B&O Play's new $249 Bluetooth speaker looks absolutely gorgeous

B&O Play has a new Bluetooth speaker called the BeoPlay A1. The $249 speaker is the vendor's smallest to date, but it comes with a battery that lasts all day and has a built-in microphone that allows you to take calls. While there are several Bluetooth speakers in this segment that offer similar capabilities, the A1's design is its differentiator. Like all B&O Play's products, the A1 looks gorgeous, sporting an aluminium dome with perforations for the speaker grille and a soft-touch rubber base.

There are no buttons on the A1, but you do have power, volume, and Bluetooth pairing controls on the outer edge. The 2200mAh battery charges through a USB Type-C port, and there's a 3.5mm headphone jack on the side.

The speaker also comes with a feather cord that lets you attach it to a rucksack, or hang it from a hook. However, unlike Logitech's UE Boom 2, the A1 is not water resistant, so you won't be able to hang it in the shower. The speaker delivers sound through a 3.5-inch mid cone woofer and a 3/4-inch tweeter, and B&O Play's DSP algorithm with advanced high-slope filtering produces 360-degree sound. Although it measures just 5.2 inches by 1.9 inches and weighs 1.3 pounds, the A1 produces sound that can fill a small room.

BeoPlay A1

The A1 is offered in matte silver and moss green, although the latter color option is not yet available on B&O Play's site. If you like the design and are in the market for a Bluetooth speaker, check out the BeoPlay A1 from the link below.

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Harish Jonnalagadda

The clumsiest man in tech.