Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is a brand that is proud of its heritage, and they make sure that their products are in-sync with their ideology. They’re known for making high-end televisions, audio speakers, including headphones, that are crafted to offer a complete mix of design and quality audio.
I’ve mostly reviewed their headphones and speakers till date, and trust me when I say this – they don’t come cheap. So this time, I decided to try out one of their less-expensive offerings, the Beoplay P2 bluetooth speaker. Priced under Rs 16,000, it may not look as big and imposing, but the quality on offer surely got my attention.
Pros:
- Neat and simple design
- Surprisingly good bass output for its size
- Easy to carry around
- True-blue wireless speaker
- Long battery life
Cons:
- Heavy bass distorts high and mid-level audio
- Works only with Bluetooth (no 3.5 mm jack)
- Priced on the higher side
What’s Good?
It’s hard to deny that the design team at B&O are always on a mission to go beyond the normal, and dish out products that stand out in the clutter. The Beoplay P2 is no exception and offers portability without compromising on quality.
It weighs 275 grams and designers have used rugged materials like polyester, aluminium and leather to craft this one out.
The product design stays away from cluttering the device with buttons, which means you’re only left with just one button (embossed with B&O) to power on/off and pair other devices via Bluetooth.
Press the button for three seconds and you see a small LED light on the front blinking, which is your signal to pair phone with the speaker. Once you’re done with the technical part, you get down to enjoy some quality audio on offer with the Beoplay 2.
But more than anything else, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of bass the sound engineering guys at B&O were able to fit into this pocket-sized speaker. And what really works for me is that the audio doesn’t get deafening at any point in time, which is a good hallmark of a wireless speaker for me.
Having said that, for pure audiophiles, this device has more than just heavy bass to offer. Pure vocal-based music fanatics will like its crystal-clear output, that sounds enchanting to the ears (not exaggerating here).
And yes, all this quality sound output gets nicely backed up with claimed battery life of 10 hours. While we couldn’t see it last that long, on an average, we got the speakers to last for over seven hours, and were still left with over 35 percent juice.
What’s Bad?
As the Beoplay P2 is soothing for light-touch music, the speaker doesn’t impress with the high and mid-level tone levels. Don’t get me wrong here, there’s no abrasive distortion that becomes noticeable, but the shrill sound doesn’t make for a good reading of the audio either.
The team at B&O decided to remove all the buttons from the device – fair enough –and this means the working of the device for the user becomes more complex. I had no option but to browse through the manual to get a hang of how everything works on the Beoplay P2, which may not suit everyone.
You have to charge the device with USB Type C port. So, if you haven’t invested into the Type C port ecosystem just yet (hard to believe), you better carry the bundled Type C cable along with you.
And yes, it’s hard to wrap up any B&O feature without talking about the price. Yes, it’s one of the most affordable wireless speaker that the brand has to offer, but you’re never sure how many would actually pick it over Bose or JBL at this price.
Why Buy It?
Now that you’ve gone through the good and the bad about the Beoplay P2, it’s time to give you the verdict in a nutshell. B&O has, yet again, come out with a product that shines high and delivers on its promise of quality audio with design aesthetics kept on top of the mind.
For under 16K, the Beoplay P2 offers decent bass output for its size, long battery life and supports the latest-in-tech USB Type C for charging. The speaker, however, can be wayward while picking up the mid and high-level riffs, and the lack of audio jack means you’re investing into a true-blue wireless speaker.
If you’ve got the budget and you’re looking for something besides the regular mainstays like Bose and Sony, then the B&O Beoplay P2 is a good break from them.
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