Earlier this month, Ikea announced that its new Symfonisk smart speaker would be revealed in April. Well now Ikea has given us a little early preview, and it looks like the new speaker could literally become part of the furniture.
Ikea published new pictures of the device in a newsroom post celebrating its success in the Red Dot design awards. As part of the celebration, we were treated to two pictures of the smart speaker: there’s the one at the top of the page which shows it masquerading as a book on a shelf, and the one below where the speaker actually becomes the shelf.
Whether you’d feel comfortable balancing anything too heavy on a wall-mounted speaker is another matter. I’m not sure I’d even trust the reed diffusers in the picture, to be honest.
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It’s not clear whether this will be the only Symfonisk speaker in Ikea’s range, or if it’s the only one here because it won the Red Dot award. The rest of the press release included photos of sofas, lamps and tables.
We also don’t know how much the Symfonisk speaker will sell for yet. Ikea has said that it’ll be pitched “at an affordable price”, but the word “affordable” means different things to different people, and is completely relative to the product. Just as an “affordable” fridge could still come to £300 or more, smart speakers aren’t cheap – and Sonos ones especially not. Currently, the cheapest one on the market – the Sonos Play:1 – retails for at least £150.
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It will be interesting to see if Ikea’s definition of affordable can bring that price down. We’ll have to wait until Ikea’s official event on April 9 to know one way or the other.
Would you use a smartspeaker as a shelf? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.