Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu plans to enter the American market by selling its own new wireless speaker called Gravity.

Meizu’s speaker will undergo crowdfunding from Indiegogo to manufacture it. The company states that the company wants direct feedback from customers for its product, which is why it resorted to this method of financing. So, Meizu wants to test out the competitiveness of its product in a mature market like United States where there are lots of wireless speaker options available.

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Gravity was designed to actually look like it is floating; an optical illusion is made possible with the smart use of speakers and materials. This unusual concept came from lead designer Kosho Tsuboi from Tokyo, Japan.

To emphasize the floating nature of the speaker even more, Meizu opted to use smoke and mirrors in projecting the usual speaker information through a prism. As an added touch, they put a “Half Mirror” feature, using a special coating for the speaker itself so that the speaker's internals will not be seen through the prism in reverse.

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.

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 amplifier is the latest 5-series chip from Texas instruments and the speakers also come with Dirac HD Sound at the hardware level. The speaker claims a frequency range of 70Hz to 20kHz, which seems fairly impressive given the speaker’s modest footprint.

Meizu only needs $100,000 from crowdfunding. Early Bird pricing at $170 is available for the first 200 backers who choose that tier. After those 200 slots are gone, the base price will start at $200. The company plans to start the mass production in October, with a shipping date set for December.

TagsMeizu, Gravity, Gravity Wireless Speaker, Meizu Gravity, wireless speaker, Chinese manufacturer