Boring Bluetooth begone: Meizu’s Gravity speaker seems to defy physics

Wireless and portable speakers are getting better and better when it comes to features, sound, and battery life, but the designs haven’t changed a whole lot from the earliest models. We wouldn’t call them boring, but they’re not exactly exciting. Meizu’s Gravity wireless speaker, which just launched today on Indiegogo, looks to change that.

The Gravity uses a cantilever design that sees the larger aluminum body of the speaker held up by a clear acrylic base that makes it appear from afar that the speaker is hovering over whatever surface it’s placed on. This isn’t the Gravity’s only trick, either — it also uses the clear base to act as a prism, allowing its integrated display to seemingly float on top of the speaker, displaying track and album information.

Meizu partnered with Swedish acoustic engineers Dirac for the internals, arriving on dual custom-designed 1.25-inch drivers matched by a pair of passive radiators for enhanced bass. The speaker claims a frequency range of 70Hz to 20kHz, which seems fairly impressive given the speaker’s modest footprint.

Standard Bluetooth functionality is included, allowing for easy pairing with mobile devices. The Gravity also features built-in Wi-Fi with support for AirPlay and DLNA, as well as integration with music streaming services including Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, and Last.fm with a future update claiming to add support for Pandora and more.

While Meizu is known throughout much of the world for its mobile devices, the company points out that before moving into the mobile market, it first offered the best-selling MP3 players in China. The Gravity is the first of the company’s products to be offered in the U.S., and it remains to be seen how well it will do, but the design is sure to draw attention.

The retail price for the Gravity speaker will be $250, but anyone backing the Indiegogo campaign will be able to get one for $200. For those who are particularly quick on the draw, Early Bird pricing at $170 is available for the first 200 backers who choose that tier, with that option still available as of time of publication. Another offer, limited to 300 backers, bundles two Gravity speakers together for $350.

Though the campaign has only just launched, it has already raised over $10,000 of its flexible goal of $100,000. Units are expected to ship by December of this year. For more information, see the Gravity campaign page on Indiegogo.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/257rAiN
Kristofer Wouk