Ikea and Sonos have partnered up again for the latest in their combined Symfonisk speaker range: a picture frame. Well, sort of.
The new speaker is built to look like an artwork, so that you get Sonos sound quality without having to find the space for a speaker on a table or counter, and can make your room look less tech-y than it really is.
The new Symfonisk picture frame comes in two colours, white and black, but of course for the most part this only matters for the side of the device, with the artwork taking up most of the front.
The oddity is that this isn’t a picture frame. That means you can’t frame your own pictures, photos, or art within it. Instead, you’re limited to Ikea’s selection of interchangeable clip-on fronts, so you’d better hope that you like the company’s Nordic aesthetic. Ikea has shown off fourteen designs so far, and says it will add more over time.
The frame can be wall-mounted in either landscape or portrait, but it also comes with vibration-dampening feet if you’d prefer to prop it up on the floor or a shelf.
The sound tech all comes from Sonos, and like the rest of the range it connects over Wi-Fi. There’s also AirPlay 2 support, but as with most Sonos speakers there’s no Bluetooth support at all – dashing hopes that the recent portable Sonos Roam and Move, which do support Bluetooth, were a signal that Sonos would adopt the format across the range.
You can pair two picture frame speakers together to play in stereo, and if they’re close enough you can even daisy chain their power leads – so that one power socket is enough to run two frames. You can’t run it in stereo with different Sonos or Symfonisk speakers, but can group multiple speakers together with the Sonos app.
The Symfonisk frame launches on 15 July in Ikea stores or from , and costs £179/€179/US$199. Additional clip-on artworks will cost £17/€17/$20.
It joins the first two , which launched in 2019. One of those doubles as a lamp, and the other is designed to fit comfortably onto a bookshelf.
