The product page can be found
here.
I purchased these after finding them mentioned on the SmithIO website. It seems like Smith is specifically recommending these, so that seemed a good enough endorsement for me to take a chance on them.
These compete directly with the ODT Chips 3.0 wireless headphones (which I also own). The Alecks seem to have mostly the same features except for the addition of a walkie talkie and friend-finding feature. Interestingly, the Chips 2.0 had the walkie-talkie and friend-finding, but the Chips 3.0 does not. Possibly because no one used the features, possibly because the ODT app was reported as being a hot mess.
So, first impressions. This is just sitting at my desk playing with them. I haven't hit the hill yet with these.
Thickness: From the picture, it sure looks like they're thinner than the ODTs, which is actually one of my major complaints about the ODT Chips, and is one of the reasons I was interested in these in the first place. The Chips can put uncomfortable pressure on the ears if your helmet is tight at all. Unfortunately, it turns out the Alecks are actually slightly
thicker, .59" to ODT's .50".
Controls: Mostly identical to the ODTs, with the significant exception of volume. Because they needed to put the walkie-talkie functions
somewhere, they assigned the left-ear single and double taps to the walkie talkie and relegated volume to a left-button push-and-hold which cycles the volume up and down through 4 levels. Definitely not as convenient, although if you set the volume using your phone directly, you have the normal level of control.
Sound: Out of the box, I think the ODTs are better. Aleck does allow you to play with EQ using their app, but you have to create an account before you can do anything. I can't speak for anyone else, but I am thoroughly sick of companies requiring me to log in before I can use functionality that has no possible bearing on being logged in, just so that they can hit me with "in-app purchases". So effectively, no EQ, and the ODT sound is better, full stop.
Charging: The Aleck uses a micro-USB connection rather than the Chips' USB-C connection. That's way minor, but I prefer USB-C because there's no "upside down". And the charging port is on the right speaker, just like the ODTs, which is the worst case if you use Smith helmets, because you have to fully unzip the helmet to get at the right speaker. You would think that Smith would have clued into this by now, but noooooooooo...
Conclusion: If you are interested in the walkie-talkie and friend-finder functions, this is probably a revolutionary device, assuming they did it better than ODT did on the 2.0's. For people like me who ride alone, the function is irrelevant. And of course everyone in the group has to own them. Otherwise, there really is nothing to recommend these over the Chips. Based only on their use as a music-delivery device, the best I can say about them is they aren't as bad as the ODT Ultra, which I threw out after one day. But I'll stick to my Chips 3.0, thanks.
