This portable iPhone speaker will never need to be charged – it just works
This beautifully simple speaker uses acoustic amplification instead of Bluetooth or a battery, so you can just slot in your phone and press play
Quick Summary
The Battery-free Amplifying iSpeakers use acoustic engineering to make your phone sound fuller without batteries, cables or Bluetooth.
Designed in Japan, the $179 speaker is made from Duralumin and works with virtually any phone.
Ever reached for a portable speaker only to discover that you forgot to charge it? This is a pretty clever solution to that. The Battery-free Amplifying iSpeakers don't have a battery, Bluetooth or even a power cable, they simply make your phone louder using acoustics.
And that's it. No pairing, no app and no battery indicator to worry about. Just slot in your phone.
Designed by Ooi Masato and made in Japan, the iSpeakers use a precision-machined slot that holds your phone in place and channels the sound from its built-in speaker.
That means it works with virtually any phone, without worrying about compatibility or software updates. You simply put the phone into the slot and the acoustic chamber does the rest.
It's small enough to throw into a bag, too, so you could take it to a picnic, hotel room or even just keep it on your desk. There's no charging port because, obviously, there's nothing to charge.
The body is machined from Duralumin, a lightweight and vibration-resistant aluminium alloy, while the design follows the golden ratio. It certainly looks more like a piece of Japanese design than a conventional portable speaker.
There is an obvious trade-off here. Without an amplifier, battery or Bluetooth connection, this isn't going to compete with a proper portable Bluetooth speaker for sheer volume or bass.
That's not really what it's trying to do. The appeal is having something that can make your phone sound better without adding another electronic device to charge.
There are also optional +Bloom and +Jet attachments that change the direction of the sound, giving you more control over how it projects.
At $179, it's certainly not cheap for something that is essentially an acoustic amplifier. But unlike a Bluetooth speaker, there's no battery to degrade, no charging cable to lose and no wireless connection to set up.
In theory, it should sound exactly the same years from now as it does today.
