Libratone announced at IFA 2018 today, two new portable speakers. The ZIPP 2 and ZIPP MINI 2, and most importantly, both will be working with Amazon Alexa, and also support Apple’s Siri personal assistants. These are going to be the first speakers from Libratone with Amazon Alexa support, which makes this a pretty big deal for the company. And it will replace your existing Amazon Echo speakers as well. Previously, the ZIPP was “compatible with Alexa” which means that you could control the speaker with Alexa, but the ZIPP 2 and ZIPP MINI 2 are going to have Alexa built-in. Think of it as an Echo, versus something that is can be controlled by an Echo.
The ZIPP 2 is going to produce 360-degree audio, as is expected from the ZIPP lineup, but also sport around 12 hours of continuous playback. The numbers are almost the same for the ZIPP MINI 2, with about 10 hours of playback. These are some of the very few speakers that are portable and have Alexa support – really the only other ones available are Ultimate Ears BLAST and MEGABLAST Bluetooth speakers. These offer a rather unique design with some striking colors and some good audio quality as well, and that’s thanks to the Danish design that is being used by Libratone. These aren’t going to win awards for being the best Bluetooth speakers out there, but you won’t be upset with the audio quality that comes out of either of these speakers.
Libratone is going to be selling the ZIPP 2 for €299 and the ZIPP MINI 2 for €249. It’ll be available from various retailers (Libratone did not mention which retailers, in its press release, but it should be those that already sell its products like Best Buy), as well as Amazon. There’s no word yet on pricing or availability for other markets outside of Europe. But it should be rather similar to the price in Europe, so expect something around $249 and $299 for each of these Alexa-enabled speakers.
Libratone ZIPP 2
Libratone ZIPP MINI 2
