Nokia reveals its new MD-12 “acoustic bonding” speaker

It’s not just the Lumia 930 and Lumia 630/635 that Nokia has for Build 2014 this week, but a cute new speaker, the MD12, which reverberates sound through any surface it’s placed on. Announced by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop – who promptly mocked its name – the MD-12 hooks up via Bluetooth. “We’ve named it the MD12,” Elop admitted. “Seriously, we have, I don’t know why. I found out about that too late.”

It’s not all fun phones and games at Nokia’s Build shindig here in San Francisco. In addition to giving us a closer look at the new Lumia 930, 630 and 635, the company is showing off a Bluetooth speaker to accompany them. The MD-12 (even Stephen Elop couldn’t explain the name) is available in the same cheerful color palette as the new handsets, including a bright orange hue. On the audio front, this is really just a companion device, but Nokia is claiming the bass is still better than you’d expect on a device like this. As for size, it’s especially compact — this thing is about the size of a hockey puck, making it even smaller than, say, the Mini Jambox. That said, there appears to still be a robust battery inside: Nokia is claiming 15 hours of audio playback, compared with 10 hours for the Mini Jambox. No word on when, exactly, it will go on sale, but Elop himself said it will cost $55.