Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
I’ve been on the lookout for a shower-friendly waterproof Bluetooth speaker for a few years, but never really made the plunge. In my previous rentals, I had a bath with a shower curtain, which made it easy to prop up my phone on the nearby vanity to play podcasts while I got ready in the morning. Paying for a standalone speaker seemed like a luxurious upgrade then, not a necessity.
But after moving to my new home a year ago, I missed this setup. My glass-enclosed shower blocks most of the sound coming from my phone; even with the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s louder speaker and the trick of using corners to amplify sound, I couldn’t hear it clearly in the shower. So I started looking for options from Soundcore, JBL, Tribit, Bose, and others, and eventually made an impulse buy in the unlikeliest of places: the IKEA home electronics section.
USB-C, IP67, and an unkillable battery life
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Specs weren’t the first thing that caught my eye with the Vappeby portable speaker. It was the mindboggling cheap €10 price — it’s a bit more expensive in the US, at $15.99. I assumed the price tag comes with terrible specs, but not really. This speaker is IP67-rated, so it is completely dust-resistant and can withstand immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. In other words, it seemed perfect for my shower experiment. It charges over USB-C, too, which means I don’t have to bother with special cables. There’s a built-in hook to attach it to my shower bar, and it offers a stereo mode, where you can link up two of these together for a louder and better distributed sound.
Most importantly, it has a really, really, really long battery life. IKEA says it can last up to 80 hours on 50% volume, which is insane. Every other speaker I was looking at was rated for 12, 18, 20, or 25 hours of battery life at best. The fact that I could charge this one and get anywhere above 50 hours of playback seemed like the ideal solution for my forgetful, lazy instincts.
After questioning my sanity over wanting a Bluetooth speaker from Ikea of all places, I stood in front of the Vappeby display section and watched a few video reviews to see if it was worth the terrifying €10 investment. When I decided that it seemed to tick all the boxes for me, I made the financial plunge and put it in my cart.
11 months later, I have zero regrets
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
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