Ikea Symfonisk is a smart speaker that doubles as a shelf – here’s what we know
IKEA'S latest wacky tech reaction is a smart speaker that doubles as a shelf.
The Symfonisk speaker shelf was built in partnership with Sonos, one of the most popular smart audio brands in the world.
Ikea has a respectable history of putting gadgets into furniture.
The company already sells bedside tables that come with built-in wireless chargers for your smartphone.
And Ikea also has its own range of smart lightbulbs.
Now the latest addition to its home gadget lineup is Symfonisk, a speaker that links right into the Sonos app.
That means you can pair it up with other Symfonisk speakers and play music in sync, throughout multiple rooms.
It also means you'll be able to play tunes from a host of different services, including Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal.
The Sonos app works over Wi-Fi, so as long as you're connected to your router, you'll be able to choose songs.
You can also play different music in different rooms if you have several Symfonisk speakers.
The big advantage of the speaker is that it mounts to your wall, and doubles up as a shelf.
That's good news, as it means you don't have to waste shelf space by putting a speaker on top of it.
You don't have to mount it, of course – the Symfonisk speaker will work just fine sitting on a normal surface.
It's also been designed with size in mind, and so the Symfonisk will fit perfectly inside Ikea's popular Billy bookcase.
So when can you get it? Ikea won't be selling the Symfonisk until 2019, and there's no firm release date just yet.
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We don't have an idea about price either, but Ikea's Home Smart chief Björn Block has teased that it won't be ludicrously expensive.
"Many people dream of built-in sound systems, but few can afford it," said Block.
"Our goal is to save space, get rid of cords, make clutter invisible and bring sound and music into the home in a more beautiful way."
Given that this is effectively a Sonos speaker, we'd expect it to match the price of a Sonos Play:1, which is the most affordable offering from Sonos.
They currently retail at £149, which isn't too pricey for a very high-quality smart speaker.
Ikea also hasn't ruled out adding Alexa to the Symfonisk either.
The Sonos One speaker (£199) already has Amazon's voice-controlled Alexa virtual assistant built in, so it's possible the Symfonisk will follow suit.
What other pieces of furniture do you wish doubled up as a speaker? Let us know in the comments!
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