Bang & Olufsen is known for its luxury high-end audio products, and like Bose, it has updated one of its Bluetooth speakers with several upgrades. The Beosound A1 doesn’t look very different from the original, but it has several improvements that make the portable speaker even more desirable, including longer battery life, better durability, and Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec.
It’s not uncommon for an audio company to keep the design the same when updating a speaker or even headphones, and that’s exactly what B&O has done here, save for a few minor changes. The A1 is still shaped like an oversized field hockey puck with a slightly curved top made of bead-blasted aluminum. The bottom is polymer with a slightly soft but durable finish.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]Here are the six different buttons, three on each side of the leather wristband, but it is removable if it gets too dirty. The buttons for playback, volume, power, Bluetooth, and the microphone switch are larger and more clearly labeled, but still not easy to use since they are on the side near the bottom. At least not without picking up the speaker.
The idea is that the A1 (2nd generation) should be compact and portable. And at 568 g, it is, because it can be placed on almost any surface or even hung from the strap. It’s also very rugged and IP67 certified, which means it’s completely dust and waterproof, which is not the case with many competitors. It’s nice to see that the speaker is available in a range of colors where others are typically black, perhaps with a white or silver alternative.
A single LED on the top gives you some basic information, but we’d prefer if there were more than one to indicate things like volume or even battery level. The sound of the A1 (2nd generation) is the same with a 3.5-inch woofer and a 0.6-inch tweeter, both of which naturally radiate upwards. However, B&O has upgraded to Bluetooth 5.1 (previously 4.2), along with Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec – and AAC as well.
Qualcomm says the codec offers features like dynamic low latency, adaptive bitrate to avoid noise, and HD audio up to 24bit/96kHz. Battery life is a curious topic, because although B&O claims that the new A1 offers longer playback time, the main claim is 18 hours compared to 24 hours for the original. However, the company states that you can get up to 48 hours at lower volumes.