Reviews (1)

I will address the delays later in this review, as those are much less important than relevant Kickstarter campaign questions like "Did it actually ship?"

The Kokoon shipped. And it does exactly what I wanted it to do.

The build quality of the product is very good. Seams and textures are quite good, and the tactile nature of the buttons are great. I might not have placed the buttons where they did, but they don't bother me, as I don't use them often. Battery life is excellent - so much so that I don't really think about it.

The appearance (I received the Kickstarter Green/Black model) is sleek and professional. Form factor is as good as can be, IMO - I can imagine it took quite a bit of engineering to get all the necessary electronics in a slim profile. While as a side sleeper, I wish it were even more slim (more on that below), it is still very good.

The sound quality is good, not great - but I would assume that is due to a lack of profile space to put larger drivers in. There is still a negligible level of bass in these cans, all things considered. I would like to see an EQ in the app someday.

Now, the important stuff:

The comfort level is wonderful. As a side sleeper, I had my doubts whether this would work or not; if it would be just too bulky or awkward. It took a night or two, but now sleeping with these on is as cool as the other side of the pillow (as the kids say nowadays).

The functionality is, after admittedly a bit of a delay, wonderful. It does exactly what I want - tracks the quality of my sleep and reports at the end of my slumber. The info is very useful, and it becomes a game to see how high I can score (which, of course, is a huge positive! Anything that helps you to sleep and sleep better is a huge plus in my book). Now, it will do the tracking without having to listen to the app's program soundtrack; while the included soundtracks are well done, high quality and very useful, I seem to sleep better listening to political podcasts...go ahead and make sense of that! Now, with the firmware and app updates, I can do just that.

Overall, this is a fine piece of engineering. Yes, it was delayed. Yes, it angered KS backers (for what reason, I'll never understand, this isn't life-saving medical equipment, for Pete's sake - it's a luxury item built from the ground up). I am sure that Tim and Kokoon learned many valuable lessons from the situation. One thing that came from the delay was a better product, and in the end, that's all that really matters.