On Wednesday, Ikea released a new speaker and now we have it in the office during the day to test if it delivers. Here you can read A little more than that, but in a nutshell it’s a Bluetooth speaker with a built-in battery-powered headlight that’s designed to be outdoors (IP65).
I think the shape is really nice, it looks like someone is putting a helmet on a lamp. The lamp can be adjusted in two positions and is easily done with a button on the back. The balcony is barely lit but gives a nice extra light with a calm atmosphere.
The speaker sits under the hood and points down over a cone, which means you get 360 sound so you can place it just about anywhere you want. The item is small and we are talking about a headlight speaker that costs 699 SEK, so I wasn’t expecting much and at about this level it offers this. At a reasonable volume, the sound is quite good and has plenty of bass, but if you turn it up, it cracks pretty quickly. So something for the porch or too little mood music for dinner in the garden, not something for the party.
The sad thing is that the bluetooth range is really bad. If you enter another room or around the corner, you will immediately start chipping away. So anyone playing music can simply put their mobile phone next to the speaker, getting into the kitchen is a shaky experience.
You can control the speaker by operating it with the button on the left. If you press this for too long, it will turn it off. With this you can also change the song or wake up Spotify. In the middle you can control the volume and pause the music. On the right is the bluetooth button. It’s no stranger than that.
That’s a good thing, if you realize you get what you pay for. For the money and a person or a few hundred bucks you can get better sound in other forms, but if you want a little extra sound on the porch and don’t want a tech gadget on the table but instead have a nice light source, this is a cloak. If you want a beefy sound, go for something else.
Half power lamp
lamp is off
Waterproof and has SpotifyTap
Ikea continues to release technology gadgets and now it’s time for a bluetooth speaker made to be worn outside. The speaker is waterproof with IP65 and thus can withstand dust and water. It looks like a lantern and has a built in LED light that is a bit warm when the music is playing. The lamp can be set in two different modes. The speaker runs on battery and has a runtime of 12 hours and is charged by USB-C. It also has SpotifyTap, which means if you click a button on the device, Spotify wakes up the device connected to the speaker. If you click again, the music will start with the most recent song you played. The Ikea Vappeby costs 699 SEK and appears to be available in a whole heap of department stores now. At the moment, it is only available in blue.
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