Bang & Olufsen is known in the car audio world. They have graced the audio system of some of the best European cars: AMG, Audi, BMW, and Aston Martin. Now, the company has created BeoPlay A1, a portable wireless speaker that can last up to 24 hours. It's a little bit pricey, though.
The B&O BeoPlay A1 portable speaker is presented with an aluminum grill dome with a soft rubber base. It is sleek, at 4.8 cm high and 13.3 cm in diameter and can sit comfortably on the palm of the hand. It can be put on a table or can be hung via its soft-leather strap. It tips the scale at 600 grams.
It can be wirelessly connected via Bluetooth or wired via its 3.5 mm mini jack. It also sports a USB Type-C port for charging its 2,200 mAh battery, which can last up to 24 hours on moderate volume. A smart charging system lets the speaker adapt to the USB charger, which can accommodate up to 3A. Two BeoPlay A1 speakers can also be paired to produce a stereo sound.
It is splash and dust resistant and the company boasts that it can fill a room with its True 360 Sound feature, a balanced sound dispersion, through its 2 x 140 watts speaker system.
Wired's review of the product says that the "beautiful big silver hockey puck" can produce a distortion-free music and remains clean even at a higher level of volume. One can feel the bass coming from the small speaker, unexpectedly powerful.
The review also mentioned that it took less than 100 minutes to fully charge a depleted BeoPlay A1.
The B&O BeoPlay A1 speaker has its own mic and can act as a speaker phone. It is offered in two colors: natural (mate silver) and moss green. It is currently available for €249 or around US$281.
