Outdoor Tech is no stranger to the world of crowd funding. It's used Kickstarter to get past products like the Turtle Shell speaker off the ground. Now it's back with a bigger version of the Turtle that it calls, quite simply, the BIG Turtle Shell. This speaker brings more sound to the park and beach and packs enough power to double as a portable charger.
No surprises here, the BIG Turtle Shell is a bigger, more powerful Turtle Shell. It's also essentially a redesigned, renamed version of the Armadillo speaker that Outdoor Tech revealed last year. The big update from the small Turtle and Armadillo is the addition of an external-device charging capability made possible by the larger 7,800 mAh lithium-ion battery and USB charging port. Outdoor Tech estimates that the battery can charge an iPhone four times or a GoPro action cam six times.
Not surprisingly, the BIG(ger) Turtle Shell packs more sound than the original, pumping out up to 110 decibels compared to 96. Other specs, like its 30-foot (9.1-m) Bluetooth 4.0 range and 16 hours of playtime are nearly identical to its older, smaller brother. Also like the original, the BIG Turtle Shell features Outdoor Tech's rugged, shock-proof, dust-proof and water-resistant design. When paired with a phone, it offers speakerphone functions, as well as music listening. It has two handles for carrying, lashing and hanging and weighs 2.2 lb (1 kg).
Outdoor Tech launched a Kickstarter campaign this week and is already well past its US$40,000 goal. It's offering the BIG Turtle Shell for pledges starting at $140, a savings over the anticipated $230 retail price. It plans to start deliveries in June.
Source: Outdoor Tech
