Bang & Olufsen is known to produce very high-end products that not only look beautiful but sound impressive. The B&O Beoplay P6 falls right into that category- it's quite a bit more expensive than other Bluetooth speakers but has a distinct style and that brilliant B&O sound output.
But there are a million Bluetooth speakers on the market that come in all shapes and sizes and our best Bluetooth speakers guide is a testament to that. Time will tell if the BeoPlay P6 can join that list but there is certainly a lot to like about it.
Design
To say that the B&O Beoplay P6 looks beautiful is selling it short. It's retro styling will take you back a few decades with the P6 showing a hint of resemblance to the Beomaster 6000 amp that was created by designer Jacob Jenson in the mid 1970s.
The "Pearl Blasted Aluminum" clad speaker is available in Black or Natural colors and although we received the Black for review, the Natural is surely the head turner. The smooth curves around the edges with grilled sides look beautiful and the leather strap adds a touch of class. A rubberized base keeps the speaker steady in its location.
There are five buttons located on the top of the speaker and all of them are also made of aluminum. You can use these buttons to power the device, set it for Bluetooth pairing and control volume levels. The middle button is a "OneTouch" button that add some smarts to the speakers and the functionally of this button can be customized using the Beoplay app.
There are a couple of very subtle lights on the Beoplay P6. The first one is next to the buttons on top and blinks blue when the speaker is ready to pair with a device or a steady white when it's powered on. At the bottom, next to the USB Type-C port is the second light that's white when the speaker is charging and turns green when it's fully charged.
Compared to other portable Bluetooth speakers, the B&O Beoplay P6 is a bit on the big and heavy side. Measuring at 170 x 130 x 68 mm and weighing in at 1Kg, the speaker is easy to carry from one room to another but not necessarily portable enough to simply throw in your bag on your way out.
Although the B&O Beoplay P6 isn't fully water proof it comes with an IP54 rating which means it is splash and dust proof. It should be able to survive an accidental spill or two but we won't recommend taking it in the pool.
Performance and features
The BeoPlay P6 packs one 36W Class D woofer and two 30W Class D full tone for a total of 215W peak power. Needless to say that's rather loud and allows the sound to fill up an entire room with Bang & Olufsen's True360 sound technology.
We played a variety of tracks- all the way from classical music to heavy metal and everything sounded great. The sound isn't too bass heavy which is completely fine with us.
There is a bit of distortion at the highest volume levels but the BeoPlay P6 sound very loud and clear at at anything below that. The more natural audio output really brings out the strums of guitars from a track by The Eagles or the vocals of Andrea Bocelli. That's not to say that that Imagine Dragons or Nirvana don't sound as good- because they definitely do.
The Beoplay App
The Beoplay app that's available for iOS and Android might appear minimalist at first glance but lets you do quite a few things with your speakers. For starters, you can pair two BeoPlay P6 speakers and set them up in stereo mode.
You can also choose a sound preset between lounge, party and podcast or create your own. However, instead of a traditional equalizer kind of setup, you can chose between different levels of warm, relaxed, excited or bright.
The app also allows you to change the function of the OneTouch button which can either be set to navigate your tracks (play/pause/skip), change audio presets or bring up the digital assistant on your phone such as Siri or Google Assistant. You can also answer calls using this button with the built-in microphones letting you carry your conversation.
We liked
There's a lot to love about the B&O Beoplay P6. It's a beautiful product that sounds incredible, especially for it's size. The battery life is rated at 16 hours which keeps this Bluetooth speaker going longer than you would.
We disliked
The BeoPlay 6 is expensive at AED 1,599. For that much, you can pick two units of the UE Boom 2 or three units of the JBL Charge 3, both of which sit at the top of our Best Bluetooth speakers list.
Final verdict
It's no secret that the BeoPlay P6 is targeted towards the lifestyles of the rich and famous- most B&O products are. It's expensive but at the same time its also very stylish and with a rich sound output that can be amplified in stereo mode when you pair it with another one.
The OneTouch key allows you to customize the speaker to your liking, though we think the addition of dedicated playback controls would have been nicer and allowed for more flexibility.
At AED 1,599, this speaker isn't for everyone but those that consider themselves connoisseurs of the fine design that B&O is capable of will definitely appreciate what the BeoPlay 6 has to offer.
from TechRadar: Technology reviews https://ift.tt/2Mi08Zd
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