Altec Lansing has announced a suite of upgrades to a fleet of speaker and headphone products at CES. It’s also introduced several new products, including an entire new line of Google Assistant built-in speakers called GVA; a Versa at Home speaker; new EVO True Wireless Earbuds; and new Active Noise Cancellation Bluetooth Headphones.
There’s a lot here to unpack, but the two biggest announcements are probably the new GVA line and those true wireless earbuds, which should hopefully fare better than Altec Lansing’s previous Freedom True Wireless, an attempt that received dismal customer reviews.
The GVAs are an entire new line of speakers with Google Assistant built in. The GVA1 - Live is meant for the home, features the same multiunit pairing found in other Altec Lansing lines, offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth pairing, has a wireless range of 50 feet, and a 2-inch ferrite woofer and 2 x 2-inch passive radiator. The larger GVA4 – Live at Home has a Qi wireless charging platform on top and... an LCD time screen? Sure. There’s also a portable version called the GVA3 - Live To-Go that has a 10-hour battery life and an IP67 waterproof rating, so you can grab the handle and bring it with you outdoors.
Those new true wireless earbuds — the EVO MZX658 — definitely carry a more compact footprint than the company’s previous Freedom model. It’s also IPX6 water resistant, voice assistant compatible, and has a Qi wireless charging carrying case that can give up to four extra charges (which is necessary, as the bane of true wireless earbuds is battery life), but it’s not the most extra juice I’ve seen from a true wireless carrying case. The MZX658 has a battery life of four hours. While it’s a bit on the humdrum side design-wise, they do appear to have a flatter profile than many other true wireless buds, so hopefully that means it’s more flush to your ear.
Other new products include the MZX900 Active Noise Cancellation Bluetooth Headphones and VersA at Home and VersA To-Go alongside the existing original VersA Portable Speaker. Alongside those, several other Altec Lansing products have gotten updates, like the addition of Siri and Google Assistant to several in-ear headphones, and Qi wireless charging for its Everything-Proof line of speakers.
Altec Lansing’s GVA1 Live will retail for $129.99, the GVA3 Live To-Go for $149.99, and the GVA4 Live at Home for $199.99. The MZX658 EVO true wireless earbuds will retail for $99.99. All will be available later this year.