies and TV series, even here we have to settle for average performance. They won’t make you jump in your chair. Furthermore, if you do not use a very high volume, you will never have complete isolation since the Urbanista Lisbon are not equipped with either ANC or rubber pads. Finally the calls. The voice is heard quite well and the volume is adequate. The microphone, on the other hand, is not really very sensitive and you will be forced to speak a little loud to make yourself heard clearly. Obviously, places that are too noisy or windy should be avoided.
Conclusions
Being one of the cheapest models, we did not expect excellent performance from Urbanista Lisbon. Of course, however for about 50 euros a little more could be expected, some subtleties could be refined. If you don’t want to be completely isolated from the outside world, these headphones will fit you perfectly in their simplicity. There are headphones that cost more, headphones that cost less. These Urbanista Lisbon they remain somewhat in the limbo of mediocrity, in the middle. They are not really to fail, but they did not particularly impress us. That’s all from the electronic section, keep following us!
Points in favor
- Design and construction
- Discrete bass
Points against
- Some lack in the high tones
- Touch controls to review
- Insensitive microphone